Sorry for the delay chaps...I got dragged to the pub by my father-in-law.
Anyway, brew day went well.
Some pics. First off the new mash tun which is based on the now familiar thermobox.
The original tap was replaced with a 1/2" ballvalve connected by a running nipple to the original fitting that goes between the skins.
Inside I got a 3/8" to 1/2" stainless adaptor from BES and connected it to a stainless bazooka screen I had in the bits box. This worked quite well and I got a slightly better efficiency compare to my old tun but it is a bit slower to drain than a copper manifold and not so good for underletting so I have to stir the mash a bit more.
The mash on the go. I drilled two holes in the lid using a cone drill. One hole is slightly smaller than the other. Between them I used a 15mm-1/2" male iron, a 15mm tap connector, a 1/2" BSP stainless full socket (BES) and some stainless washers to fashion a route in for the 15mm copper return manifold (I use a RIMS system so I need a return).
Also new today was a pump from MoreBeer.
This is very small and quiet and unlike my last pump didn't sound like it was about to explode when recirculating boiling wort. On the downside the flow is a lot less so cooling the wort took a lot longer. It looks like I won't use my old recirculating whilst cooling method in future and will just cool on the way to the fermenter like everyone else!
Also new is a hopsock from Ross at craftbrewer. This looks like an elephants condom.
Although this worked quite well I think it's maybe better for pellet hops...which is handy as I'm moving over to pellets.
As I said I got better efficiency this time and, rather than make the beer stronger, I opted to take some excess wort and freeze it to make yeast starters with later - 2L of 1.037 wort - just right for two starters. As you can see I'm getting quite a decent hot break in there.
