Brewing Equipment

[Triple B Brewing]

30 minutes ago, Back Brewing said:

I'm looking at a Coopers FV I can grab cheap it is a 25 litre FV is there a 30 litre or is 25 litre OK for a standard 23 litre brew?

I am mostly a kit n kilo brewer (with partial mashes and adjuncts n dry hoping) @Back Brewing and I have no problem brewing 23L brews in a Mangrove Jacks 30 litre pail.

Re brewing 23L in a 25L fermenter, well you might be pinched for head space if you get a decent Kassen when fermenting, but typically for me I follow the Coppers recipes to the letter and I rarely get any Kassen to speak of. - Lets face it, if the worst happens you'll end up having the Kassen escape (and make a bit of a mess) via the airlock (you'll also then have a lid that will need a bit of extra cleaning attention as well once the ferment is finished), but I'd say if its a really good price, I'd go for it cobber 

[Back Brewing]

I will keep looking for a 30 litre Coopers FV

[Uhtred Of Beddanburg]

26 minutes ago, Back Brewing said:

I will keep looking for a 30 litre Coopers FV

or get the 25 and only brew to 20 litres? less water more alcohol or less ingredients added for same alcohol

[Shamus O'Sean]

3 hours ago, Triple B Brewing said:

Kassen

I think you mean Krausen - The foam at the top of the brewing wort.

[Triple B Brewing]

3 hours ago, Back Brewing said:

I will keep looking for a 30 litre Coopers FV

I suspect what is being labeled a 25L FV is in fact a 34L, but referencing its maximum fermentation volume (25L) - just a guess

If it is a genuine Coopers FV, then they currently only come in two sizes, they are;

• 13L Fermenting Vessel & Lid (makes 8.5L of beer)
• 34L Fermenting Vessel & Lid (makes 23L of beer)

See more here

[Triple B Brewing]

Just now, Shamus O'Sean said:

I think you mean Krausen - The foam at the top of the brewing wort.

Oh dear - thanks @Shamus O'Sean - yep “Krausen” was intended

[Aussiekraut]

14 hours ago, Back Brewing said:

I'm looking at a Coopers FV I can grab cheap it is a 25 litre FV is there a 30 litre or is 25 litre OK for a standard 23 litre brew?

25l fermenters can be an issue with a 23l back. Just a little krausen and things will try to escape. 30l is better suited.

[Aussiekraut]

I set up a few profiles today and did a trial run with the BrewZilla to figure out things like boil-off. The funny thing is that it seems to have just 3l of boil-off per hour (did a simple boil test yesterday and the result was the same), which is 1l less than the Guten had. Oddly enough, the profile in BrewFather reckons something like 6.2l. A little strange but hey, who am I to complain? 

I still can't figure out how to send a profile from BrewFather to the BrewZilla but I can live with what I have set up so far. It certainly beats getting down on your knees to manually set power, time and temp for each step on the Guten. Sunday will be brew day and I will see what happens. I'm a little bit excited TBH  

When I put the BZ on the trolley next to the Guten, I realised how much bigger the BZ actually is. The malt tube alone is almost as tall as the entire Guten  Now I need to see what I do with the trusty old workhorse. She's served me well over the years. I'd hate to demote her to a sparge water heater and she may come in handy when doing double brew days. Then again, somebody might be happy to buy it for a decent price. It's a pain in the butt to ship though. I'll see. 

Now, on to the next new equipment. I treated myself to a 30l FermZilla pressure fermenter. Not that I know anything about pressure fermenting, pressures, temps and ferment times. I hope I can figure out things before Monday. If not, the good old Coopers FV will have to do and the FZ will have to wait another 3 weeks for action.

