New beginnings with near gear....

[AdeDunn]

Another part of my new brewing setup has arrived, and been uhm erected....



It's practicality will be tested at the same time as I leak test/boil test the Klarstein.... My wife, Kirsty, basically said that if it's no good for brewing under at least we have a nice shelter to sit under in the garden (pigeons keep pooping on her, they sit up in our trees and well, nature calls....). No way could I use it with more than the 1 (vented) wall zipped up, it's like a frickin greenhouse in there if you zip the walls up! Witch worries me a bit to be honest.... Hoping it was purely the effect of 3 windowed walls....

 

[AdeDunn]

Figured something to brew on would be useful too....

 

[kelper]

Was it meant to be so big? Looks like a car port!

 

[AdeDunn]

No, my wife chose it and didn't notice that it was 3.5m x 3.5m x2.45m. lol Putting it up was fun.... lol

 

[AdeDunn]

So, pulled my finger out finally and leak tested the Klarstein. Reversed the half shelf at the top of the brewer's rack and lowered the top shelf/worktop a fair bit to make lifting the grain basket easier too. Also took 20 litres of water up to boiling for 15 minutes to give it a good clean (running the pump the whole time) and calibrated it to 100 degrees (sat at 98 degrees for ages with the water boiling it's brains out... So yeah, needed calibrating), and it continued to maintain a boil even once calbrated properly. Will have to see how it behaves with wort though to see if I need to do the drop it to 98 degrees C once the timer has started for boil trick.





Whipped the worktop off, and left the Klarstein to drip dry once I'd finished and drained it. Versatile.



Oh and it wasn't for that long, but the steam escaped fine, no condensation on the gazebo at all, with a gentle breeze. Discussed it with my wife though and for autumn and winter use we'll be getting a smaller, pop up, gazebo. This one is too hard to put up and take down for seasons where you need to take it down every time, so it's strictly for fair weather season use.

 

[AdeDunn]

Couple more purchases for my brew zone...


A hop spider from Get Er Brewed, because got fed up of messing around with bags last time around, but prefer to contain my boil hops. Pretty much essential using a plate chiller...



Well, sometimes it goes dark whilst I'm brewing.... I still remember this:-

 

[cushyno]

Crikey! Are you gearing up for an all-nighter brewing extravaganza?

Preparation is key, and you certainly look to be well prepared.

 

[AdeDunn]

Brewing that runs late, evening barbecue.... Handy lights for either, or even working down the garden in the winter evenings.

 

[cushyno]

Brewing that runs late, evening barbecue.... Handy lights for either, or even working down the garden in the winter evenings.

You have no excuse now!

 

[AdeDunn]

You have no excuse now!

Trust me, I'm an expert at having an excuse.....

 

[Rodcx500z]

Welcome back and a cracking write up have fun

 

[AdeDunn]

Welcome back and a cracking write up have fun

Thanks bud, figured I'd just journal getting back up and running so to speak. Got a brew planned for my first brew day too, but waiting for some new Campden tablets to arrive first, my old ones are so past the date on them now I think I may have even bought them from Boots... It's an actual possibility, as I have a Boots wine filter in my draws (I have a set of those plastic drawer things that I keep brewing stuff in) too that had a sealed pack of the filter discs in there with it still too from many many years ago when I first dabbled with brewing country wines and mead.

 

[Falco]

Some great stuff here @AdeDunn particularly your view about getting a system instead of buying separate mash tun and boiler etc.

I’ve recently returned to brewing after near 40 years and have had to re-equip from zero. Just doing 20 litre all extract brews at the minute using John Palmers partial boil method.

With the future in mind decided to get a 50 litre SS pot to boil the wort using a propane burner outside and then cooling in the bath with lots of ice packs in the water. Can get down to pitching temperature in 30 minutes. I thought as I graduated to all grain I’d get a cooler with a false bottom and modify it as mash tun and continue to use the large pot to do the boil.

However as you say you’ve been there with these separate parts and I think there is some merit in getting a system to heat the liquor then do the boil and mash which has given me food for thought

Is the vessel on the left of your system to heat the sparge water? Is it electric or gas?

Also nice brew stand, where did you get it from?

