What Do U Use As A Sieve To Sparge With?

[SJW]

W hen i did my Porter on the weekend i had a few dramas sparging the grain after i steeped em. As this was my first time using grain i was flying by the seat of my pants. Anyway poured all the liquid thru the kitch sieve the spooned 1/4 of the grain into the sieve then sparged with some hot water, and so on for 4 times. This worked ok but the only thing i could think of was what i did yesterday.
I went to Mc Donalds and swiped 2 x 20 litre food containers and in one i drilled about 1000 or so little holes slightly bigger than 1/16th of an inch and a bit smaller than 1/8th of an inch. Now i have a giant size sieve. So i got the grain out of the bin from Saturdays efforts for a test run.
I worked great but i did notice after it drained into the second bucket i tipped that bucket onto the grass, normally would go back into the pot for the boil, and noticed a lot of really fine grain material that got thru the sieve. Does this sound ok or should i simply not pour that last little bit into the boil? or should i just sieve it again with a fine tea strainer when i transfer it to the fermenter, after the boil?

 

[PostModern]

I just drop this:

into the bottom of a 10 litre esky and start a siphon on the clear hose. You could make one for $Bugger-all witrh standard plumbing bits from Bunnings. There is no need to solder any of the joints.

The bucket-in-a-bucket setup you describe is what millions of people use. The little bits of grain that make it thru generally get caught up in the grain bed when you recirculate the sweet wort thru the grain. The grain bed will compact and be a better filter.

 

[SJW]

I did not know about running the wort thru the bed of grain a second time. I just run a couple of litres of boiled water thru and ran it thru a fine tea strainer back into the boil pot. Then after the boil and hop additions i strained into the fermenter.
So PM what u are saying is that u don't need to put the grain on the cooktop/gas for the first boil or steep? just in an esky with hot water?

 

[Asher]

What youve described above is called a "Zapap" bucket-in-bucket lauter tun. Very common, even for all grain brews... your on your way to AG already..... good stuff

Asher for now..

 

[PostModern]

SJW, that's right. Read up on mashing. Mine is just a "mini masher" atm. I can only do 3 kilos of grain at a time.

My process is this:
Calculate volume of water required (about 3L per kilo)
Preheat esky by filling with hot tap water (inlude the manifold).
Weigh the grains, put on the kettle and a large saucepan of water to boil, etc
Empty the esky.
Fill to required level of boiling water and top up with cold tap water to hit required "strike temperature" (about 7 degrees higher or lower than required mash temp).
Add grain once temp is right.
Stir until all mash is wet and there are no "dough balls".
Check and adjust temp with hot or cold water.
Close lid, wrap esky in towels and blankets.
Wait one hour.
To sparge, I suck on the hose and let a litre or 2 flow into a pot.
Recirculate this back into the mash tun.
Restart the siphon (just opening and closing the irrigation tap) and let it run SLOWLY into the pot.
When all the wort is gone, I refill the tun with water at about 80C, mix then leave for a few minutes then start the recirculation again, then continue collecting the runnings.

Now whether you need to mash or not depends on the grains you are using. Crystal malts, roasted malts etc don't need a mash and can just be steeped and the runnings boiled with your extract. Pale grains, munich and base malts need mashing. I mash every brew as I use between 2-3Kg of base malt, so I may as well mash the specialty grains while I'm at it.

 

[SJW]

Mine was just 650g of choc malt & roast barly for the Porter but i was told to do it this way, steep for an hour @ 67deg C, as it is good practice for AG'S.
Also PM, if you do a mini mash with 3kg's do u use a tin of unhopped liquid malt extract aswell? as i think this is where i am headed.

 

[PostModern]

I use DME as I had storage issues with LME.
But yeah, I mix the grain runnings with DME and boil with hops for bittering flavour and aroma... It's called "part mashing".

Sounds like you've been going OK. I don't like the bucket in a bucket setup myself, tho. Much too messy. I can brew with the esky in the kitchen as I still do small boils. Moving up to a 43 litre esky soon. I just have to cut a lid out of my keg (er, I mean stainless steel beverage container), get a wort chiller made up and buy a 3 ring burner. Then it's AG time, baby!

 

[Justin]

Yep, you need to add some extract as well.

Hey, SJW does your lower bucket have a tap? If so this makes it really easy to recirculate your wort (specialty grains or proper mash grains) to get a clear run off. And also, all you need to go full grain from here is a big boiler.

JD

 

[SJW]

Sounds tops PM. I am going to Bunnings on the way home to get the gear to make one of those bad boys in your photo. Are they just hacksaw cuts in the pipe?

 

[Batz]

When I was doing partials I bought a large thingy that you put over food to stop the flys getting on it , it's made out of wire same as a sieve , only much larger.

With this I could handle 5 kg of grain , I got it a some kitchen shop , don't remember how much but it was cheap enough

I can post a piccy if needed

 

[PostModern]

Are they just hacksaw cuts in the pipe?

Yes.

The manifold is made to fit exactly in the base of the esky - to prevent movement. You don't want it moving around during the sparge as it lets fine particles get thru into the run-off.

It's a scaled down version of this How To Brew's Guide to Mash Tun Manufacture.

 

[pint of lager]

It is the grain husks that do the filtering, not the false bottom, or manifold.

The false bottom holds back the grain husks, the husks form the filter bed. If the false bottom did the filtering, it would need to be very fine and would probably block upand give the dreaded stuck sparge.

During the start of the sparge, chunks of grain come through, this is recirculated and the wort clears up.

For mini mashes, you can recirculate a bit, or just strain in a kitchen sieve, I used one made of mesh that fitted over the boiler.

 

[GMK]

PoMo

the manifold should not fit exactly in the bottom.
It should be equidistance from the sides and the centre to create even flows thru the grain bed.
eg if it is 2 inches between the pipes then the pipes need to be one inch from the sides.

 

[wedge]

The equal flow though is only important if you dont Batch Sparge.

 

[johnno]

I'm only using a colander at the moment. I dont mind if a few bits of grain get through. When its recurculated it seems to clear up anyway.
It'll do me for now in the learning stage.
Batz can you post a picture of this "thingy" you are talking about.

cheers

 

[warrenlw63]

Bit of that black flyscreen stuff from Bunnings works OK as well.

Cheap and flexible too.

Warren -

 

[Batz]

Will do Johnno , soon as I get off this stinking nightshift

 

[SJW]

This thing called homebrewing never stops amazing me. I had no idea about any of this stuff.
Anyway i need to decide to stay with my 2 buckets or go with PM's esky & suction manifold thing.
All the same, i want to do a all extract & part mash next time and i had a Stella the other day so if anyone has a good Stella part mash recipe i could try could u please post it. I guess it is just a Lager with heaps of Hallertau?

 

[GMK]

SJW

Upto a couple of years ago Stella used POR.
However, they have now switched to SAAZ hops.

 

[SJW]

GMK why then does it taste so different to Pilisener Urquell?