I'm still waiting on my false bottom for the mash tun, so haven't been able to do a complete batch yet. But Robert and I did do two batches last weekend, using my old 33 qt. Enamel-on-steel kettle with an easy-masher to do the mashing and sparging in, and used the hot liquor tank and boiling kettle from the new system.
Batch #1 was Robert's (you didn't think I'd risk a batch of my own in an untested system, did you??) - the mash was pretty uneventful, and the sparge went quite nicely - we drained from the hot liquor tank into the mash kettle (I didn't have the spiral sparging gadget built yet) and drained from the mash kettle into the boiling kettle that we sat on the floor in front of the rack. We got the boil underway and were quite pleased with ourselves for not having screwed anything up. Unfortunately, I forgot one of the minor components that we needed on the boiling kettle: a SS hose clamp around the dip tube, to hold the pizza pan wort filter in place. It managed to float up enough during the boil to let the whole-flower hops under it and, subsequently, into the plumbing when we started to recirculate the wort and pump it off through the chiller. Since the pipes were hopelessly clogged, we opted to pour the wort back into the 33 qt kettle, boil it a few minutes longer to sanitize my old immersion chiller, and to cool it the old fashioned way.
The second batch went much better - I got 31 pts/lb/gal extraction, which is the best I've ever done. I remembered to put the hose clamp on the boiling kettle and the boil went fantastically without a single hop flower getting into the plumbing or pump. After the boil was done, I let it settle for about 10 minutes and pumped it through the wort chiller and had 5 gallons of 65F wort ready for pitching in about 10 minutes.
The Sabco false bottom finally showed up - I had to make a hole in it for the dip tube, which was a bit of a challenge - but the carbide bit on my Dremel tool made fairly short work of cutting between the holes in the false bottom. The folding design is very nice - makes it a breeze to get in and out, plus the hinges in the center give extra support for a heavy grain bill. It's worth the $58 in my opinion.
I mashed-in with about 10 quarts of water for my 7.5 lb. grain bill, after adding about 3 qts to fill the space below the false bottom. I quickly discovered a minor design flaw - the coupling for the dip tube was welded about 2" too high, and the mash didn't cover it, so I couldn't get a gravity flow to prime the pump for recirculation (magnetic drive pumps aren't self priming and require a gravity feed to get them started. Once started, however, they work great.) My workaround was to throw in another pound of grain and add enough water to cover the dip tube so gravity could help me out. Made for a slightly thin mash, but apparently that didn't matter much.
Once I got the pump started, I left it running during the entire mash at a slow rate of flow (maybe 1 gpm or so) - the thermometer I mounted in the plumbing between the mash tun and pump worked great for monitoring mash temperature - I cross-checked it with a hand-held thermometer in the grainbed and the readings were pretty close - about 2F higher in the plumbing, which is to be expected since I was pulling the heated wort from the bottom of the tun. Temperature stability during the various rests (104, 122, 140, 158, 165) really surprised me - I only lost about 1 degree in 30 minutes, even with the pump running full-time. I added some pipe insulation (black foam stuff used on refrigeration pipes) to help reduce heat loss, and it seemed to work. I really think I had better temperature stability and control than I used to with my 33 qt. kettle, the stovetop burner and a pre-heated oven...
Mash recirculation worked great also - I used an old pie pan with holes drilled in it to diffuse the recirculated wort more evenly through the grainbed than if I had just stuck the hose from the pump into the grainbed - I'm going to find a better way on my next batch, as this method wasn't as even as I wanted. I only stirred the mash about three times during the entire process, and the wort cleared back up perfectly after about 3 minutes of recirculation each time I stirred it. I had planned a 30 minute rest at 158F, but a test for starch conversion revealed everything was done after only 15 minutes, so I headed on up to mash-out temperature. I shut the pump off during the mash-out rest (10 minutes) to allow the grainbed to settle for good.
