Mittelfrueh Delight

[Vossy1]

Today I'm brewing, 1st time since July :party: The brew gear has been re-jigged to single tier.
I'm making a pale ale which I will hopefully enter into the NCBA January meeting competition.
The rules are starting gratvity at 1.045 - 1.055 and that's it.

Brew length 65ltrs, Grain 16.25kg Maris Otter (75% eff), mash 66 degc, OG1.055, IBU 40
In the copper 348g Mittelfrueh Hops 2.91%AA (FWH)
1 protafloc tablet at 10 mins
Steep 80 deg c, 30 mins, 217g Mittelfrueh
Pictures as required :grin:

The grain, the salts, running liquor from hlt to mash tun

The mash, cloudy runnings just started recirc, made a hinged lid for mash tun as too cold to leave open outside...brrrr...chilly, overshot mash temp by 0.4 deg...I'm happy with that

More to follow.

 

[prolix]

good luck on her maiden voyage Vossy have a great day

 

[Muddydisco]

Looking good V :thumb: I too have just done a Pale Ale, Must be longing for warmer days!

 

[Franklin]

Shiny Shiny... Shiny boots of leather!!! (Pots of stainless!)

Looks good so far :)

 

[A T]

That looks class Vossy

 

[Vossy1]

More pictures

Hops in kettle, clear runnings to kettle, full kettle.

I'm using an in-line filter between copper and plate heat exchanger for the first time, this is how it looked after the transfer (left pic below). I also decided to run the wort to my mash tun for a cold break rest. The tun has a bottom drain (middle pic) so before I started the transfer, I put 5ltr of water in the tun and cut a piece of copper pipe so it's open end rested a the water line (middle pic). The results of the break were really good (right pic). It looks like I can reduce the height of the pipe by about a ltr for future brews.

I then pumped the wort to the fv using a new aerator gun sort of thing It consists of a equal 1/2" T, a morebeer in line ss airstone is screwed into the T (with a non return valve fitted on the air line side), wort comes in via the white cpc connectors and goes into the fv via the barb. The only trouble is it's too good, I had 30ltr of wort and 30+ ltrs of foam :lol:
I turned the air pump off and still the foam kept coming. I think the speed with which the wort is being pumped to the fv creates enough turbulence to aerate as the wort exits the barb. I'll have a play with this on the next brew day by reducing the flow rate of the wort or maybe altering the design so the ss airstone doesn't sit so close inside the T to the barb opening, thanks for the idea SF

I ran really late with this brew day (1030 :shock: ), never had a 12 hour one before!
Lots of things kept cropping up which I'd forgotten to do or didn't realise I needed.
I almost packed it in when I ran 8ltrs of wort into the fv......which still had sanitiser in it :lol: :P :cry: :evil: . It was also pretty cold in the garage, 2 deg c when I finished, and I left everything to be cleaned up today.
I hope the brew behaved itself overnight, I'm looking forward to seeing how it's doing

 

[llannige]

Impressive stuff V. :thumb:

 

[Franklin]

12 hours at 2C...
Brrrr!!!!! Huddle round the copper for warmth :)

 

[highwayman]

:clap: :clap: :clap: Thanks for sharing the Positive and Negatives from your experience V. As you know I am thinking about fitting a Filter to my system to keep out the Hop Particles entering and damaging my Heat Exchanger. Was the 5" one adequate?
That's a good idea fitting the 15mm small peice of copper pipe into the Mashtun to collect the cold break after your runnings from the Kettle. I am going to try that on my next brew :thumb:

 

[Vossy1]

As you know I am thinking about fitting a Filter to my system to keep out the Hop Particles entering and damaging my Heat Exchanger. Was the 5" one adequate?

It was, though I had an issues with hot break almost blocking the filter, I should be able to get round this with a mod to the coppers take off. When I opened the valve on the boiler to start transfer and chilling to the mash tun I got a huge amount of hot break sucked into the filter. I could hear the pump struggling so I backed of the flow rate and all was fine. The vertical hop screen worked very well at preventing hops getting into the filter in the first place, but there was some hop material in the filter, so the filter did its job. I intend to fit an upward facing take off at the back of the copper ball valve. At the moment I have a elbow on the back of the copper which scrounges from very near the base and hence will suck up cold/hot break like it's going our of fashion :lol:

I intend to turn the coppers ball valve elbow sideways and fit another elbow onto it, which will point upwards (see pic above). I imagine this should mean only the plug of break which settles in the elbows spout getting transferred. This small amount could naturally just be run to waste. This theory could also be applied to the cold break, hence I could chill in the copper. I will 'cut' the elbow down so the opening sits horizontally.

From personal experience it's far faster to chill and transfer then it is to try and chill the entire batch by recircing to the copper. I will try both methods and see which takes my fancy. The benefit of cooling in the copper would be the assistance of the hop bed in trapping the break materials and it would also mean less loss of volume.

 

[highwayman]

That's answered my question. :thumb: Re the recir from the kettle to another vessel.. Let us know which system works best for you :) I have tried both and preferred the one you used this time

 

[rickthebrew]

One day i hope i have something like this

 

[ilikerossi]

One day i hope i have something like this

Couldn't agree more!

 

[unclepumble]

What a lovely organised looking set up, looks like a lot of thought and effort went into it.

I know what its like to have a long long brewday, the virgin run on mine started at 9am and finished at 3am the next morning, thankfully brew 2 was better at 8am to 5.30pm, so still have a lot to do to get it down to 6hours including cleaning.

Shane

 

[Vossy1]

I know what its like to have a long long brewday, the virgin run on mine started at 9am and finished at 3am the next morning

:shock:
I still haven't cleaned up after the brew, so cheesed off was I :lol:

 

[highwayman]

At least you have tried it out now V. I am looking forward to reading about your next brew day :thumb:

 

[bones]

One day i hope i have something like this

I 2nd 3rd and 4th that that one....

Vos you will have to be patient with me in the coming months....

Mrs Bones has OK'd a shinny set up for Crimbo... :rofl:

Would like a material bill at some point..

 

[Vossy1]

Thanks for the kind words guys

Finally got round to cleaning the gear yesterday and took a few pics of the filter for those interested.
As it came out of the filter housing, inside the filter, the filter without it's mesh covering

High denier tights were the mesh this time, in trials I have also used muslin bags and at some point I'd like to use 0.3mm aperture ss mesh. I have 2 lengths of perforated core tube, 1 each for 5" and 10" Pentek housings.

 

[highwayman]

A clever idea making your own inner filter V... :clap: Tights ...I won't ask...OK :whistle:

 

[Vossy1]

Tights ...I won't ask...OK

:lol: ...I better not let the mrs see this :shock: :rofl: