Hello HBT,
This year I have, at long-last, brewed a monster beer with enough time for it to mellow before the nights become cold enough to warrant breaching the brooding behemoth (I normally only remember to make this style in mid-November, so have to opt for something a lot lighter). Despite finally ending up with 21-22 L of strong, dark beer that’s now ready for racking and spicing, the brew day went from fun and exciting to a real chore with lots of mess, so I would love a few tips on how to make life a bit easier!
My set up is :
* Electric mashing/lautering/hlt bin “Electrim EB1D” (Peco Electric Digital Boiler - EB1D) - for warming the water and BIAB. I also use it for boiling.
* Cylindrical cooler with stainless tap and tap-filter (Homebrew Mash Tun 42 ltr) for mashing (+/- grain bag) or batch-sparging.
Having had mixed results with mashing in the cooler previously, I used a grain bag in the electric mash tun in an attempt to prevent the grains touching the element. Unfortunately, the grain bag was too slender to fit all the way around the mouth of the mash bin, so it sank during the mash and blocked the tea-urn tap on the electric mash tun … the bag had also ripped a little, though it seems very little grain leaked. Outcome: getting first runnings was a time consuming challenge, even when hanging bag from a step ladder over a bucket.
Two questions come to mind at this juncture …
Is there an ideal grain bag for this mash tun, which will also cope with big mashes? Does anyone use a grain basket?Has anyone tweaked this mash bin to get better results with/without a grain bag. Maybe a false bottom above the element ( on stilts?), replacing the tea-urn tap for a stainless ball-valve tap (this involves drilling the tap-hole a bit) - or maybe something else?For the sparge, I gave up with the bag and emptied everything into the cooler and did a single batch sparge. Whilst I seem to have extracted most of the sugars, running off was a non-starter. The tube like filter clogged immediately. Therefore, separating the grains from the liquid required a ladle and several sieves.
What do others do when the wort really doesn’t flow?What’s the best way of preventing the filter from getting clogged? Is it a question of technique, equipment or both?Finally, at the end of the boil, the hops and post-boil solids clogged that tea-urn tap again, so I needed to pour it into the FV by tipping it on its side.
• How do others who have this bin limit flotsam and jetsam gunging up the tap?
My overarching question is: what do I need to do, so that I can just open the tap and out pours the wort? Obviously, at towards the end of each running, this can become tricky, but for the initial-part I mean.
Thank you in advance for your tips.
I think a false bottom above the element would be helpful. When I start running off to the kettle I always start slow then speed it up slightly later. Not sure I answered all of your questions, sorry.
i'd stick with the mash tun for mashing, and get a longer bazooka tube for it....
as far as your 'boil' kettle, i'm not sure about an hour boil in a HDPE bucket?
Post time 2022-9-8 12:57:15