Nearly ready for my first brew , a quick check?

Hi all, i've been collecting all my kit etc over the last few weeks and i think i'm nearly ready to start my first brew...

I have my 40l buffalo boiler (brand new but unmodded as yet).*
2 x 25 fermenting bins, airlocks and taps
wort chiller (i need to connect the hose yet though).
Hydrometer & thermometer
Stirring spoon and sample vial.
a pressure sprayer to sparge
sterilising tabs and fluid

I've bought an AG kit (Belgian tripel) which includes malt, hops, yeast and candi sugar to make my first brew simple.

* I want to mod the boiler first by changing the tap to a ball valve type with a compression hose style filter connected to a T junction, so the hose goes in a circle rather than just an 8" length.

My intentions are to heat my water to 72 degrees in the boiler and add the mash and steep for an hour, drain & sparge into a fermenting bin, clean the boiler, re -introduce the hot liquor and boil and add hops etc then drain again into a FV then add yeast etc.

I've probably missed stuff off which is the point of this post, any advice etc would be greatly received. I know ideally i should have a HLT and a boiler but i don't lol.

No need to clean the boiler IMO. Check and adjust mash temp If necessary. And chill the beer before pitching yeast obviously!

Do you mean add the mash to the boiler, or mash it in a tun? If you mean the boiler, I can see where you're coming from when you say clean the boiler after use. You need to heat up the sparge water though, so I can't see how this would work - really you need a (well insulated) mashtun as part of your setup. Apologies if I've got the wrong end of the stick!

I assumed the grains would be in a grain bag. Which would surely be the best thing to do.

I'm on the point of getting a boiler (pressure from the missus to relocate all operations to the shed). I've been going through in my head the best process in terms of what goes where when.

So I'm thinking :-

Heat the water for the mash, put the water into a big pan (which I'm using as a mash tun) and add grains (in a bag) and insulate.
Heat the sparge water.
Move the grain bag to another pan or FV and add the sparge water.

Pour the contents from both back into the boiler and boil.

Seem sensible ?

If you have a boiler with a tap you could run the mash into a 33litre fv and then sparge into the same fv, then transfer it back to the boiler after removing the grain.

ManseMasher said:

Do you mean add the mash to the boiler, or mash it in a tun? If you mean the boiler, I can see where you're coming from when you say clean the boiler after use. You need to heat up the sparge water though, so I can't see how this would work - really you need a (well insulated) mashtun as part of your setup. Apologies if I've got the wrong end of the stick!

Click to expand...

Hi, i have 2 fermenting bins, i could have sparge water in one of those, if that wouldn't work, i could always go and buy one of those coolboxes and have the sparge water in there. my plan was to use one of those pressure sprayers for sparging, (the ones that you pump up).

I don't intend on BIAB.

If you can, and have the time, I would go down the mashtun route. That way you can mash and sparge in it, leaving the boiler free to heat the sparge water upto strike temp whilst the mash is taking place. Also keeps the FVs free for the final product! I use a coolbox for my tun, with all the stuff you need inside for draining etc. Plenty of links knocking around on self-builds. If you need any help, shout out!

wez130 said:

Hi, i have 2 fermenting bins, i could have sparge water in one of those, if that wouldn't work, i could always go and buy one of those coolboxes and have the sparge water in there. my plan was to use one of those pressure sprayers for sparging, (the ones that you pump up).

I don't intend on BIAB.

Click to expand...

Won't you lose quite a bit of temperature fom your sparge water by using the pressure sprayer ? From the pictures I've seen the sparge water is gently poured over the grains. I've seen a watering can used. I don't think there is need for pressure.

I think if you aren't going to BIAB, and I understand why (I do 10L BIAB and 20L+ mashtun brews), then a mashtun is a good idea. It could be as simple as your two FVs, one with holes drilled in the bottom and placed inside the other, which would have a tap. And insulated. Or a coolbox with tap and filter.

I also don't get the idea of pressure spraying. Sparging is done by sprinkling water, at home brew volumes at least. I simple put a colander over the mashtun and add water to that, so that it trickles water across the grain bed - I have a circular drinks cooler type mashtun. You can lay foil over the grain bed and make holes in it, or use a watering can.

wez130 said:

Hi all, i've been collecting all my kit etc over the last few weeks and i think i'm nearly ready to start my first brew...

I have my 40l buffalo boiler (brand new but unmodded as yet).*
2 x 25 fermenting bins, airlocks and taps
wort chiller (i need to connect the hose yet though).
Hydrometer & thermometer
Stirring spoon and sample vial.
a pressure sprayer to sparge
sterilising tabs and fluid

I've bought an AG kit (Belgian tripel) which includes malt, hops, yeast and candi sugar to make my first brew simple.

