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Started by roggae, January 17, 2007, 04:21:00 PM

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tet

Quote from: roggae on January 25, 2007, 08:27:37 PM
this is essential.  tet is my brewmate.  he knows little, but is coming along well.
my brain is full.  it's not my fault. 

roggae and i are actually brewing 2 this weekend...  one partial extract, the other all-grain.  gonna be fun times (except for the cold!) :beers:
"We want you to be happy"
-Phish

roggae

and that a tet is a totaly goofball :syf:
Clearly it's all awful.

jephrey

You're gonna love this...  I'm using solid works at work to make a 3-D model of my future brewery.  I did the frame today, but have to get some dimensions of the pots, pump, etc. to do the rest.  It is similar to the earlier pic I posted but in 3 seperable pieces (It's way heavier so it has to be).  I'll make a bill of materials (you'll need a welder, and a method to cut angle iron), plus a bunch of valves, a pump, copper tubing, hoses, etc.  It'll all be in there.  I'll post a preliminary pic next week.

Brewing 2 is rough.  Start early.

But take pics and I'd love to see how it turns out.  If you can spot it, you should try to keg the stuff.  100000000000000000 times easier than bottling.  I bottled for a long time, and realize there's nothing to gain.  If you want to let it sit, you can let it sit in the keg, or in the carboy, it doesn't have to be bottled to age.  Anyhow, good luck.

J
There are 10 types of people in this world.  Those who understand binary, and those who don't.

roggae

we had a great time of the extract (my first since going AG in feb '06) and things went shiningly.  when i decided to use mt CFC things went to shit.  it took forever to setup the cfc and like 30 sec to cool the wort.  we addded yeast w/o starting, so i am expecting a slow start.  would love some advice on how far each vessel needs to be above the preceeding... :beers:
Clearly it's all awful.

jephrey

What do you mean by that?  The HLT is the highest because I have a pump, and I fly sparge.  If you don't have a pump, you want the bottom of the HLT above the top of the MLT and the bottom of the MLT above the top of the boil kettle.  So 3-tier.  A pump helps me with a few things. 

1.  I can have a 2-tier system. (don't need a ladder)
2.  I can pump through my CFC instead of using gravity (fast)
3.  I have valves set up to backflush the MLT in case of a stuck mash
4.  I have valves set up to clean every pipe in the system

I do tons of little things...
1.  HLT is at the top.  The water comes from a spigot through a custom hose, and goes through a valve to the CFC, and another valve, through a filter, into the HLT. 
2.  HLT has 2 outputs.  a gravity output to the MLT and a line into the pump.
3.  The pump has special valving for backflushing the MLT or Kettle with water from the HLT.
4.  All 3 pots have a natural gas burner under them.  I can hit mash temps well if I recirc and run the burner.  I have 3 so I can be mashing and boiling at the same time.
5.  I fly sparge with gravity from the HLT-MLT and the pump to go from the MLT to the Kettle.

With the system I'm designing for my basement, I'm doing it exactly the same as far as concept goes, just moving things around a bit.  I can't think of a better way.  Sure, there are 100s of other ways that work as good, but I think my method is quick and reliable and accurate. (I also use a temperature probe in lieu of a thermometer).

Dang, I need to brew again very soon.

Ohyeah, I also made a thingy out of copper that I connect to a drill to aerate the wort with the yeast.  It works awesome (in a bucket or keg).
There are 10 types of people in this world.  Those who understand binary, and those who don't.

rowjimmy


roggae

Quote from: rowjimmy on January 27, 2007, 10:33:35 AM
That Aerator is amazing.
:clap:

jephrey,

how does your cleaning system work?  we had a bitch of a time yesterday with a slow drain out of our keggle.  i think it was the homemade hop stopper and the whole leaf hops that collected at the bottom of the keggle.  perhaps a whirlpool would have helped.  how exactly is this done?
Clearly it's all awful.

jephrey

Cleaning?  We basically run star-san through all the lines right away and then leave them full.  Our setup allows for this, and cleaning that way is easy.  The spent mash and hops go into a heavy-duty bag and out with the trash (although they make good compost, and I hear you can make good dog biscuits out of them).

As far as the bottom of the keggle goes.

1.  don't aerate hot wort, you can do a nice easy whirlpool, but you'll have to filter somewhere and that will still slow stuff down.
2.  use hop bags.  You can also buy nylons for cheaper (which a lot of brewers do)
3.  give the wort a hot break (10 Min) so things can settle and don't filter inside of the keggle.  You'll get a lot of trub in the beginning, but after it gets going the wort will create "streams" thgrough the trub and you won't get much until the end.

J
There are 10 types of people in this world.  Those who understand binary, and those who don't.

roggae

well i definately aerated the wort.  it had about 20 mins to cool down though. a lot went wrong on the AG brew, but the brew is bubbling away in the primary.  i need to figure out how in corporate my CFC so that my pirmary is right there at the end with room to spare...
Clearly it's all awful.

rowjimmy

Helped my neighbor and his regular Brewing partner bottle last night.
Had a good time. Not much to report other than it was the first brewing i had been involved with in ages... getting the itch again.

edemille

Can any of you homebrewers recommend some reading material for a newbie who knows nothing about homebrewing?  I'd really like to do some homebrewing, but would like to read up on it first to get a sense of pros and cons of equipment, the whole process, yadayada.  The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing looks to be the "bible", but apparently it is out of print...at least that's what borders and B&N are telling me...it's available via amazon for pretty cheap, but I'd like some feedback from any of you in the know folks. 

Cheers,

tet

not sure about books (what are those anyway??), but check out www.basicbrewing.com - they've got a great podcast on the basics of brewing, with a new project every week.  you can subscribe thru iTunes, which is the easiest way to grab them all.  also have a video version of it, which is pretty cool too. 
"We want you to be happy"
-Phish

rowjimmy


tet

yes, BYO is excellent.  a must-have for any serious homebrewer. 

forgot to mention the DVD they sell on basicbrewing.com , which is called "Basic Brewing: Stepping into All Grain" - an essential buy according to my buddy (and brewing mentor). 
"We want you to be happy"
-Phish

jephrey

Hey, you guys going to submit to the Sam Adams contest?  We're doing our wedding wheat, and another off the bat in the next few weeks.

To get started, I read Papazian's book, but I'm not a book guy, I just peruse the NorthernBrewer forums.

J
There are 10 types of people in this world.  Those who understand binary, and those who don't.