Brewing from Grains

[Evo]

Right on ! Cheers Dogger. I'll buy you a beer if you come to Sydney . Soon I'll be a sparging my wort with the best of them.

Drew up some plans tonight for my new equipment. Hopefully I'll get to put it all together during the week. Might even post some pics so you guys can check out my dodgy workmanship.

I'm going to look for a cooler (I'll use that term from now on), like you said Dogger, that's tall and thin (the opposite of myself). Maybe about 30 L ? Bugger. Another quick question. Does your wort chiller actually sit in the wort in the cooler OR do you cool it as you are draining it into your fermenter ? I was thinking of doing the latter by running the beer hose through a stainless temprite coil sitting in ice water. Kinda like a magic box. Any thoughts ?

[Dogger Dan]

I got to figure out how to get some pics on the net,

My chiller sits in the sink and I flow the beer through it

Dogger

[Gough]

G'day Evo,

I use a standard 47 litre esky with a drain and tap. Works fine and has a fair amount of extra capacity for brewing bigger batches without being too big and having too shallow a grain bed. See the howtobrew.com site for more detailed info.

Oxygen is only really good in the brewing process once your wort has cooled and you are about to pitch your yeast. Yeasties need oxygen, so ogygenate your wort at this stage. Whenever your wort is over about 35-40 degrees it runs the risk of what they call 'hot-side aeration'. When your wort is being sparged/transferred into your boiler etc, basically any time it is hot, DON'T aerate it or you run the risk of prematurely stale beer. Basically try not to splash... After fermentation begins oxygen again obviously becomes your enemy...

I just use an 'immersion chiller' which is really easy to make. I bought 18 metres of annealed (flexible) copper tubing (1/2 inch) and coiled it around a smallish bucket with the two ends bent out the top to face down to avoid any accidental water entering my brew. Again the howtobrew.com site has pics of this. I put it in my boiling wort 15 minutes from the end of the boil to sanitise it and then run a cold water hose in and another hose out. Cools my wort from boiling to 20 degrees in 20 minutes - less in winter. When I'm brewing lagers and want it even cooler to pitch the yeast I put the 'in' hose in an esky of ice and that helps drop it a few more degrees. Easy to build and use and pretty efficient. Counterflow chillers are even better, but a bit more high tech. I like to keep things simple and cheap where possible... I'll upgrade to one someday.

Hope that helps and good luck.

Shawn.

[Dogger Dan]

Shawn,

I have been seducing Fido regarding my heat exchanger but if someone can tell me how to bend 1/2 inch pipe I would love to know. I have had nothing but disaster and I am pretty sure the locals are thinking I am building a still

Oliver, I noticed from your pics you got the job done but how did it happen

Many Thanks

Dogger

[Gough]

Hi Dogger,

I just used the flexible copper pipe and slowly and gently wrapped it around the bucket as tightly as I could. It actually bent pretty easily, but did cause a bit of cursing during the process... Bending the ends over was the trickiest bit 'cause they really wanted to crimp, but I bought a cheap 'spring' like tool that goes over the copper pipe and lets you bend it without crimping. Wasn't real dear. Just picked it up from my hardware shop. My chiller does the job. Looks a bit rudimentary compared to some I've seen but I'm sure my brew doesn't notice

Hope that helped a bit,

Shawn.

[Evo]

Aaahh... cheers Dogger and Gough. Definitely sorts me out re the oxygenating the hot wort. I would have been splashing it around like a madman thinking I was doin' good. 47 L esky sounds easy enough too. I'll get out and buy one when I'm not working these crazy silly gumby hours that I am (actually, I might just buy a brewery - or at least Mr. Taxman might).

So I take it from your posts Dogger and Gough, that you put your coils into your hot wort Gough, and run cold water through, and Dogger, you run your beer through the coil that sits in cold water (which, at the moment, you'd have plenty of where you live;)). Which way works best ? I was going to use the Dogger method employing a stainless steel temprite coil I've been "holding onto" for god knows why. Thing is it's only 9 metres in length (flat that is). If I sat that in a bucket of iced water (slurry - I love that word) would it be enough ? Or do I go oot and get me some pipe benders and some copper pipe and get busy ?

