The MaltMother™

[dbambrick996]

Where dld you get the stainless legs for your malt pipe?

Hi - check out https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/162626023290 - i took the rubber ends off

Thank you, looks good

[cerbera84]

2nd round of testing for the MaltMother last night:

Screenshot_2017-09-30-19-40-26 by Ben, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben, on Flickr

Highlights:
Got 23 litres into fermenter at 1.042 = I've reached the dizzy heights of 62.5% efficiency!
Pump working again
Mesh false bottom worked well
Clear runoff to fermenter with no whirlpool

In an attempt to raise efficiency, I stirred the mash halfway through, raised to mashout temps and cold sparged 5 litres. I recall reading that a hot sparge may raise efficiency?

Overall, very happy with how well the MaltMother works so far. Does anyone have any suggestions for raising its efficiency higher?

Cheers,

Ben

[dbambrick996]

Hi Ben

The obvious things to look at are grain crush size and doing a sparge.

I built a very similar system and get 75% efficiency with a sparge or 70% full batch. I recently started to crush my own grain, so I am playing around with crush size at the moment

[cerbera84]

Hi Ben

The obvious things to look at are grain crush size and doing a sparge.

I built a very similar system and get 75% efficiency with a sparge or 70% full batch. I recently started to crush my own grain, so I am playing around with crush size at the moment

Cheers Darren - yes, I do buy malt pre-crushed at the moment, so that will be a factor. I did a cold sparge of 5 litres on the last brew, I think I may try a 75 degrees or so sparge on the next brew and see if that raises the efficiency any higher. The wort didn't rise and enter the overflow at any point so the drainage is sufficient through the false bottom. Got a few brews lined up for the next few weeks so time will tell.

[dbambrick996]

If you are able to step mash try a mash out at 75 for 10 minutes , then sparge at 75 to. 80 degrees, this is my normal routine. Wouldn’t worry about it too much, grain is cheap, time isn’t

[Fil]

+1 dont let a 'low' BHE dominate your brew thoughts when its simply rectified with a lil more base malt in the mash.
Also its a New setup your brewing with. it has taken me a few brews to get 'back to normal' when i have made significant alterations to the brewday procedure and equipment.

[cerbera84]

Third round of testing

Coffee Oatmeal Stout

Untitled by Ben, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben, on Flickr

Brewday went well, 4.5 hours start til finish (including heating strike water). The mash needed a good stir a few times to keep the flow going, but not a major issue. Might be due to the oats? Haven't had this problem before. Used my no-chill cube for the first time, I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to squeeze out the air - the cube is pretty hot with wort so I didn't want to be heavyhanded with it. Might even ferment in it, but it might be a struggle to clean afterwards. Its currently outside chilling. I'm in the process of making a CFC so no-chill looks to be a temporary thing.

Recipe is a bit of a mash up of Mikkeller (without the crazy IBUs) and a few other recipes online. Planning to add the coffee after 4/5 days fermenting. End volume checked - 23 litres @ 1.060, which is 65% efficiency.

Cheers,

Ben

[floydmeddler]

Fantastic build. I'm planning on something similar.

I love your recirculation set up. What fittings did you use to spray the wort out like that?

[cerbera84]

Fantastic build. I'm planning on something similar.

I love your recirculation set up. What fittings did you use to spray the wort out like that?

cheers - i used https://www.bes.co.uk/1-2in-flanged-plug-with-undercut and drilled six holes in the undercut section - costs just over £1

[orlando]

yes, I do buy malt pre-crushed at the moment, so that will be a factor. I did a cold sparge of 5 litres on the last brew, I think I may try a 75 degrees or so sparge on the next brew and see if that raises the efficiency any higher. The wort didn't rise and enter the overflow at any point so the drainage is sufficient through the false bottom. Got a few brews lined up for the next few weeks so time will tell.

The Malt Miller crushes grain to order so it might be worth asking for a finer crush to see if this helps. The problem that might arise is a greater possibility of a stuck mash. In my view efficiency is not really worth chasing, getting the process to produce predictable results is more important.

[floydmeddler]

Fantastic build. I'm planning on something similar.

I love your recirculation set up. What fittings did you use to spray the wort out like that?

cheers - i used https://www.bes.co.uk/1-2in-flanged-plug-with-undercut and drilled six holes in the undercut section - costs just over £1

Genius!! Thanks

[cerbera84]

Coffee Oatmeal Stout hit 1.010, 50g of ground coffee cold steeped in 500ml boiled then cooled water, for 6 hours in fridge. Added to fermenter, kegged 48hours later. Tastes great already!

[cerbera84]

Hi guys,

First brew of 2018 on the MaltMother on Friday night:

6kg pale malt
0.25kg torrefied wheat
Cascade 60g 60mins
Cascade 30g 15mins and copper finings
Cascade 30g + Centennial 30g 5mins
Cascade 80g + Centennial 20g 0mins (30min steep)

I've upgraded the system a little bit, I've put a tank connector in as a bottom drain and added some 15mm copper connected to a Grainfather pump filter. I've also replaced the external pipework on the system and added a new recirculation arm. I hit 70% efficiency on this brew. Ended up with 23 litres at 1.060 so added 4.5 litres of water to bring it down to around 1.050.

Untitled by Ben, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben, on Flickr

I'm planning another system build with my 50L Thermopot and my 120L stainless steel hot water cylinder - considering making a BrewEasy type system and might increase my brews to 50/60L batch sizes.

Cheers,

Ben

[Haydnexport]

looks a smart setup, how did that filter cope with all them hops?

[cerbera84]

looks a smart setup, how did that filter cope with all them hops?

Terribly! I mean, I did throw 250g of pellet hops at it, and most filters would struggle with that. I tried to give it a scrape and that helped a tad. I think it might be time to switch to leaf hops...