One pot from start to finished beer brewday

[Coffeeuk]

Bit of a mixed bag this. I've been of work with a torn calf muscle and was totally bored so decided to put together a BIAB system that I could ferment in with temperature control. Making 21 litres, enough to fill my newly acquired 4.5 gallon pins.

The first half is today's brewday. The second half is the pics of me see how good the cooling of the fermenter was on the hottest day of the year so far.

So here's today's recipe, I was aiming for a citrusy pale.



I'm going to dry hop it. Any suggestions ?

And here's the one pot system I threw together.



Water from my RO system, I've just had a water supply installed in the garage



Grain store



Grains weighed out



Being crushed



Crushed, ready to go



Water recirculating, coming up to temp



Basket in to keep bag off of element



All doughed in



Salts calculated using GW's water calculator. Weighed out and added into mash.



Tucked up ready for recirculation



Time for a pint while it mashes for 80 mins. My sneck lifter clone.



Keep temp around 66.7 c



After 80 mins I mash out for 10 mins at 76 degrees



Basket removed, draining in a stainless bucket, I add this back to the boil when finished draining.



Hop additions weighed out, they all smelt lovely



Nice rolling boil, all pellet hops in hop basket, which works brilliantly.



After 60 minute boil, plate chiller attached and wort cooled, yeast pitched directly into boil kettle.



Now here's where I switch to the smoked mild I made and fermented in the kettle to see if it would work


I coiled copper around the fermenter and attached that to a maxi beer chiller



It kept perfect temp within .5 of a degree at 19.5



I also made a temp probe to monitor the temp



It worked really well, no off flavours or anything. It's now conditioning in the pin



It's definitely something I'll do again in the future instead of using the 100 litre setup for trial brews. From start to finish 3 hours 20 mins with hardly any cleanup.

[cerbera84]

what a great setup - looks like a good brew day! where on earth did you get the basket ?!

[Coffeeuk]

what a great setup - looks like a good brew day! where on earth did you get the basket ?!

eBay, where else.

[cerbera84]

any chance of a link? the only similar ones I could find were in America.

[Coffeeuk]

That's where mine came from. I had to get it shipped over. There very good though. I've had mine years. I bolted on stainless door stops to make the legs.

[mosquat]

Nice post


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[Matt in Birdham]

Cool setup and a very nice looking recipe.
Have you used the Thames Valley for an APA/IPA before? I am really getting into using English yeast for American pales, and have been brewing a lot with WLP002. Planning on trying the WY1318 (Boddingtons) next, as this is supposed to get a great soft mouthfeel with esters that can really complement citrussy US hops. Hoping to try a few other UK yeasts as well so keen to hear how your one goes.

[Coffeeuk]

I used Thames valley for an EKG IPA and it was lovely, super tasty. Although not overly hoppy, which I put down to the low alpha of the EKG.

I'll let you know how it works out.

I've just updated the insulation. I've spread the copper coil over the length of the boiler and added some foil insulation on the pipes and the outside of the Boiler. I also incorporated a silicone heating wire. It's kept 19.4 degrees without the cooling switching on for the last 2 hours in my warm garage which I'm happy with.

[Coffeeuk]

Just a small update.

First pint of the smoked mild. I'm really pleased.

I'll be fermenting in the kettle a lot more often, it's so much simpler.

I'm wandering if I can convert my bigger rig mmmmm ?

[bigtoe]

This really has me thinking...you could build a boiler from a 14 gallon conical stainless fermenter, add a basket like a grainfather that sits on a removable stand on top of the fermenter to drain and sits on the start of the taper when inserted, add a stainless cooling coil into the lid of the fermenter with second thermowell to control the ferment temps (one of the long ones) and you pretty much have a full controllable all in one solution, no transferring, brew, cool, pitch and ferment all in the same pot. Only necessity is a hop spider like you are using and they can be got cheap from china now. Adding a cheap water chiller is all you need or a reservoir of coolant in a fridge close by would do also. The heater is already built into the conical so gently warm the beer if needed.

