Sorry there is no pics but I was trying to do this in a garage that resembles Steptoe's yard and babysit a 4 year old and a 15 month old so all things considered......
Great news is my equipment performed quite superbly (it was probably all the weeks of tinkering) with one minor exception (more later) My HLT/Boiler is made out of a 35l plastic Mango Chutney drum (4 quid from ebay) with a Tesco kettle element. My Mash tun is an adapted Young's FV with a false bottom similar to Daab's plate but with a microwave plate cover instead (will explain the thinking on that one another time....) wrapped in a sleeping bag. Outside yesterday in the garage it only lost 2 degrees in 90 mins so not bad I think. My IC is ten metres of 10mm microbore copper tube (18 quid B&Q). With taps/odds & sods I reckon about £35 all told but I did have tools etc to do all the work.
I was trying Orfy's Old Speckled Hen clone with the following
4.5kg Maris Otter
0.54kg Crystal
45g Northern Brewer (60min)
15g East Kent Goldings (15min)
10g East Kent Goldings (5min)
454g Lyle's Golden Syrup
80g Demerara Sugar
Mashed for 90mins 2.5:1 ratio
Mashed out with about 6l of 80ish degree water and a batch sparged with 15l of the same. The runnings were clear of grain after recirculating about 2 litres but they were cloudy which I think is OK from what I have read.
Boiled 29l which went well although I think I will invest in another kettle element on the boiler because it really struggled to get up to a boil - once there is was fine. What I thought was the weak point of all my kit - the hop stopper (I had difficult fitting it into the back of the tap (which I ended up 'persuading' with a hammer before I started) and I was convinced I had not drilled enough holes in the copper tube) actually worked really well. Losses to grain and deadspace were pretty much bang on what I had expected but like I said I have been fiddling and testing everything to the point of obsession in the last two weeks.
The only thing that I cocked up was the length of hose that I had attached to the outlet pipe of my IC - it was not long enough to reach the drain and I didn't fancy just tipping it in my lawn I had no idea how much there would be or if it would be hot enough to kill my grass so I ended up plugging everything out and moving the boiler outside closer to the drain. Tried to keep the lid covering everything up as much as I could but there is not much else you can do is there?. Anyways the whole lot chilled down to 23 degrees in about 12 minutes once I had inched up the flow rate on the IC once I was convinced i wasn't going to explode on me.
The only mistake I have made is that I forgot to put the Whirlfloc tablet in. It was just one of those things - it was near the end of what was a bit of a hectic day and it was just overlooked. Have read a few posts that mention something similar so it seems a common mistake.
Beer is fermenting well and tastes absolutely superb - better than I had imagined and that is just having a cheeky sip of the stuff in the FV while testing gravity.
OG is 1.056 which is what it was supposed to be so I am really really pleased with that.
Not sure what to do with the cloudiness. I know that racking off in about a week to secondary will take most of it out of the way and I may still be left with a chill haze but a really tempted to get some Insinglass or some finings. The only thing that is worrying me about this is that I always bottle condition (can't afford any shiny things) and am worried that all my best efforts in clarifying my beer may result in poor carbonation in the bottle. Would really appreciate a recommendation on this
All things considered I feel pretty pleased with myself - exactly 5 gallons in the FV at exactly the right OG with no real mishaps. Part of me thinks I was being silly and should have dived in weeks ago and part of me thinks I was right to test everything, practice and work everything out as much as I did. Guess the truth lies somewhere between the two.
Now there were a few modifications to my kit that occurred to me along the way.......
. The beer was fine and just a wee bit hazy. You could even be lucky and find that it will clear unaided. Personally I steer clear of finings as I like my beer to be made with only "pure" ingredients and free from dead fish! 