stoker wrote: , for you that must be more then 2000 km!
it would be a very expensive mash tun
Oh, it's a two day drive with one overnight in Prague (if I remember correctly, from Klaipeda to Brussels, it is 1600 km. plus/minus...) Besides, It would be an excuse for a road trip, and to try some of Bujapat's products
I go to brussels pretty often (for work), but I wouldn't mind going down for whiskey matters
So, my brewin' setup isn't finished yet...
I'll tell you when the first test will be achieved.
But, in any case, it isn't for sale !!!
Aidas, when you come to Belgium, let me know... It would be nice to meet you ! ... and test some of my products !
I'm french speaking!
Boiler : 50 L (13 gal) beer keg, gas heated.
Reflux : 104 cm (41 inches) column 54 mm (2 inches) diameter withh SS scrubbers packing.
Potstill : 40 cm (15 inches) column 54 mm (2 inches) diameter without packing.
The milk jugs they have listed have drain tubes in the corner would be good if you could get a welding shop to weld you a adapter to it so you could put a vavle on it to drain it.
CoopsOz wrote:I for one couldn't achieve that level of work!
you're not alone there, coops. Beautiful work!!
blanik
Simple potstiller. Slow, single run.
(50 litre, propane heated pot still. Coil in bucket condenser - No thermometer, No carbon) The Reading Lounge AND the Rules We Live By should be compulsory reading
Secondly, why the stirrer? You have to be careful with them, or you'll end up creating cavities in your mash and channeling when you're running off your wort. Creates an effect that lowers your extraction of sugars from the grain.
I was briefly reading through this thread and not sure if it has been mentioned here or not but another option to soldering the input and output tubes would be to use Weldless fittings like the ones at http://weldlessfittings.com/kettlefittings.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow or just google Weldless fittings or weldless keggle fittings. Brewers have had good luck with these.
Wow that is one of the fanciest mashtuns I've ever come across!
For those of you that are on more of a budget, have you heard of a cooler mashtun and batch sparging? This is what I do for my brewing. I have cooler MLTs (mash/lauter-tuns) of 3gal, 5gal, and 15gal. The big one holds 30lb of grain with a mash ratio of 1.5qt/lb.
Check out Denny's cheap and easy cooler mashtun. The cooler holds the heat nicely, the braid serves to set up the grain bed that does most of the filtering, and batch sparging means you don't need aa fancy sprinkler head. You mash, drain the sweet wort, add sparge water and stir, then drain that off.
I'd do some more research on that "shower" if I were you. That garden hose is more than likely to carry a rubber taste into the water, but beside that the shower is going to cause bubbles in your mash, which beer brewers refer to as Hot Side Aeration. I'm not really sure the affects but all brewers (beer) try to avoid it.
Also I think you'll have problems burning grains with your element in the mash vat. Most beer brewers use a second keg full of water with an element. The wort water comes from the mash vat, through a coil in the water keg and back to the mash vat. It's called an eHerms system, works like a worm and flakestand but for heating mashwater instead of condensing vapours.
Swedish Pride wrote:
get a brix reading on said ball bearings and then you can find out how much fermentables are in there
His heating element isn't in the lauter tun. It's in a separate keg for boiling his strike water. Plus I doubt he used the hose except when he first tested it.
Lastly I doubt the manifold matters. The sparge liquid is often used for the next ferment instead. Efficiency hasn't been a concern I see tossed around here, like it is in the beer forums.
If efficiency isn’t it sure should be. Why waste sugars/flavors/alcohol by not removing all the sugars from the grains? Reason you’re taking the time to properly convert them. As a brewer it very important to me. I see no diff as a distiller. Max efficiency and control at all points for best end results is my goal.
Awesome setup by the way. Looks great.
I just add a little heat if needed to hold temp and recirculate the running’s. Then sparge off the last of the sugars in a second running to get the volume I targeted. No need to insulate that way. I can hold a 151 temp forever even in the winter as I’m doing now. I made a cross sparge arm. After several batches I removed the arms. Not needed at all as far as I’m concerned. I do a very fine crush as well. As long as you have a false bottom and pump to recalculate you should be good to go. I test for conversion at many points in the mash. I can tell by the bubble size and colors now. Sticky sweat stuff.
I just put this link on another post. Shows my grind, kegs, how I’m mashing, and my false bottom. Added advantage to mashing like this is the grain bed is your filter. My wort/brew runs clear before I pull it off. No need for any filtering after it’s fermented. I also converted a chest freezer to ferment in. Holds whatever temp I set it at for best results of the yeast I’m using. More control the more consistent your final products will be.
You said it! I also thought the steel hose was not necessarily the best for wort collection though. I have been an all grain homebrewer since the mid 1980s and I am in the Jack Schmiddling EasyMasher (tm) camp which I found to be a bit more efficient that a false bottom, and I also don't understand why a heating element is necessary on an insulated mash tun, but those are just details. The build blows me away!
bronzdragon wrote:These craftsmen just do this to make the rest of us drool! hehe
Just kidding. I've been a homebrewer for about 15 years now and that's one of the best mash tuns I've seen made at home for home use.
I may have went with a false bottom instead of the cut pipe as far as catching the runoff ... but it probably doesn't matter much. It may depend on what you intend on mashing mostly.
I've been doing all grain brewing for a long time. It is really simple to go to Home Depot and buy a 10 gallon Igloo water cooler, pop out the water valve and back fit with a false bottom and a ball valve. Any home brew shop has this. Sparging is over rated IMHU. I add the crushed grain, then hot water to get the mash to about 155, stir it up and let it set for an hour to convert. Let it drain, off and squeeze out the last of it with a dinner plate. I run boiling water through the 2nd time to get the 2nd run, and it is ready to ferment when it is cool enough.
Great work BTW- but I don't have the skills or the patients for that.
Wow! I started all grain brewing to learn how to distill and make really good spirits. Just got into the latter and was having difficulty with ease of mashing in, sparring and fermenting on grain. I was searching for the mashing in and fermentation “On grain” but this sounds even easier. Simply drain the mash tun and rinse with boiling water before squeezing with a dinner plate. Doesn’t get any easier than that does it?
Off grain fermenting is the norm in beer brewing and common when making all types of all grain spirits too. Scottish whisky is for example generally fermented off grain.
Fermenting on grain is practical if you’re cooking/mashing large volumes of the kind of gooey mash you get from unmalted grains because it’s easier to get the liquid out of the mash after fermentation than from the mash tun.
, for you that must be more then 2000 km!
