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What is your "Perfect Set Up"?
Been researching a bunch of pots designed for mashing / boiling, etc. I wanted to see what some of the more seasoned folks perceive as the best solution for full grain brewing, 5 gallons.
Here is what I've been drooling over lately, or "perfect set up" list:
BOILERMAKER 15 GALLON BREWING POT (add false bottom and sparg arm of course) - http://www.williamsbrewing.com/BOILERMA … 60C251.cfm
7 GALLON CONICAL FERMENATOR (with legs)- http://www.williamsbrewing.com/7_GALLON … 82C135.cfm
Question on using the Boilermaker for mash tun ( I have not gone to FG brewing yet), looks like you would need to get a false bottom and sparg arm as well to use as a mash tun. Would you also need another pot to hold the liquor? Not sure how that all works together. I know the general idea is to add hot water over the top of your grains....
Money - money - money (to get the nice shiny stainless stuff anyway)!
you would need another pot for your HLT (hot liquer tank) which holds the mash/sparge water. This can be anyhting that has enough volume to do the job, I use the 7.5 gallon aluminum pot that came with my turkey fryer.
As for mash pot, that kettle looks nice, but for the same volume (and same need for a false bottom) I'd try and get your hands on a commerical keg (got legally or not, I'm not in control of your conscious). 15.5 gallons, and high grade stainless.
That's my next step is to ditch the cooler and build a keg direct fire mash tun with false bottom to go with my keg brew kettle. Got the 2nd burner, not I just need a keg and false bottom (about 90.00, not cheap)
I've seen those, just not sure where I would get the welding done.
What do you mean by "direct fire" mash tun? And why two burners? Why not just use the same keg for both mash tun and brew barrel?
you could try going weldless
My system is far from perfect as your post asks, but this will show you what a typical 3 tier system looks like. The HLT is my blue 5 gallon cooler up top which is holding 180 deg hot liquor. That goes into my mash tun (middle level) and sprinkled over the grain bed. The mash tun is at the same time draining into the lower tier (keggle) which will be fired up halfway during runoff so it comes to boil sooner.
What brewtown bill is talking about is having antoher burner under the mash tun to keep heat on the mash. This will allow him to maintain temps (a lot of tuns can lose 3-10 deg over the mash duration) and also to do temperature steps for protein rests and mashout. There are a lot of different configurations possible, a matter of sophistication and gravity determines what is best.
Thanks for the picture, seeing it makes more sense than thinking about it. vinyalwhl - On the welding comment, I meant the process needed to rip the top off the keg and pop a hole in the side.
Ok, so the liquor is constantly pouring into the mash tun, which then constantly runs / trickles into the boil kettle, or is something regulating the flows? In other words, once the hot water makes its way to the bottom it ready to go to the next step.
Lastly, pretty cool-looking 3 tier rack system you got there, did you put that together yourself? Does the base have wheels? That thing looks pretty sick!
You'll need valves on both the HLT and the mash tun so that you can try to match the flow in with the flow out. I actually just let the mash tun go at a slow trickle and turn the sparge arm on when I need to. I try to keep at least 1" of water on top of the grain bed and not more than about 2". My run off is probably slower than normal which is why I have to continually regulate my sparge water.
For now this......
edgerelease wrote:
Ok, so the liquor is constantly pouring into the mash tun, which then constantly runs / trickles into the boil kettle, or is something regulating the flows?
Lastly, pretty cool-looking 3 tier rack system you got there, did you put that together yourself? Does the base have wheels? That thing looks pretty sick!
Exactly as andrew jensen said- ball valves. They regulate the flow of everything.
The stand I did buid myself with the help of my brewbuddy in the picture and my neighbor. It is on brake-able casters. The lower level is on a stainless steel cart, so I can wheel the brewstand away from the boil for cleanup.
I got the parts for the stand from my showroom display for tonneau covers. Didn't need the display anymore- took it home and stripped it down, All the pieces were perfect. First time in my life anything was that easy, but fortunately it was. Just added a bracket for my fire extinguisher this past friday- lets hope I never have to use that!
edgerelease wrote:
I've seen those, just not sure where I would get the welding done.
What do you mean by "direct fire" mash tun? And why two burners? Why not just use the same keg for both mash tun and brew barrel?
Thirsty covered the direct fire part.. instead of just putting a certain temp water in the mash and hoping the cooler insulation holds the temp, I could heat it up with the flame to keep tabs on it, as well as step mashing. Controling temp in the summer is easy, controling it in the wisconsin -15 degree winters made me want to have a way to have better control over it.
The two burners is for ease and time. While the mash is draining I can already have the flame on the kettle heating it up, it takes a good 20-30 minutes to get 12 gallons of wort boiling, even with a 60,000 BTU turkey fryer. Also I don't have to move full kettles.
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