For sparging, I hooked up the spiral sparge sprinkler to the hot liquor tank and opened the valve for a nice slow drip onto the grainbed. During the sparge, the wort was crystal clear after about 30 seconds of recirculation, and I restricted the pump output to about 1 gallon every 5 minutes or so - no complaints from the pump and no aeration or foaming of the wort (I had worried that the pump would beat it to death, since it still spins at 4250 rpm no matter how fast the wort is flowing...) It took about 45 minutes to collect 7.25 gallons of sweet wort - I wound up getting 32.9 pts/lb/gal from the mash! Absolutely incredible - I usually get about 28 or 29, and only went over 30 once before. I'm a happy camper.
The boil was uneventful, as was the cooling of the wort with the counterflow chiller. I still love the counterflow chiller and pump - only took about 10 minutes to chill the entire 5.5 gallons.
Cleanup was a breeze - I scooped the spent grain and hops out of the kettles, rinsed with cold water and scrubbed lightly with some soapy water. To clean the pump and wort chiller, I boiled about 4 more gallons of water and ran it through both.
Total time on this batch was about 6 hours, almost a full 2 hours less than usual.
Overall, I was thoroughly impressed - everything worked out perfectly. The problem with the dip tube in the mash tun will be solved by using the other coupling which is about 1.5" lower - it was originally intended for the thermometer, but since I've got the thermometer in the plumbing, I don't need that coupling. That's another great reason for using couplings instead of nipples - versatility!
A double batch today with my brewing buddy, Robert Swenson. Robert did a barleywine and I did an American wheat. The barleywine was a bit disappointing, however, as we were unable to get a high enough gravity from the 12+ lbs. of grain when only sparging with 7 gallons of water. We used honey to boost the gravity up to about 1.090 and it should be a good batch.
I did an American wheat using several leftover grains, as well as 1.5 lbs. each of wheat malt and unmalted wheat. The mash was a bit sticky due to all the unmalted wheat, but overall it went very well - using the pump for recirculation certainly boosts efficiency. I wound up with 34.5 pts/lb/gal of extraction efficiency which was quite surprising.
Total time for both batches was only about 7.5 hours.
The problems reported in the last batch with getting a gravity feed to the pump have been solved by filling the mash tun in reverse - i.e., instead of dumping water from the hot liquor tank on top of the grain in the mash tun, I've attached the outlet hose from the pump to the hot liquor tank, and allow it to fill the mash tun from the bottom up (the pump is off during this process, of course). Once I've got the right amount of water in the mash, I disconnect the hose from the hot liquor tank and turn on the pump. Since the entire plumbing is already full of water, the pump has no problem getting started.
I've ordered some 1/2" ID Norton PharMed tubing to replace the braided vinyl hose on the outflow side of the pump. This is food-grade plastic tubing rated for up to 275F and should last quite a long time. The downside here is that it's only available in 25 ft. rolls and sells for about $4.50 per foot. Fortunately, I found two other homebrewers on the net who were willing to split the roll with me. If you decide to buy some tubing, be sure to check around locally and get the best price - I found the PharMed locally for $110 per roll from one place; others wanted $20 to $30 more for the same stuff. The tubing won't be here until the first week of April - I'll update this document again once I've used it a few times.
I decided it was time to try a 10 gallon batch just to see what it was like. Aside from just using more of everything - grain, water, heat, etc. - it wasn't too bad. I brewed a pale ale with 15 lbs. Klages, and 1.25 lbs each of 40L crystal and carapils. The mash went great again and I wound up with 34.8 pts/lb/gal of extraction - seems my efficiency just keeps getting better. Of course, I was planning for more like 32 pts. and wound up with a higher than expected OG. Oh well, I'll manage.
The only things that took much longer than a 5 gallon batch were the temperature boosts during mashing, sparging (took about an 90 minutes instead of 50) and getting the boil underway. Otherwise, the effort wasn't considerably different than a 5 gallon batch. Perhaps the most labor intensive part of the whole thing was filling the two 6.5 gallon carboys with sanitizer and then dumping them out - that much water is heavy. I need to find a better way of working with the carboys.
Last Modified 10/07/96 Copyright © 1996, Marty Tippin (martyt@wwgv.com)