BM Sub £300.00?

[Andy]

So brewday go OK ? Looks so from the pics/vid. BAC disc hold up well ?

[barneey]

Yes it went OK, I will write up a report of my findings over the next couple of days, the BAC disk works very well BUT I'm not too sure of their claim of mashing with 16kg, I could at most manage 14.65kg so had to reduce the sparge liquor down to just 3l, this in turn meant instead of an efficiency of say circ 80% it dropped to 73%, effectively a no sparge brew.

[barneey]

Here are a few more photos of all the bits in the build, not including the BAC extender filter plate.

[barneey]

Cost so far...

1) 100l pot £25.00
2) 2 x pumps £25.00
2a) Pump Supplies £20.00
3) 1 x Malt Tube £100.00
4) Thru deck fittings & Misc £60.00
5) Ballvalve £10.00
6) Element Freebee
7) Bottom screens £25.00
8.) Legs £13.00 yet to fit.
9) Malt Tube Support & Handle £25.00

So £303.00 in parts + the BAC filter

[T5FAU]

So whats your brewing method for this ?
Its not a full volume mash is it ?
Do you simply add the total liqour from the start, then the grist/water ratio is just dictated by the volume held in the grain tube, and then your sparge liqour is just whats left outside the grain tube ?

[barneey]

So whats your brewing method for this ?
Its not a full volume mash is it ?
Do you simply add the total liqour from the start, then the grist/water ratio is just dictated by the volume held in the grain tube, and then your sparge liqour is just whats left outside the grain tube ?

I can sort of answer that question with an answer I gave to another.

As for brew size, no idea what the minimum would be, usually you would use a smaller BM Malt Tube with the set up to say brew 20 / 25l. The minimum for the system at the moment would be enough grain and water in the malt tube to cause it overflow + enough water in the main pot to cover the element.

Main pot 500mm diameter, 50mm required to cover the element = 10 litre Malt Tube 480mm high x 350mm diameter so 480mm - 50mm = 430mm =41litres.

So 51 litres total - grain = So say 8kg of grain with 42l of water would in theory give you 35litre less boil of so circ 30litre to 35litre might be the minimum brew length although it is just theory at the moment.

So as long as you had enough water & grain in the system to cover the element and to allow overflow for the upward mash to work your ratio could be reduced and the sparge increased, it would need a trial brew to determine the exact quantities v calculation.

This system uses a 100l standard pot whereas the other one I built and used full time has a 100l slimmer / taller pot thereby it gives a bit more flexibility on the sparge (but not on the no sparge) - horses for courses. as I only paid a £25.00 for the pot and had most other things the build was an experiment to see how cheaply you could build a system, with that done and a few successful brews its time to strip it back down for parts to be used on the next project the "Yorkshire Round".