Well that escalated quickly!

[tykesi]

I started a thread last week about getting into all grain by using Clibit’s simple AG guide. I was planning how to go about doing two one gallon brews this weekend and planning pans etc for the boil on the cooker. I originally planned to do one brew Saturday and one Sunday to make boiling easier, all sounded good an I was happy.

Browsing Gumtree yesterday and my fingers must have somehow slipped and I managed to buy a 33ltr Burco boiler. My clumsiness continued last night when I slipped again in the car and managed to drive 10 miles to pick it up! I really must be more careful!

Now I’m watching mash tuns on eBay and toying with the idea of building my own over a weekend sometime soon.

Silly me!

(Got the boiler for £25 though which seems a bargain to me!)

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
Have you considered BIAB, mashing in the boiler with full volume and no sparge?
I ordered a 30 litre boiler online, but it turned out to be only 22 litre. The company, following many emails, decided not to pay for return postage but gave me a full refund - one free 22 litre boiler :). Now I'm planning maxi BIAB, possibly with wort recirculating using a solar pump.
Oh, the joys of daydreaming!
Colin

 

[cheapbrew]

Nice bargain and yes its very addictive as you have found!

Another disciple on the way Clibit!

 

[TheRedDarren]

It's an obsessive an addictive hobby mate! I went from an idle curiosity two planning a full scale brewery within about a month! Still planning the brewery, I'm going to make the dream a reality.

 

[tykesi]

Hi!
Have you considered BIAB, mashing in the boiler with full volume and no sparge?

I think this is what I'm going to do this weekend, I got a load of stuff from my LHBS earlier in the week including mashing and hop bags.

Once I've got a couple under my belt this way I will move on a step when I've got the funds/time.

 

[Notlaw]

Haha, I cannot believe how much it grabs you. I only did my first one at the end of January and its just about all I think about in my spare time now. If I'm not dealing with work or family, then I'm thinking about brewing.! I've even found myself on a Friday night in, watching YouTube videos about brewing with a takeaway and a few beers..!

 

[Covrich]

True BIAB in a 33L burco will probably get you max around 18-19L batch size.. Just so you know :thumb:

 

[Leon103]

It's an obsessive an addictive hobby mate! I went from an idle curiosity two planning a full scale brewery within about a month! Still planning the brewery, I'm going to make the dream a reality.

I do this everyday. Just need a large enough premises and the Tregaron Brew COmpany will come alive

 

[TheRedDarren]

I do this everyday. Just need a large enough premises and the Tregaron Brew COmpany will come alive

Good god man, the last thing Tregaron needs is more beer!

What's it like getting craft beer in Tregaron? Have the locals converted yet?

 

[Tony1951]

I started a thread last week about getting into all grain by using Clibit’s simple AG guide. I was planning how to go about doing two one gallon brews this weekend and planning pans etc for the boil on the cooker. I originally planned to do one brew Saturday and one Sunday to make boiling easier, all sounded good an I was happy.

Browsing Gumtree yesterday and my fingers must have somehow slipped and I managed to buy a 33ltr Burco boiler. My clumsiness continued last night when I slipped again in the car and managed to drive 10 miles to pick it up! I really must be more careful!

Now I’m watching mash tuns on eBay and toying with the idea of building my own over a weekend sometime soon.

Silly me!

(Got the boiler for ����£25 though which seems a bargain to me!)

Very silly indeed - yes - and careless too.

You might enjoy buying a mash tun by mistake, but hark a moment - you can mash in your Burko. Just heat the measured and required amount of water to the strike temperature indicated by an online strike temp calculator like this one ->

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/calc.html

and use a brewing bag..... BUT - and I HIGHLY recommend this - just do it without the brewing bag and put your grain directly into the boiler (now mash tun) and as long as you have a filter on your tap - a bazooka type or whatever, you can run your wort directly into a FV, then sparge on top of the grain again with kettle or stove top heated water, and do two sparges. I've done this the last three times and I will NEVER go back to my bag. I have gone up from getting 5.6%ABV beer to getting 7.8% ABV beer with exactly the same grain bill and water volumes.

For a 22 - 23 litre finished brew, I use 15 litres of strike water for the mash and 6kg of grain. After the hour I drain the boiler / tun and sparge with 10 litres for twenty minutes stirring it occasionally. Then I drain and sparge again and this time use about 5 or 6 litres of sparge water.

After draining the wort, I then carry the boiler half full of spent grain to my compost bin and up-end it there. Then I use a hose to swill out the last of the grain, and when cleaned of spent grain, I put the wort back in and go into the boil phase.

Try it folks - as long as you can carry your boiler and wet grain to the bin or to a compost heap its fine. It ain'ta big lift even with a big beer like these ones are that I've been making.

EDIT:

Just an after thought. My ACE boiler can't accommodate all of my wort. I start the boil with about 24 litres in the ACE and the remains - maybe five litres in a stock pot on the stove to also boil. As my wort evaporates, I add the stove top boil back to the Ace boiler. My last brew still in the FV after one week is as of today 7.5% alcohol and 24.5 litres from a 6kg grain bill. (OG 1067. Today's near final gravity 1011).

 

[Leon103]

Good god man, the last thing Tregaron needs is more beer!

What's it like getting craft beer in Tregaron? Have the locals converted yet?

Not really. Plenty of Real Ale - some good some very generic. My local is the CAMRA pub of the year for the area and some decent stuff. Big market for some proper craft ales though.

 

[JapanBrew]

Good luck on your journey. Start with the bag.
Later, attach a weldless spout to your pot. Even if you later get a mash tun, it makes it a ton easier to drain your wort after boil. Once you get to 3 pots, they pretty much all need spouts.

 

[TheRedDarren]

Not really. Plenty of Real Ale - some good some very generic. My local is the CAMRA pub of the year for the area and some decent stuff. Big market for some proper craft ales though.

Which one is your local? Llew, Talbot?

Yes, sounds like a hole in the market, although it might be a small one.

 

[Leon103]

Which one is your local? Llew, Talbot?

Yes, sounds like a hole in the market, although it might be a small one.

/
Talbot. Llew currently closed. Did you see my brewery thread