Test Running My Ag Setup

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pokolbinguy

The Pokolbin Brewhaus and Winery.
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Ok so I have finally got everything together....well as far as I know and want to do a dummy run on my AG rig to make sure everything is working as it should.

This is my plan.....any suggestions would be great.


1. Fill HLT and heat (to say 70 deg...just to test control unit etc)

2. transfer water to mash tun (how many litres should I put in here to represent a 20ltr final volume batch??? I have to take into consideration the space taken up by say 4-5Kg of grain + the mash water)

3. Wait an hour and see how much the temp drops...

4. transfer water from tun to kettle

5. boil for a while....transfer to cube.

Does this sound like a sound way to check everything??

Note I still have to pick a recipe for my first AG and not sure on volumes etc at the moment.....only that it will be a single batch

Anyway any suggestions would be great.

Cheers, Pok
 
3. Wait an hour and see how much the temp drops...

If i remember correctly, dont go by heat loss with just water, as grain holds the temperature a lot better then with just water

I'm happy to be corrected on this though.
 
If i remember correctly, dont go by heat loss with just water, as grain holds the temperature a lot better then with just water

I'm happy to be corrected on this though.

Yep I assumed that....would be interested to see the basic heat loss tho. The grain bed should hold the temp much better seeing as its much more dense.
 
If i remember correctly, dont go by heat loss with just water, as grain holds the temperature a lot better then with just water

I'm happy to be corrected on this though.

+1

I wouldn't worry about the temp loss too much when there is no grain in there...

maybe you could put 4 kilos of rice and oats in there - but that would be a waste of food....
 
Good to see you are almost there Pok. Dr Smurto's JSGA seems like a popular first AG recipe. Not long till we see you on the other side then!! :icon_cheers:
 
How many litres of water would represent a standard batch???
 
No such thing as a 'standard' batch imho, there are too many variables for anything like standardisation.....

but as an example, DrSmurtos Golden Ale, in a 20L batch (from his bsm file which includes the mash ;) ) has 12L mash in, 8L mash out, and 11.5L sparge. So during the mash itself, 12L of water, and 4.25kg of grain in the tun. Then another 8L added, then drained.

As I said, this is an example, and can vary quite a bit.
 
The reason I ask is that I have this strange feeling that my temp gauge is too high in my tun......

Would the 12L + 4.5kg grain take up say 20Ltrs of space??

I guess I need to go and see how many litres it takes to get to the thermometer...

Pok
 
maybe you could put 4 kilos of rice and oats in there - but that would be a waste of food....
HA!
Imagine that!
4 kg of rice would cook and expand to make about 12kg of rice.
Thats enough to feed about 40 people!
 
Plenty of room I mash 4.3 kg / 13 litres in a 20 litre container and have room (just) to top up with 5 litres as a mash out
The Green Bay calculator reckons just under 16 litres which sounds about right from my experience
 
My tun will easily hold 20 Ltrs...in fact it will most prob hold up to 60+.....but I want to know if I have my thermometer too high....does this make sense now?
 
Useless without pics...

Plenty of pics Here

Still got more to add though. I'm going to make another album with all the photos from building my rig.

Also more pics etc in This thread

Pok

EDIT: Ok so it takes approx 23 ltrs of water to fully submerge my thermometer (This Type set up like So and So)

Will this be a problem?? I'm thinking that it could be....
 
EDIT: Ok so it takes approx 23 ltrs of water to fully submerge my thermometer (This Type set up like So and So)

Will this be a problem?? I'm thinking that it could be....

Oh dear. I would consider that to be a major problem. It's way too high.....as an example, 5Kg of grain at 4L/kg will come up to 23.35L (according to 'can I mash it' calculator here). Considering that the majority of mashes are done at 2.5-3L/kg, thats a real problem indeed......5kg at 2.5L/kg only takes up 15.85L...... :eek:
 
Oh dear. I would consider that to be a major problem. It's way too high.....as an example, 5Kg of grain at 4L/kg will come up to 23.35L (according to 'can I mash it' calculator here). Considering that the majority of mashes are done at 2.5-3L/kg, thats a real problem indeed......5kg at 2.5L/kg only takes up 15.85L...... :eek:


Hmmmm......f@#k.....ok....so that may be one issue...can't believe I didn't think of it when I put the bugger in....O well too late now.

Next question.....what would be an "average" volume for a boil??

Cheers, Pok
 
Why test run with just water, why not do a batch and see how it goes?
 
Yep I assumed that....would be interested to see the basic heat loss tho. The grain bed should hold the temp much better seeing as its much more dense.

Hey Pok, with a test with water I lost about 10 degrees, with Grain I lost no temp at all, mind you, I wrapped it up in a sleeping bag and left it on my driveway for the 1hr..


The reason I ask is that I have this strange feeling that my temp gauge is too high in my tun......

Would the 12L + 4.5kg grain take up say 20Ltrs of space??

I guess I need to go and see how many litres it takes to get to the thermometer...

Pok

Ive got a 38ltr Rectangular Esky and the Mash In came up about 1/2 way, the sparge was fine as I was using alot more water for it...


Plenty of pics Here

Still got more to add though. I'm going to make another album with all the photos from building my rig.

Also more pics etc in This thread

Pok

EDIT: Ok so it takes approx 23 ltrs of water to fully submerge my thermometer (This Type set up like So and So)

Will this be a problem?? I'm thinking that it could be....

Prob will be to high mate, just use a stick digital thermo for the time being till you lower your other thermometer..

Also, I did The Golden Ale for my first AG and in the end I need to use a total of 38ltrs of water to get my pre-boil volume..

Have fun... Its great... Just fix your couple issues first..
 
Ok so I will use a stick thermometer for now.....atleast I have space in my tun to do double batches :p

Now the other thing I need to know is volume of boils........if the damn element in my kettle is too high....I'm rooted (I didn't install it)....or I will just to do double batches all the time....

It takes approx 24-25ltrs of water to submerge the element safely (basically the same volume as needed to cover the thermometer in the tun).

I am assuming this could also be an issue.

I guess I have the following options:

1. Brew double batches so ensure the larger volume.

2. Brew batches that are slightly bigger than a single instead of a double...(e.g. 1.25 x the 'normal' size and modify recipe's to suit....e.g multiply all ingredients by 1.25)

3. Place something in the tun / kettle to "pack" out the space making the liquid sit higher....what to use...no idea.

Anyway surely there is simple answers to these issues...

Cheers, Pok
 

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