Frivolous Frog - first full brew length (pics further down)

[Kev888]

Thanks, though in reality its probably just large and metallic; I doubt it has anything over your own setup otherwise - particularly with your latest MT alterations.

Yes, this is the very first outing for the extended fridge and conical, so fingers crossed on that one. I need to read up on how best to use the conical actually, having spent all that time and money on it I want to see some benefits now. As it takes four packs per batch, I think priority No.1 has to be harvesting yeast from it.

Cheers
Kev

[GrowlingDogBeer]

Looks good Kev, Nice to see it all working to capacity. All the hard work finally paying off.

I've taken note of your cleaning challenges, as much as my brewery will only be about half the size of yours it is something that does need consideration. I am in the fortunate position though that I have a sink right next to the Mash tun.

[Kev888]

Thanks, something of a relief that it all works - though the reduced headroom in the MT is more awkward than I'd imagined, I'll be ready for it next time! Had a peek in the FV this morning, theres a small but reassuring amount of foam forming on the surface

Yes I wish I'd put more thought into the cleaning, its something I still have to sort out - was particularly unpleasant in the depths of winter out there struggling with it late at night, usually getting soaked myself in the process. I think I overstepped some threshold with the size and weight of my tanks though, so yours may be rather more sensible and better to deal with. You 'can' deal with mine manually as I'd intended, but they're too heavy and awkward and difficult to reach the bottom of for it to work well. If they were just a few inches shorter and if I'd not wrapped them in fragile insulation it could have been quite different, or maybe if I was less stingy and was willing to make 25gallon batches of top quality cleaning fluid to soak them in..

The steam is the other thing; with this brew it was fine, it just rose to the ceiling and then floated out the door, but with previous brews in colder weather it all condensed on the garage ceiling and dripped down onto everything - I was getting soaked and had to put tarpaulins over everything in the garage.

After your post about cleaning the HLT and my own experience of damp and condensation on the tanks out there in the cold, you got me thinking (always dangerous!). I'm toying with the idea of building a sort of cupboard around the setup, which could partly serve as a steam hood but which I may also be able to put a small heater in to help stuff dry off. But I'm going to insulate the garage roof at some point, so maybe that will be enough.

Cheers
Kev

[jmc]

Hi Kev

It would be interesting to see if you get much variation in temp top to bottom in your fermenting fridge as that amount of wort fermenting could generate a fair bit of heat, especially in first few days.

I noticed this morning that the cooler circuit kicked in on my garage brewing fridge to keep my recent brew down to 18C. Mind you I was using Chimay yeast and it was going mad.

Have you any fan in fridge to circulate the cold air generated at the base?
ATB John

[Kev888]

Hi John,

Yes I should probably do some tests, though I don't have a thermometer that'll reach to the bottom so not quite sure how at the moment. I'm intending to put some fans in there (computer type ones) at some point though so that should mostly sort it; currently its not quite as important as the heat rises and it doesn't seem much hotter at the top, but when the fridge kicks in I don't want all the cool stuff staying down below. I'll also have to play with the sensor location now that its all changed again.

Good point on the self heating - you just reminded me that I've got the fridge unplugged at the moment; its not been needed in the cold weather and smaller batches, but with it being warmer and the batch being bigger thats something I could have overlooked!

Thanks
Kev

[jmc]

Then douged in. This was surprisingly much more effort than a half batch - partly because there was far less headroom and partly because i needed a stiffer mash than normal to make it fit; about 2L/kg rather than my normal 2.5L. Must get one of those plaster mixers! It wasn't helped because to leave head room for stirring the grain in I couldn't add even the 2L/kg until it had soaked in.

Hi Kev
I was curious whether you underlet the mash.
I do this with my relatively small 5 gal brew lengths, and its made doughing in really much easier.

I had to experiment and calculate extra temp above theoretical strike temp to allow for mash tun to heat up.
(Its 2.5C approx with my mashtun), but overall its been much easier.

Just a thought...
ATB John

[Kev888]

Hi John,

I wondered about this but decided not to; the MT is a heavy/thick stainless tank that takes very hot liquor to warm it enough, so if I introduced the grains to it before the cooling effect of the tank took effect it would kill off the enzymes - as i proved to myself by accident a few weeks back! I could pre-heat it with some other water first, but the odd kettle-full or two isn't enough so I'd need a bigger or second HLT to prepare that.

I think I should have put more thought into the MT; it works very well but is a bit small in comparison to the rest of the setup. It was fairly unplanned really I suppose, I'd originally intended it to be the boiler, but I unexpectedly ended up with a bigger tank for that (my 90L brew lengths are a direct result of that happy accident!) so it became the MT by default rather than through careful choice.

Thanks for the thought though - I'm thinking of maybe going to a plastic one big enough for batch sparging in the future, so underletting may be well worth thinking about then. I found the fly sparge didn't heat the lower parts of the grain bed until quite near the end and am concerned if things take longer for any reason I may not stop the enzymes well enough, and it takes ages for my boiler to do it.

Cheers
kev

[Kev888]

Just an update and reflections on where to go next:
Its now about a week later and we're at just under 1.010 at 19c (my hydrometer is a 20c one so thats about right). Just drawn some yeast off, and will cool the beer soon when its finished then keg perhaps next weekend. This much beer really fills the garage with beery/yeasty/CO2y aromas!!

I've been considering the MT capacity more and have decided now to definately make a bigger one, probably from a 120L blue bin. This will not only make adding grain far easier, but should also let me batch sparge, which will also get over my concerns about properly ending the enzyme activity at the bottom of the grain bed.

Aditionally, I've more or less decided to cut the top off my boiler at some point; it works very well for keeping heat in and controlling steam but it makes cleaning annoyingly awkward; I've been looking into CIP and intend to do something fairly basic in that line, either spraying or soaking, but there's probably still no substitute for being able to get into it easily. As I'm going to a bigger MT I'll need to reconfigure to a pumped system anyway, and at that point I can also position the boiler high enough to tip into something, rather than just out onto the floor, without having to lug it about first.

Cheers
Kev

[Kev888]

Kegged it yesterday whilst doing another brew; an early taste is promising!

Think I was too conservative with the volumes - apart from the MT anyway which definately wasn't generous. In my head I'd rounded cornies up to being 20L and also overestimated how much would get lost with draining off the yeast; I got four and three quarter cornies out of it rather than the four. If I can get the MT capacity sorted, think it could potentially manage five cornies.

Oh dear, I can see yet another trip to Norm on the horizon - I'm not drinking it any faster, the batch size is because I usually don't get to brew that often, so I'll have to increase my storage capacity..

Cheers
kev