[Dogger Dan]

MMMMMMM STAINLESS, It gets no Better, 27 feet sould be good, I use 20 ft copper rifrig coil and dream of stainless 316

Dogger

[Oliver]

Dogger,

Geoff's wife's dad (guess that makes him Geoff's father-in-law ) is a plumber, so he crafted the heat exchanger.

So, if you need one made, try and find yourself a father-in-law who's a plumber!

Cheers,

Oliver

[Dogger Dan]

Crappy,

Father in Law is only a Doctor. Guess I miss out

Dogger

[Evo]

A doctor of plumbing ?

Just Googled (yes, it's a verb) "counterflow chillers" (cheers Gough). Came up with -

http://www.northernbrewer.com/chilling-etc.html

Geez, these babies look the business. My next mission (after the lauter tun etc etc) is to make a wort chiller like "Chillzilla". Might invite Geoff's father in law round for a beer and get him on the tools. Only problem is I'd have to come up with a name on par with Chillzilla. Don't think it can be done.

Remember, he who dies with the most toys, tools and brewing equipment wins. The fact that the beer I brew tastes like pap is a different matter entirely (it doesn't actually, I'm just playing along).

[Dogger Dan]

Evo,

I am aiming for the therminator myself. I like plate chillers, use them all time at work.

Maybe Santa will bring me one

Dogger

[Evo]

Yeah, the Therminator looks pretty sweet too. Bit of a worry about how much water they use (and they call the Therminator the most efficient). I guess you don't have to worry about that where you come from.

As for having plate chillers at work, what ? Do they not want to sponsor your extra curricular activity ? Would be the Christian thing to do.

[Dogger Dan]

Evo,

We chill Canola oil with them man, to the tune of 40 gallons a minute. (thats from about 160 F to 42 F. My 5 gallons of brew would be lost in a heart beat.

Sorry I live beside the largest source of freshwater in the world man they are frozen for 6 months of the year anyway. Just so you know, my initial degree is in hydrogeology so water conservation and environmental protection is rather high on my things to look after. Currently I am working on the food science thing because that is where I am working very comfortably I might add

Speaking of which frozen, they are calling for 15 cm of the white crap tonight with more tomorrow. Additionally that freezing rain crap to.

I sense a snow day coming.

Hey, if you want, come on over, I'll give ya a few gallons of water to brew with, my treat

Dogger

[Evo]

Hmmm... yeah I'll probably still go with the Chillzilla cause I can buy the parts and make it myself (using my "I knew it would be good for something" stainless temprite coil).

So if you were using tap water, in Sydney, to chill your wort, it wouldn't get down any lower than 22C I wouldn't imagine. Would you then chill it down to the correct temp before pitching or pitch then chill ? I've heard leaving yeast-less wort was bad darts. Ah, so many questions...

You could make your own wort chiller too Dogger by running your beer through a garden hose in the snow in your backyard. Get it down to 12C no worries.

Oh, and I'll take a raincheck (boom tish) on your water offer. I've grown to love my Sydney water. I find the cryptosporidium really helps head retention.

[Gough]

Evo,

You'll get it to 20 degrees easily enough even with sydney - 'cough' - tap water. Then for a lager chuck it in your brew fridge nice and sealed up including air lock and within12 hours you should have it down to around 12-14. Pitch your yeast and set the fridge to 10. Should ferment out nicely at 11-12 without a problem. If it is an ale pitch it at 20.

Shawn.

[Evo]

Ah. Easy peasy. Could probably bring it down quicker with my fridge being a freezer.

Cheers Gough. For a Knights fan you're alright.

[Dogger Dan]

Actually, snow works as ani insulator so it doesn't work worth crap to chill things down.

Tap water normally comes into the house around 10 deg c

Dogger

[Dogger Dan]

Hey Evo,

I approached my boss regarding heat exchangers and he sent me here. Said he would by me one.

Cool

Dogger

http://www.eep.ca/heat.html

[Dogger Dan]

And if someone would be kind enough to tell me how to post an URL I would be forever in their debt

Thank you in Advance

Dogger

[Evo]

Aaah. I was wondering how the plate version worked. That site has some nice diagrams. And hats off re convincing your boss to buy you one.

...and to post a URL, you first have to hit the URL button then type the address, then hit the URL button again. So in HTML speak it opens the URL tag [url]then closes it with[/url].