House-o all grain brewing

[Otto Von Blotto]

I have a mesh thing that screws onto the ball valve pipe now, so when I use flowers they just get chucked in. The mesh stops them clogging up the valve when the wort is drained.

[The Captain!!]

Yeah that’s a good idea. Is that the bazooka type ones?

[Otto Von Blotto]

I dunno, dad made it out of a nut and some mesh wrapped around it and welded together. It's only about 70-80mm long and as wide as the nut which fits the ½ inch pipe. 

[The Captain!!]

Yeah right. Nice one. Kinda what I was thinking I reckon. 

[karlos_1984]

Thanks for posting those podcasts, interesting listen. 

After hearing the info about the importance of a rigorous boil, I'm having second thoughts about having a crack at a stovetop biab. With it uncovered I do get a boil but it's pretty weak to say the least. 

The test I did with water only the other day gave me a boil off rate of 3 ltrs per hour.

[Shamus O'Sean]

1 hour ago, karlos_1984 said:

The test I did with water only the other day gave me a boil off rate of 3 ltrs per hour.

That is the same as what my Grainfather claims.  I have not measured it yet.

I can get 15L in my Big W 20L pot boiling pretty well on our gas stove.  I also have a portable induction hot plate that does a similar job.  Both still take a long time to get to the boil from cold.

One of the things mentioned in those podcasts was boiling for longer if you cannot quite get the oomph you are after.

[Otto Von Blotto]

I get 3 litres an hour in my urn too. I'd probably call it a nice rolling boil. It's not jumping out of the urn or anything but it's more than a simmer. It does tend to drop off a bit towards the end though, likely due to the shit accumulated on the element cover. 

Getting it to a boil from cold is pretty irrelevant though. When you're brewing you're starting from a much hotter temperature, somewhere in the 70s if the mash out or sparge is done properly. Not that this makes much difference to whether it can maintain a good rolling boil. 

 

[karlos_1984]

Well the 15ltrs of water I test boiled the other day took about 35 mins to reach a boil. It was hot tap water put into the the pot in 3 ltr increments. (Using a measuring jug).

My thought process was to bring water up to strike temp, stir grains into the bag and then mash in the oven, sparge with similar temp water from another pot, then boil on the stove.

I wonder if I sat the pot off centre over the large centre element and also over one of the smaller ones, whether this would work and get more heat under it to make it boil more vigorously.

I suppose if U blokes have similar boil off rates there'd be no harm in doing a 90 min boil.

[Otto Von Blotto]

Splitting it between two elements won't work as well. It's far more efficient having all the heat going up through the centre of the pot than half of it going up the sides essentially unused. 

Sparge water should be somewhat hotter than the mash, somewhere around 80 degrees. 

Nothing wrong with a 90 minute boil either. My boil times are either 75 or 90 although I sometimes change them mid boil depending on where the volume is going. The brew I did on Sunday was a pilsner and due to a higher pre boil volume I extended the boil by half an hour and it ended up being 2 hours long. This allowed me to achieve target volume and OG post boil. 

[porschemad911]

11 hours ago, karlos_1984 said:

After hearing the info about the importance of a rigorous boil, I'm having second thoughts about having a crack at a stovetop biab. With it uncovered I do get a boil but it's pretty weak to say the least. 

I wouldn't worry about that at all. As long as it's bubbling and moving around its fine. 

Interestingly quite a few people over at the AHA forum have noticed better beer from deliberately reducing their boil vigour a bit. I think Brulosophy did an experiment once that didn't produce any significant difference in the beers, so a hard boil is definitely not a set in stone requirement.

If you're getting 3l/h boil-off room a 21l pot that's plenty anyway. Just centre it over the biggest burner and make the best of it.

Cheers, 

John 

[Otto Von Blotto]

I think some commercial breweries do lower intensity boils, perhaps style dependent. I remember reading pilsner Urquell does more of a simmer, but for like 2 or 3 hours. There may be others too. 