Thinking 2 lids would be nice, one for the heat phase and another for the cool and ferment phase although you really could manage with just 1.

Using the 14gallon conical means you have loads of room for the basket and the ability to do massive beers at 23L if you want for the Pin or full brews for the firkin.

Seriously tempting idea. Thanks for the inspiration

Edit..cooling coil around the outside is the way to go...then an insulating jacket like you have done...leave the lid alone so its multi functional for heating and fermenting.

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

A product exists: checkout BIAC or Brew In A Conical.

Pricey but has a few fans.

[Coffeeuk]

Big toe

A silicone heating wire wrapped around the base of the conical works really well for heating, I've done it before in the past.

I'm on my 3rd brew with the above now and they've all been spot on.

Like sumofallbeers said, the conical all in one already exists, but it's not cheap. I reckon one like I built would cost about £300 to build all in.

I find conicals pointless at 23 litres, there's just not enough pressure to dump yeast through the cone. 14 gal might be better though.

[bigtoe]

Big toe

A silicone heating wire wrapped around the base of the conical works really well for heating, I've done it before in the past.

I'm on my 3rd brew with the above now and they've all been spot on.

Like sumofallbeers said, the conical all in one already exists, but it's not cheap. I reckon one like I built would cost about £300 to build all in.

I find conicals pointless at 23 litres, there's just not enough pressure to dump yeast through the cone. 14 gal might be better though.

I use FastFerment conicals here and have no issues with the yeast, the trick is to gentle tap the fermenter every day for around 2 minutes around 8 inches up from the narrowest point, i use an old wooden spoon to just tap the side and cause a small amount of vibration..the yeast drops superbly into the catch ball this way and I usually get 2 harvests from a brew which i then wash and store for further brews. I have looked at automating this gentle vibration using an out of balance fan etc but not got round to it yet...manual method working and allows me to bond with the beer LOL

Im not thinking of buying something ready done, im thinking of building one. I like the idea of wrapping the heater wire around the base, this would allow a more gentle heat to be applied. I also will not go BIAB, but straight grain in the basket like the grainfather, i like the efficiency the GF gives me and my plan would be to build a bottom outlet sparge heater from an insulated pot again digitally controlled with in pot circulation so I know exactly what temps and what quantity of water i am using. I was considering a fermenting fridge, now i think I will just build the conical all in 1 and sell my other kit to help fund it, it will save space as i only need the width of the conical and the height of the conical and the sparge tank above it plus access. The sparge tank will be big enough for 14gallon brewing which should mean a 40L pot (if one is available) would be big enough.

This also would free up room for a small chest freezer we need for the dogs food, we raw feed and its taken over the kitchen freezer. If I an clever here I could add a coolant tank into the freezer for the cooling loop, just will need to hold the freezer warmer than -10C so i get no sludging issues.

Smaller option is convert the grainfather, pump outlet would need altering to allow racking or an additional tap adding in the side, new lid with seal and the cooling added.

I think the conical is the way to go however and just sell the GF on once its all up and working.

[bigtoe]

Been researching for a few days and hit this on youtube...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OboSC4EI0vs
The guy is using flat discharge hose wrapped around his fermenter, in winter he heats the water that flows around it and in summer he chills it, he says he has no problem doing lagers etc also.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-633 ... B000QHHDMU

Nice and cheap

Thinking a DIY neoprene jacket or similar over the top will help the transfer to the stainless. Original plan was 10mm copper but the contact point would be tiny. Im thinking the added width more than makes up for the less conductive material on the hose Vs the copper.

Thinking the 25 or 32mm is the one to go for, i can machine up adaptors to take 1/2" barbs dead easy on the lathe and they would only need to be acetal....
Only issue is you need quite a good pump, I have a 220V Iwaki if needed although I think the mag pumps most use will have enough pressure to balloon the hose out slightly so you get some flow.

Only question is would the hose stand 100C when the unit is in boil mode? Food for thought

[Frothy]

Great setup, where did you pick up the basket?

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