* I want to mod the boiler first by changing the tap to a ball valve type with a compression hose style filter connected to a T junction, so the hose goes in a circle rather than just an 8" length.

My intentions are to heat my water to 72 degrees in the boiler and add the mash and steep for an hour, drain & sparge into a fermenting bin, clean the boiler, re -introduce the hot liquor and boil and add hops etc then drain again into a FV then add yeast etc.

I've probably missed stuff off which is the point of this post, any advice etc would be greatly received. I know ideally i should have a HLT and a boiler but i don't lol.

Click to expand...

Hi Wez welcome,

you dont mention what you intend to mash in?
a simple mashtun can be made from 2 x buckets, sit one inside the other, fit a tap to the bottom/outer bucket, and drill a shed load of holes in the bottom of the inner/top bucket. then wrap insulation, bubblewrap, £shop camping mats around the outer bottom bucket.

Batch sparging is simple and easy, check it out, could remove a lot of the complexity from your plan.

I would forget the pressure sprayer completely.. let gravity do the work for you while 20-30l of water/liquor is heavy its just about within the capacity of most folk to lift up from ground level to waist height

sterilizing tabs and liquid??? sounds like milton or similar.. if so, i would suggest you consider the no rinse starsan or videne sanitisers a lil more expensive to buy but will go a hell of a lot further and wont involve the 3 X plus rinses needed to remove traces of chlorine which could effect the final brew with a tcp off taste so will work out cheaper and easier in the long run.

for cleaning many of us use the generic unscented laundry oxi, its very effective and again a cheap product to buy £2-3 per kilo, even cheaper in the £shops but check each canister you buy for fragrance crystals if you go to the £shop, i have bought unscented £shop oxi to find its actually scented ;(


If using a tun to mash in dont forget to preheat it with a couple of off the boil kettlefulls of water in advance of the mash.
Your strike temperature of circa 72C sounds good, But when mashing in have an off the boil kettle full of water and a jug of cold water to hand so igf needed you can adjust the final mash temp in case your strike temp is off at all.

the Stainless steel braid which i think your talking about for the boiler hop filter can be sourced via ebay by the meter its sold as automotive overbraid, and when securing it to your tap plumbing ensure you use 100% stainless steel jubilee clips, many are sold as stainless steel but have mild steel grub screws fitted.. It works well BUT in my experience can clog if you drain the boiler straight after the chill so leave the bolier after the chill to sit for 30mins, this lets the loose hops settle and form a primary filter bed so your drain is easy and wont clog at all.. (If it does clog because you forget to let it sit, get a big spoon and massage the braid a bit to free it up..)

hpe thats useful,

have a grand brewday

Thanks for the replies, and to Fil, informative reading, i think i may delay my brew day by a week and source some of the stuff you mentioned now, the bucket in a bucket mash tun sounds like a good idea, i think i'll follow that one up.

I did intend on mashing in my boiler with the thermostat set to around 72 degrees, then draining into one of my fermenting bins, cleaning the boiler and then returning the wort to the boiler for the boil.

The pressure sprayer is only a 1 litre job, it sprays a gentle spray which thought would have been ideal for sparging, maybe i'm wrong :S.

Rather than make a new thread, i'll just add on to here.

Well, rather than brew anything today, i finished setting up my boiler, i have followed Fil's advice about double buckets. I could not find any camping mats anywhere though, i'll just use foil and quilts instead for now.

On to my mods, i got lost with the overbraid from the compression hose i bought, i can't strip it tidily so whilst i was out, i bought some plumbing bits and made this...



In the boiler...


Then i finally fitted the ball valve tap and bulkhead


Leak test...


And finally, testing the flow through the hop strainer...

Just out of curiosity, why aren't you planning to BIAB in your urn? Just seems like the easiest place to start to me...

Also, I like the look of your strainer but it looks plastic - you need to be careful near the urn element.

interesting hop filter, you might find you have less dead space with the holes pointed downward.

whats it made of is it a heat and foodsafe material?

also bubblewarp and £shop space blankets(Mylar sheet aka crunchie wrappers) make a good diy composite insulation

The filter is made from indoor water pipe from B&Q so i'd hope it was food safe, however, after just researching, it's suitable for up to 114 degrees C, so i guess it's back to the drawing board lol. I'll get a metre of copper pipe instead. FWIW, the holes were drilled top, bottom and on inside and outside.

i have used this stuff you might want to consider it? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stainless...655?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item51ad0200ef Not the cheapest option but is a good solution.

jubilee clip 2" lengths of copper tube to each end and simply push fit into the tPiece at the end of your tap assembly, let the liquor stand for 30mins after chilling (means you only need to chill to just under 30C ) then drain the kettle through a nylon sieve (to aerate not filter) and the wort will be 25Cish ideal for a pitch of yeast...