 

[AdeDunn]

Hi @Falco , I haven't done 3 vessel, never had room for the whole mash tun, HLT etc type setup as I've always had to just brew in the kitchen (no garage, shed or anything like that, and only just set up for outside brewing). My past efforts were with building my own single vessel setup, I did however do sparges, but they were a pain as I'd have to heat the water in my main vessel, then transfer it to an FV bucket and keep it wrapped in blankets until I needed it.... Once I had properly gotten used to my gear though, and refined my methods, I found that I could get 75%+ efficiency without sparging just by doughing in with care, stirring at 30 minute intervals during the mash, and performing a mash out step. As I had dropped my batch volumes down to 14 litres, I didn't even need a sparge to get more volume into the boil. I've nothing against multi vessel, it suits some people and there are some gorgeous multi vessel rigs out there (what a faff though doing a stepped mash on 1.....), I like the convenience of single vessel though (especially for stuff like stepped mashing... lmao), and electric as I can't easily get gas refills anyway.

The vessel on the left is the grain basket, I hung it there to drip dry. The baker's rack I use as a stand has a bar on it for this purpose and comes with steel hooks that just hook over it. Perfect for hooking things on to, like my mash paddle etc. The system I have though, you can hook it up to a 2nd boiler (or something like 1 of the cheaper Klarsteins) to use them as sparge heaters, thanks to the external pump and quick disconnect, you just put a male QD fitting on the tap of whatever you are using as a sparge boiler, and you're set.

The baker's rack was purchased from Amazon. It comes with a 3rd shelf, but I left this off so that I could fit the top shelf lower, making lifting the grain basket much easier. It's the Amazon Basics one, not bad for 5p under £60 eh? I looked at other options, but most stuff the table/worktop/shelf is too high for comfort even for me when lifting the grain basket, and I'm over 6 feet tall.... lol The feet are fully adjustable on it too, so I used a spirit level and adjusted them to give me a worktop completely level horizontally, as the slabs it's on are anything but level....

 

[AdeDunn]

Just a quick update as I've done 2 brews with this kit now.

1) The volume graduations on the boiler aren't at all accurate, they're about 1cm too low down. Checked this using my trust 5 litre jug.
2) Having the same trouble is everybody else with these systems, grain crush too fine. Even tried vorlaufing about 20 litres, didn't help. Need to see if I can find somewhere that can do a larger grain crush, or invest in my own malt mill.
3) First brew I used whole hops as I hadn't thought to buy mosaic pellets, so used the mosaic whole hops in the freezer.... Yeah, big mistake as spiders aren't built for whole hops, and a few escaped. Still flushing hops out of the plate chiller, and have had to strip the pump down mid brew to unclog it too thanks to them.
4) I need to put a jubilee clip on the overflow pipe. I'm brewing full volume, and a few times I have ended up with the sparge plate slowly moving down further and further as the top pipe slid down the bottom pipe. Had the metal plug in the end of the overflow (I use it with this in now) but grain still got in there. I need to basically lock it in position.

On the flip side, it's much easier to use, and that plate chiller is FAST! The lights work well too, but I need to replace the PVC mat with another rubber one like the one my wife stole to put by the back door (it was purchased to go where the PVC mat went....), I end up paddling during cleanup (the joys of brewing outside, I can splash more when cleaning up and don't have to worry about how messy things get using a plate chiller.....

 

[AdeDunn]

Made a slight tweak to the sparge pipe on my Klarstein, fitted a longer silicone hose to hit.

 

[AdeDunn]

Changed the fittings on my plate chiller to all QDs, basically so that I can swap the wort side and water side whenever I like without swapping the fittings. I removed the thermometer as I'm not transferring direct to FV through it anyway, but recirculating whilst cooling to cool the entire volume before transfer.

 

[BlackRegent]

Crikey! Are you gearing up for an all-nighter brewing extravaganza?

Preparation is key, and you certainly look to be well prepared.

With three young kids, all of my brew days are in fact brew nights. Once the kids are in bed the brew begins - usually starting between 7 and 8 and finishing at 2am! All of my brews finish in the dark. I quite like the peace that comes with that time of day. It feels sort of meditative.

 

[AdeDunn]

My youngest is nearly 12 now, oldest is nearly 22, so it's not so much bother, especially now that I'm outside rather than in the kitchen (was a pain trying to brew around meal times before). Oldest is in her own flat with her own child now, but still have 3 daughters at home. Cleaning up sometimes runs late though, or it just gets cloudy, plus they're really handy when bottling (no need for a torch with one of those beasties pointing at the bottles).

 

[Henders]

Thanks for documenting your progress Ade, I've enjoyed it very much.

I'm currently brewing outside the rear of my garage, attaching a tarp and using that for shelter, but it's a bit of a hack and I'm thinking of either building a kind of porch area or going a similar direction to you.

I'm also trying to avoid replacing my dead cheap recirc pump with a spendy one... So many things to potentially purchase!

Edit: oh I forgot to ask, how do you manage brewing water? Inside tap and waddle out with 30kg or outside tap? I'm also contemplating a more sanitised outdoor supply from the existing tap used for the hose.