morepunk
Member
This weekend, after several years of LME brewing, we had our first bash at all-grain.
I have to thank the following people for their how-to guides when I had to modify or make pieces of equipment, as my DIY leaves a lot to be desired without proper and thorough instruction:
rpt for his guide on fitting a ball valve and hop stopper to a Buffalo boiler
BigYin for his describing how to make a twin-coil immersion chiller
of course guyb for his instructions on how to make a 99p sparging thingy
and BrewStew whose guided tour to AG brewing helped me stick to best practice as much as possible
The equipment I used was:
We are brewing Bateman's XXXB from Wheeler's Brew Your Own British Real Ale. Due to copyright, I can't post the recipe we used.
Bringing the liquor to strike temperature.
Weighing the grain. Really need to get some bigger scales and/or bowls!
We're a team of 3. This is Alex, our newest member. He's very happy with how things are going so far.
John doesn't like to have his picture taken, but I'm sure he's just as happy...
See? John is really enjoying the dough-in.
Sparging.
Boiling.
I didn't get a picture of us chilling the wort. Here's one of us aerating the wort.
Yeast pitched (Danstar Nottingham) and lid on. I've got some cheap brandy in the airlock!
Result - approx. 25 litres at our target OG of 1.049. Thoroughly enjoyed our day using our shiny new equipment!
I have to thank the following people for their how-to guides when I had to modify or make pieces of equipment, as my DIY leaves a lot to be desired without proper and thorough instruction:
rpt for his guide on fitting a ball valve and hop stopper to a Buffalo boiler
BigYin for his describing how to make a twin-coil immersion chiller
of course guyb for his instructions on how to make a 99p sparging thingy
and BrewStew whose guided tour to AG brewing helped me stick to best practice as much as possible
The equipment I used was:
- A 40 litre Buffalo boiler, modified to fit a ball valve and a hop stopper. I had also replaced the thermal cut-out with one of a higher temperature rating. The boiler is used as a HLT and a boiler in my setup. The boiler was excellent all-round, and gave an excellent rolling boil.[/*:m:1awoiaa8]
- A 50 litre converted keg, insulated at the top and bottom with loft insulation board and bubble foil. Then insulated on the sides with bubble foil, camping roll mat, and another layer of bubble foil. We did lose quite a few degrees between the HLT and mash tun, so we'll be looking at how we can improve this next time around.[/*:m:1awoiaa8]
- A washing up bowl, containing 28 small holes as a fly-sparger. We found that a few more holes may be required for next time, as it was a little too slow.[/*:m:1awoiaa8]
- A twin-coil copper immersion chiller for cooling down the wort after the boil. This worked perfectly, and cooled our wort to pitching temperature in around 15 minutes.[/*:m:1awoiaa8]
- All the other generic bits and pieces that are integral to brewing![/*:m:1awoiaa8]
We are brewing Bateman's XXXB from Wheeler's Brew Your Own British Real Ale. Due to copyright, I can't post the recipe we used.
Bringing the liquor to strike temperature.
Weighing the grain. Really need to get some bigger scales and/or bowls!
We're a team of 3. This is Alex, our newest member. He's very happy with how things are going so far.
John doesn't like to have his picture taken, but I'm sure he's just as happy...
See? John is really enjoying the dough-in.
Sparging.
Boiling.
I didn't get a picture of us chilling the wort. Here's one of us aerating the wort.
Yeast pitched (Danstar Nottingham) and lid on. I've got some cheap brandy in the airlock!
Result - approx. 25 litres at our target OG of 1.049. Thoroughly enjoyed our day using our shiny new equipment!
