Having had over a year off brewing up until March this year, this will be number 4. I have been BIABing since I started, using a 50l stock pot on the gas hob in the kitchen. For the last brew (2021 #3), I tried out using a separate mash tun and cocked up sparging. Luckily, the only issue was an undershoot on batch volume but I've ended up with a very drinkable citra session blond. Some great advice on here on sparging that hopefully will sort out volume issues. The big difference is this time is more new kit. In an effort to get me out of the kitchen, my wife has bought me some new stuff for my birthday so I can brew in the garage. Electric HLT and boiler along with the big igloo cooler mash tun I got for the last one. The HLT and boiler are both grainfather sparge water heaters, the boiler is the Malt Miller Modified version with a different tap and bazooka, they suggest its good for BIAB so if I go back to that, should be okay. I've made them a jacket with a foam roll mat core and foil bubblewrap shell to try and keep the heat in, its supposed to be nice tomorrow but my garage is still quite a bit cooler than my kitchen.
I've recently converted a fridge to fermentation chamber to free up the shower cubicle in the guest bathroom which was my most stable place temperature wise.
Everything is all set up, leak tested etc. so ready to go tomorrow. I'll post the recipe separately but given that the sensible thing brewing on a new set up would be to choose a go-to recipe I could do in my sleep, I've gone the other way and chose a fairly complex RIS. I did consider doing a reiterated mash but there's too much going on for me as it is without adding another new process in. I've also not bothered to much with water treatment before but I've run numbers on here and elsewhere and got some additions which will help my very soft water. I've even bought a pH meter to at least get some data for the future brews. Looking forward to getting going.
I've recently converted a fridge to fermentation chamber to free up the shower cubicle in the guest bathroom which was my most stable place temperature wise.
Everything is all set up, leak tested etc. so ready to go tomorrow. I'll post the recipe separately but given that the sensible thing brewing on a new set up would be to choose a go-to recipe I could do in my sleep, I've gone the other way and chose a fairly complex RIS. I did consider doing a reiterated mash but there's too much going on for me as it is without adding another new process in. I've also not bothered to much with water treatment before but I've run numbers on here and elsewhere and got some additions which will help my very soft water. I've even bought a pH meter to at least get some data for the future brews. Looking forward to getting going.
