Using An Urn For Brew In A Bag - Tutorial

[Samuel Adams]

Thanks Bribie, good to know my only restriction is my own effort !

Funnily enough Crusty I'm looking at a concealed element urn, I have read a few people having no issues with a rolling boil out of them.

 

[Crusty]

Thanks Bribie, good to know my only restriction is my own effort !

Funnily enough Crusty I'm looking at a concealed element urn, I have read a few people having no issues with a rolling boil out of them.

I think the exposed element will boil a bit more vigorously. I get a nice rolling boil from my exposed element, no insulation & inline with my calculated boil off loss, around 10%. I am more than happy with my urn. Brew days are so enjoyable & clean up is a piece of cake. I went from a 3V set up to using an urn & it's one of the best decisions I've made, it's just too easy.

 

[lukiferj]

Great tutorial BribieG. I have read it through it (and the comments) quite a few times. After around 20 extract brews this year I am picking up my exposed element crown urn tomorrow. Can't wait to do my first AG brew.

 

[Bribie G]

Welcome to the dark side - The Urn BIAB "system" is fairly bulletproof. Most gripes are about raising and draining the bag, a skyhook is probably the best piece of kit you can get and if you can set up a double pulley system (I did my new one with bits from the hardware store) even your pet hamster could hoist the bag for you. :icon_cheers:

 

[Puv]

Thanks for the tutorial, looks interesting and I think this is a formula that could see me giving it a go. I actually have an urn at home (see pics) that was / has been used for general tea / coffee duties over the years. Do you think it would be a possibility to use? I know it's only 20L but that might be a blessing to get me started and making AG with small batches for trial and error.

If this is suitable, I will go about giving it a nice clean up and ensure its santised throughly.

Plenty more for me to read and investigate as well as sort out a recipe but my first brew could be closer than I think.

 

[Bribie G]

To clean the urn I'd first descale it using either a commercial "de scaler" or initially try a couple of tubs of supermarket Citric Acid with a couple of electric jugs of boiling water and leave overnight, Then attack the insides with a green scotch brite and you should make headway B)

If you get onto one of the sub forums such as "Maxi BIAB" where they guys use a 19L pot, you can do the same in an urn and produce a full strength 20L batch by sparging and diluting post-boil. Works ok, just a bit more faffing around but has produced some award winning beers (RdeVjun is the guru here).

 

[Puv]

Thanks for the fast reply.... looks like I will start cleaning

 

[Truman42]

Ive cleaned 2 urns now with a small box of cream of tarter which you can buy from the baking section of any supermarket and filled with water and just switched it on and brought it to the boil. Let it boil for a good 10 minutes or so and it cleaned them up really well.

YMMV.

I did BIAB in an 18 litre urn and produced many good beers. When you pull out your bag at mash out dun k it in a bucket of hot water and top up the bucket until its almost full of water then stir the grains every so often for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile your bringing your wort up to the boil.
then pull the bag and pour this into the urn and your volumes should come up almost back to the top of the urn. You can do the same again if you like but hold off starting the boil until you have. This way you start out with a full volume boil and so have more to bottle. If you dont dunk sparge you might only end up with 10 litres or less. As Bribie said look up MAXIBIAB, it explains how to do it.

 

[Bribie G]

Citric Acid, Tartaric Acid, battery acid Loves to attack that scale.

 

[wood88]

this is prob a stupid question but when you doing your boil after the mash, do you leave the lid on or not?
Also I'm using a birko is it best to just leave it on high?

Thanks

 

[technobabble66]

Generally leave the lid on until it starts to boil (watch it as it gets close - v easy for it to suddenly boil over). Helps it reach boiling point faster. Then take the lid off & leave it off (allows DMS to be boiled off out of the wort).

Probably best to leave it on the highest setting to get it to boil, then it depends on your setup - whatever setting is required to maintain a "rolling boil."

 

[Bribie G]

Birko does an awesome boil, the only time I put the lid on my Crownie is right at the end when I deliberately pop it on and stand at the wall with my finger on the power switch until the steam starts to come out of the vents, then switch it off before it does its impersonation of Vesuvius.

Then the headspace is sterile and I can leave it for 20 minutes for the trub to settle, then run it into the no chill cube.

If you leave the lid on while boiling, invest in a good mop to clean up the mess B)

 

[geneabovill]

I've got a 40l urn and PID system (thanks Pratty). Depending on yer locality, I'm happy to have you round next brewday to do all the heavy - I mean watch.

I'm in Newcastle, NSW.

 

[Bribie G]

I'm at Old Bar, planning a run down to Newcastle before Xmas, we'll have to keep in touch. :super:

 

[BottloBill]

Hey genesbovill, where bouts in Newcastle are you as I would love to catch up for a practical lesson???

 

[Kumamoto_Ken]

Just got my first ever AG brew in the cube and have to say thanks to Bribie G and his tutorial for the inspiration (after 120-odd K&K/extract/partials etc).

I went with a pretty simple recipe for my first attempt: 95% pale ale malt and 5% crystal, hop additions all Cascade (~35IBU).
Both my FVs are currently in use...but I can't wait to get it into the bottle (and my belly).

Edit: grammar

 

[Bribie G]

Welcome to the dark side, Ken :beerbang:

Bill I believe genesbovill is Northside or whatever you'd call that in Newcastle, on the way out towards Port Stephens as opposed to down the coast - usually only takes me about 90 mins to hit Heatherbrae on the way down, so if you're up for a run I'm more than happy to put on a bru day.

 

[user 32290]

Hi all,

I'm to assume these aren't good?
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/121243690944?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

 

[Bribie G]

At 2000w it could be a bit underpowered for a good boil, but at the end of the day you would only be down $100 if the unit fails. I like the size.

 

[user 32290]

Yeah the size is what got me. Do you think it would be hard to change the element? Would it be worth the effort?