Edited October 20, 2023 by Aussiekraut

[ozdevil]

5 hours ago, Aussiekraut said:

I still can't figure out how to send a profile from BrewFather to the BrewZilla but I can live with what I have set up so far. It certainly beats getting down on your knees to manually set power, time and temp for each step on the Guten. Sunday will be brew day and I will see what happens. I'm a little bit excited TBH  

this is more set up for the pill then the bz gen4 mate.  i recieved the 1st gen4 in the world and i still cant connect it to brerwfather lol

 

5 hours ago, Aussiekraut said:

When I put the BZ on the trolley next to the Guten, I realised how much bigger the BZ actually is. The malt tube alone is almost as tall as the entire Guten  Now I need to see what I do with the trusty old workhorse. She's served me well over the years. I'd hate to demote her to a sparge water heater and she may come in handy when doing double brew days. Then again, somebody might be happy to buy it for a decent price. It's a pain in the butt to ship though. I'll see. 

the guten was a copy of the robobrew.  what i understand  , i may stand corrected. (not saying it was a terrible brewing system)

the guten never envolved (not sure if that was the right word)  like robobrew that started at keg king .    

the only difference was the facial plate for inputting over the 3.1    and the guten never advanced

bz gen4 is still the same size as the 3.1.1 bz  the real diffrence is control board is uptop and programable  to compliment brewing the conicle bottom and false bottom.

there is further upgrades to the gen4 to come. .


i have 3 brewing vessels  maybe soon i will have 4  and it maybe the 65 gen4    or  grainfather g40 i think it is. (still a while off the budget , i have to deal with  mrs oz's 50th who demand a $8000 dollar journey and said no brewing if you cant deliver. i'm stuffed.

i would keep the guten for sparge  to be honest if its still  good for it all  




 

[Triple B Brewing]

15 hours ago, ozdevil said:

this is more set up for the pill then the bz gen4 mate.  i recieved the 1st gen4 in the world and i still cant connect it to brerwfather lol

 

the guten was a copy of the robobrew.  what i understand  , i may stand corrected. (not saying it was a terrible brewing system)

the guten never envolved (not sure if that was the right word)  like robobrew that started at keg king .    

the only difference was the facial plate for inputting over the 3.1    and the guten never advanced

bz gen4 is still the same size as the 3.1.1 bz  the real diffrence is control board is uptop and programable  to compliment brewing the conicle bottom and false bottom.

there is further upgrades to the gen4 to come. .


i have 3 brewing vessels  maybe soon i will have 4  and it maybe the 65 gen4    or  grainfather g40 i think it is. (still a while off the budget , i have to deal with  mrs oz's 50th who demand a $8000 dollar journey and said no brewing if you cant deliver. i'm stuffed.

i would keep the guten for sparge  to be honest if its still  good for it all  




 

Looks like ya off on an "$8000 dollar journey" somewhere Oz - Sounds like an awesome opportunity to put down some long maturing brews before ya go and then go 'n enjoy some brews from abroad, only to enjoy the fruits of your labour when ya return 

[Classic Brewing Co]

15 hours ago, ozdevil said:

$8000 dollar journey

Mate think of all of the brewing equipment you could buy with that. 

[Shamus O'Sean]

On 10/20/2023 at 3:39 PM, Aussiekraut said:

I still can't figure out how to send a profile from BrewFather to the BrewZilla

I brew in a Grainfather G30.  BrewFather can send a recipe to the G30 and control the brew day.  However, I prefer to send my BrewFather recipes to the Grainfather app and control the brewday from the GF app.  It does one or two things better than the BrewFather version.

Can you do something similar with the BrewZilla?  Send the BF recipe to the Rapt system and then send it to your BrewZilla?

[ozdevil]

19 minutes ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Can you do something similar with the BrewZilla?  Send the BF recipe to the Rapt system and then send it to your BrewZilla?

its not far off  being released and i believe they are just finishing things off   the will have this capability

[Back Brewing]

Thanks to @Kegory for your good advice on that coopers fermenter because of that I grabbed it for $10

[Kegory]

2 minutes ago, Back Brewing said:

Thanks to @Kegory for your good advice on that coopers fermenter because of that I grabbed it for $10

Oh, you got it, it was still available. Cool. That's a good price.

Say goodbye to the "gloop, gloop" of your airlock.

[Cheap Charlie]

20 hours ago, Kegory said:

Say goodbye to the "gloop, gloop" of your airlock.

I love that sound, very reassuring and makes me happy!

[Kegory]

Just now, Cheap Charlie said:

I love that sound, very reassuring and makes me happy!

I've actually never heard it except for a recording that @Back Brewing posted a little while ago.

