I managed to fit two brew days in over the weekend. First was a Mild as i was just playing with the unit to get my head around how it works.
Second brew was a dark saison with plenty of rye in it.
The unit is very simple to use, the instructions are quite basic and a little brewing know how is helpful as i will try to explain.
First thing to do is lock the tap to the main body of the unit. The seal on this is good and did not leak.
You then attach the hoseloc type barb to this tap. I had to fiddle about to try and get it to seal but felt the washer is not thick enough to give a good seal. I had a better seal to hand so swapped it out. The pump comes with a silicon adapter that steps down from the hoseloc fitting to the pump.
You then attach a length of silicon tube to the stainless tube that feeds the wort through the lid. It comes with 2 jubilee clips that i did not use.
I find that some clips have a tag that pokes out under the screw part that tightens it and when you tighten them up they cut into the silicon tube.
I have some thumb screw type hose clips without the tag that i use and also spun a couple of turns of electrical tape around the hose before fitting them (i want the hose to last). I fitted the bazooka filter hand tight and slid the malt pipe into the main body.
Looking into the malt pip there is a centre tube that can be unscrewed and comes 3/4 of the way up. It was at this point i had a light bulb moment, i picked up the stainless golf tee shaped plug type thing (as i had no clue where it was to go) and sat it in the top of the centre tube (to stop the loose grain going down the pipe) .
I gave it a wash through with some soapy water to take any possible oil contamination away (as per instruction) and after a good rinse filled it with 20 ltrs of water.
I then ran a test to time the heating side. On the full setting it took 34 mins to heat up to 68c mash temp. At the start i noticed the water temp reading was very low so tested it with my thermometer. The reading was out by - 5c, the actual temp was 14c so i waited until it got up to temp and this reading was good (68c) . I have found with some of the temp control units stc100 ect that they do have variation at the top end or the bottom end of the temp scale, also i would like to find out if it can be adjusted manually as the instructions are basic and there is no info with regards to this . It helps to take notes on the first couple of brews so you can dial in any variation.
Once i was happy with how it worked i opened up the tap and switched on the pump. First mistake
make sure the pipe is in the lid before you do this . The pump is very strong and you need to trim it with the tap valve to get a nice flow.
On to brew day No 1, a nice easy mild. I looked at the recipe and then thought about the instructions that came with it. I usually brew with 3 vessels so started thinking about mash water qty and sparging qty . I had to stop myself. This is a one pot system. Follow the instructions
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The recipe needs 28.3 ltrs in total so i filled it to 20 ltrs . You then have to figure out how to heat the remaining sparge water . I cheated and used my HLT , a kettle will do or a couple of pans , you can even be frowned upon and just sparge with cold water its up to you .
The water heated up to strike temp , i then set the power to low (700w) . I mashed in and gave it a good stir , i then looked at setting the time for a 60min mash . Press time , + to 60mins and that was it . I then removed the magic golf t plug thing and slid the sparge plate over the center tube . Fitted the lid and fed the wort pipe through the lid .
I set the tap to just open and put the pump on to get a nice recirc going . The temp remained constant and heating cut in a couple of times to keep it at 68c .
At the end of the mash the wort was running nice and clear , time to sparge , i lifted the malt pipe very slowly to the top position , switched the temp to max power and temp to 102c and slowly added the sparge water , i then waited for 5 mins and removed the malt pipe . Once it was nearing the boil i then went to set the time at 90mins . This is where i had a head scratching moment . I then realized the time unit only goes up to 60min max (or i was doing something wrong) . Its not a problem as when its nearing the end you can tag another 30mins on the end depending on the recipe requirements .
It then reached the boil and cut out
. Panic set in , my beer my beer wtf . It was simple . Tap the temp up to 104c (make notes dial it in) and away it went a nice rolling boil , i used a small amount of leaf and pellets at the start and this was my only hops addition as its a Mild .
After 50 odd mins i came back and added the rest of the boil time .
15 mins from the end in went the protofloc and the coil chiller , i added an inline hose valve to help control the speed of the cooling water to this .
At the end of boil the unit switches it self off and away you go with the chilling side , the chiller worked well giving a nice break and good clear wort .
The filter worked well and very little break/hops made its way into the FV . All in all , once i had sorted out the small problems it was an easy brew day , it cleaned up easily , there was a little bit of scale at the bottom on the heating plate (hard water area), a quick squirt of lemon juice and it came off with a sponge .
Brew day No2 was the day after , now i had a better idea of how it worked i brewed a saison with a good slug of rye and wheat malt so a nice sticky mash , this went as planed . The wort took a little longer to clear during recirc but got there eventually . I used a small qty of leaf and even more pellets in this brew , with 50g at flame out , the chiller worked well and gave another good break .
All in all once you get used to the way the unit works it will be very easy to brew on .
It will be interesting to see how it handles my next brew a ,big stout . Instructions say 9kg max , we will see
one has a glass lid one is stainless one has a fixed stainless tube one has a silicone tube ....The controller seems a bit better than the stc200 (I am yet to try however ) but all in all I'm happy with what I've bought today I'll report back after I've brewed with it ..
