New DIY all-grain setup observations...

Evening!

Finished constructing my first all-grain set up today having previously been confined to kits with the odd hop addition. Couple of things I've noticed during testing that I was not too sure about and would appreciate your comments.

I have installed 2x 1.5kW kettle elements into a suitable bucket from the Home Brew Shop in Aldershot and I noticed that when both were switched on the water achieved a good rolling boil at about 97 degrees (as read by my cheap digital thermometer). When I switched one off the boil continued but with far less vigour at about 95 degrees. Would this be good enough not to cause any problems with timings etc during the boil? I'm not sure how temperature critical it needs to be and I'd prefer not to use both elements for a prolonged period of time.

Also the boiler can hold 30L of liquid but it's very close to the top of the bucket. I've ruined my hob with boilovers in the past so should I reduce my batch sizes to allow more space in the boiler to prevent the wort running all over my garage floor? There's about two inches of headspace with 30L ish in the boiler. I've noticed that some of the videos online have the hot break happening very close to the top of the boiler so I'm guessing it'll be ok.

I think that's it! Just need to find a recipe now. Some great suggestions on here so fingers crossed for the first brew.

Cheers all.

Any pictures?

It sounds like you have a similar boiler to me except I have 2 £5 kettle elements. I recommend you fill it to no more than 25L until you see how vigorous the boil is then top up and if you can't fit it all in wait for some to boil off (I can usually add the full volume but half way through the boil), I am sure mine would boil over every time if filled to 30L.

Thanks for the tips. I'm away at the moment so I'll see if I can post my pics when I get back at the weekend. I've got a couple of 6 litre whey protein plastic tubs that look like they'll make good test fermenters so I'll go with those first to see if the system works and then upgrade to 30L brews bit by bit after that.

Yes I'd leave 4 inches at the top I think, you can top up as the level drops. 95C sounds too low to me, you want a vigorous boil. Maybe switch one element off half way through, experiment and see what works best. I did a 45 min boil last time as an experiment and the beer is clear and good.

If you have a rolling boil, the temperature is certainly above 95C. Your thermometer is either inaccurate or you have it immersed to the wrong depth. I thought my first spirit thermometer was reading high until I realised I was using it wrongly by sinking it too deep into the fluid I was measuring. Try an experiment sinking your digital thermometer into boiling water at different depths and see if it shows the correct temperature of the boiling water at a certain depth, then stick to that when measuring. With tiny differences caused by air pressure, water boils at 100C, whatever the dial says.

On the boil over thing - there is good advice above about leaving enough head room. Boiling wort behaves differently to water, it contains coagulating proteins and these lead to a pretty wild frothing which can rise up and make a mess of everything. In my setup, I get a rising froth just after the beginning of the rolling boil and then it settles down a bit. The worst time for me is just after I put in the wirflock tablet. Then the froth is very strong in rising up and I usually have to cut the power for a moment to let it go down. Watch out for this with your off switch handy if you are working near the limits of your boiler capacity. I generally make sure I have three inches of headroom at these times.

Don't put a whole Whirfloc tablet in. I'm sure they are good for much larger quantities and you can break a bit off. Half a tablet will do 5 gallons.

clibit said:

Don't put a whole Whitlock tablet in. I'm sure they are good for much larger quantities and you can break a bit off. Half a tablet will do 5 gallons.

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GREAT! I can save even more money.

Can I change my screen name to Tony The Miser? :)

I'll be doing that later this week when I make my Geterbrewed Proper English IPA ingredients kit. Thought I'd better buy one since I won a free one back in June. I also bought their Hoppy American Pale Ale kit. Some of my recent experiments in beer design have been slightly less than stellar.

EDIT:
To be fair, I think most of my disappointments have been down to hop over utilisation caused by my no cool method and not properly compensating for the extra time at high temperature. I now have a cooler.... Happy days? Hope so.

I can't you saving much cash, but you should get less foaming of the wort. :thumb:

Thanks for the advice. Going to do my first AG next week. Now to find a recipe.....

HowbeckAles said:

Thanks for the advice. Going to do my first AG next week. Now to find a recipe.....

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For your first AG I would really consider getting one of the mash kits that are available mate. Slightly more expensive than buying the grain separately, but you get everything you need and nothing more (so you don't have to get 100g bags of hops etc at the moment), so for your first one actually might be cheaper. Plus, no weighing and all that. It lets you focus on the brew much more.

As for cheap fvs when you go bigger, I have half a dozen mango chutney barrels (40 litres) that I've got for free from the local Indian takeaway. They take some cleaning, but are ideal. One of them is now my HLT....

ManseMasher said:

For your first AG I would really consider getting one of the mash kits that are available mate. Slightly more expensive than buying the grain separately, but you get everything you need and nothing more (so you don't have to get 100g bags of hops etc at the moment), so for your first one actually might be cheaper. Plus, no weighing and all that. It lets you focus on the brew much more.

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Just been looking at those as it happens. There's not too many reviews out there so I think I'm going to go for the Citra IPA from The Homebrew Company. They have 10% off at the moment so only works out at 50p a bottle!

https://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/hbc-english-pale-ale-mashkit-23-litres-p-1657.html

HowbeckAles said:

Just been looking at those as it happens. There's not too many reviews out there so I think I'm going to go for the Citra IPA from The Homebrew Company. They have 10% off at the moment so only works out at 50p a bottle!

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Look in the A - Z kit reviews on here. I've just done the HBC English Pale Ale and it's turned out well. Don't forget your 5% members discount too!

ManseMasher said:

For your first AG I would really consider getting one of the mash kits that are available mate. Slightly more expensive than buying the grain separately, but you get everything you need and nothing more (so you don't have to get 100g bags of hops etc at the moment), so for your first one actually might be cheaper. Plus, no weighing and all that. It lets you focus on the brew much more.

As for cheap fvs when you go bigger, I have half a dozen mango chutney barrels (40 litres) that I've got for free from the local Indian takeaway. They take some cleaning, but are ideal. One of them is now my HLT....

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Try the Worcester hop shop, AG kits all around £12 and a good choice.

And they do Timmy Taylor Landlord! Winner in my book. Cheers.

HowbeckAles said:

And they do Timmy Taylor Landlord! Winner in my book. Cheers.

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Yep, it's in my box and ready to go...:drink:

HowbeckAles said:

Thanks for the advice. Going to do my first AG next week. Now to find a recipe.....

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What sort of recipes are you after?

clibit said:

What sort of recipes are you after?

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Something simple to begin with so I can learn about my equipment and polish my techniques before I go with the more in-depth recipes. Picked the Landlord mash kit which seems to have a couple of hop additions and comes with the ingredients measured out. Some great ideas in the A-Z on here for where to go next and where I can turn the heat up a bit in complexity!

You cant get simpler than a SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop). Just pick a hop variety you like th look of and away you go

An Oakham Ales Citra IPA clone would be good!!