I've also read somewhere that the boil being too vigorous isn't ideal either. 

[karlos_1984]

I guess my main concern is that when I did a test boil with just water, without the lid on it just sort of bubbled away, but with the lid partly covering the top with evaporate getting out through 2 gaps, I got a good rolling boil.

I guess I'll just give it a crack. What's the worst that can happen?

Given it'll probably only end up around 10-11 ltrs to be bottled and only a couple kilos of grain it shouldn't be an expensive experiment. Could turn out good as well, see how it goes. If it's no good at least it's not too much to get through. Haven't tipped any of my batches yet.

[Naughty Corner Brewing]

I did a couple of batches on the stove top and the bbq wok burner that could only just got to the boil and only boiled properly with the lid ajar. They turned out ok.

Then I put in the 2200w element in it and it boils its @ss off.

[karlos_1984]

I bet the element is a pita to clean?

Do u use the element on its own or in conjunction with the stove as well?

[Naughty Corner Brewing]

Actually it’s pretty easy. Throw in a couple of tablespoons of perc and half fill with water, let it sit for 15 minutes, then drain and wipe off. After a couple of brews it had a bit of a build up on it, so I soaked it with vinegar for 10 minutes and all good.

Nope. Don’t use it on the stove at all. The locals detest the smell of all the malty, hoppy goodness. Don’t know what’s wrong with them.

[The Captain!!]

I’d say citric acid would also help with this build up of beer stone. Works better than anything else I’ve used in the past

[Otto Von Blotto]

Yeah my urn gets the citric treatment every batch, I don't even bother with perc in it, not necessary. 

[The Captain!!]

Yeah same. Got a couple of kilos of it a year ago. I chuck about two table spoons in the kettle after use. Makes everything sparkly

[karlos_1984]

I don't suppose there's any issues with using a stainless steel ruler as a dipstick to measure the volumes of the pot so long as it's sanitised? By big W pot obviously doesn't have markings up the side

[Hermoor]

On 22 July 2019 at 2:56 PM, Otto Von Blotto said:

It's not really ideal splashing hot wort but you'll probably get away with it. I'd probably be putting a ball valve on the shopping list though, it is much easier.

has anyone added a ball valve to their big w pot? Any problems?

[Shamus O'Sean]

57 minutes ago, Hermoor said:

has anyone added a ball valve to their big w pot? Any problems?

Yep. Nope.

[Hermoor]

 

Thanks @Shamus O'Sean now I need to sort my pot

[Shamus O'Sean]

2 hours ago, Hermoor said:

 

Thanks @Shamus O'Sean now I need to sort my pot

I will be using my Big W pot to heat my sparge water.  My next addition is a thermowell so I can stick a probe in to monitor the sparge water temperature.

[Otto Von Blotto]

11 hours ago, karlos_1984 said:

I don't suppose there's any issues with using a stainless steel ruler as a dipstick to measure the volumes of the pot so long as it's sanitised? By big W pot obviously doesn't have markings up the side

Clean yes but sanitising I don't see as necessary since the wort will be boiled anyway. I don't sanitise anything used before the wort is boiled, just make sure it's clean. 

11 hours ago, Hermoor said:

has anyone added a ball valve to their big w pot? Any problems?

I don't have one of those pots but I did put a ball valve on my urn. Obviously the hole was already there from the original tap being in place, but if you drill the right sized hole and leak proof it, it'll be fine. I used the original silicone washer on the inside and plumbing tape on all threads. No leaks.

[Hairy]

21 hours ago, karlos_1984 said:

I don't suppose there's any issues with using a stainless steel ruler as a dipstick to measure the volumes of the pot so long as it's sanitised? By big W pot obviously doesn't have markings up the side

When I did 3 vessel brewing, I used a 1m steel ruler to measure volume in my 50 litre pot. I made a chart of the measurements and laminated it. It worked well.