[Cheap Charlie]

Just now, Kegory said:

I've actually never heard it except for a recording that @Back Brewing posted a little while ago.

It's why Chinese water torture never works on a brewer!

[Classic Brewing Co]

A delivery from our good friend @do not consume (Beachy)

Thanks a million mate, very nice of you, much appreciated, I will sort the freight.

This is something I have been putting off for ages & I can see the benefits of buying bulk grain, I think also it would encourage you too brew more often resulting in more kegs of beer.

You are a legend Beachy & be sure to make contact when you come down to Adelaide as I will make sure you get some beers. 

  

Edited November 2, 2023 by Classic Brewing Co

[Classic Brewing Co]

I have just assembled the Grain Mill, I will have to order or build a base for it, it seems pretty easy to work out.

I can see where the drill connects to operate the rollers but just a question on the settings for the 3 settings, 0.025/0.050/0.100,

what is the usual setting for most beers - Pale Ales/IPA's etc. Do you guys vary it for say heavier beers - Dark Ales/Stouts /Wheat beers?

Cheers

Phil

 

 

 

[kmar92]

I am not whether they are 3 distinct settings, or rather just markings over the range that the mill will adjust to. When I set mine up I just adjusted it by trial and error until I got a grain crush that I was happy with. Some say to adjust it to the thickness of a credit card between the rollers, so I guess that you could start at that and try it and see if the grain crush is to you liking. I do not vary the thickness of mine for different grains.

[Classic Brewing Co]

1 hour ago, kmar92 said:

I am not whether they are 3 distinct settings, or rather just markings over the range that the mill will adjust to. When I set mine up I just adjusted it by trial and error until I got a grain crush that I was happy with. Some say to adjust it to the thickness of a credit card between the rollers, so I guess that you could start at that and try it and see if the grain crush is to you liking. I do not vary the thickness of mine for different grains.

OK, fair enough, thanks for the reply, I have never used one before but I was under the impression that too fine would make porridge &  too coarse would - hell I don't no 

As you say it's a matter of trial & error but I could compare it with some milled grain I have bought from the LBHS & replicate it.

Has anyone milled it too fine before & what would be the main issue?

[kmar92]

Yep if you are happy with the milled grain from the LHBS then just experiment a little with the mill and some grain and try and replicate the milled LBHS grain. If you mill it too fine you risk a stuck mash and sparge, to overcome that problem a handful of rice hulls added to the mash will help.

You are really aiming to crack the malted barley to allow the mash water to get to the inside of the grain, but to retain the husk of the grain fairly intact to act as a filter in the mash and sparge.

[Kegory]

3 hours ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

OK, fair enough, thanks for the reply, I have never used one before but I was under the impression that too fine would make porridge &  too coarse would - hell I don't no 

As you say it's a matter of trial & error but I could compare it with some milled grain I have bought from the LBHS & replicate it.

Has anyone milled it too fine before & what would be the main issue?

I recall someone posting in one of the threads earlier this year that they milled their oats too fine, it may have been for one of the ROTMs, and did just that, made porridge.

I reckon @kmar92's on the money, experiment with the settings and compare it too some grains milled by your LHBS before taking the plunge and milling a whole batch.

My homebrew club has a grain mill in the tool library (probably the first tool purchased for the library if the references to it on the quiz night are any guide). I'm keen to give it a try even with the risk of splinters it'll be better than grinding grains with a rolling pin.

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

8 hours ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

I have just assembled the Grain Mill, I will have to order or build a base for it, it seems pretty easy to work out.

I can see where the drill connects to operate the rollers but just a question on the settings for the 3 settings, 0.025/0.050/0.100,

what is the usual setting for most beers - Pale Ales/IPA's etc. Do you guys vary it for say heavier beers - Dark Ales/Stouts /Wheat beers?

Cheers

Phil

 

 

 

In my opinion your wasting your time with measurements using credit cards etc. Reason being grains are all different sizes. I have had plump gladfield grain which is almost twice the size of the joe white or barret burston grain. I eyeball the grain. Adjust the gap. Put in 100gm or so then run it through. If I'm not happy I'll readjust. 9 times out of 10 it's perfect just eyeballing.