Brewing From Grains

[Dogger Dan]

Folks,
I have put up some pics of a partial mash I did yesterday, thought some might be interested in seeing the process I use.

http://groups.msn.com/DoggersHomebrew/shoebox.msnw?Page=1

This recipie I call "Harry Porters Honey Pot" or JK Rollings meets AA Milne right munkey?

2 kilos pale malt
500 g Chocolate Malt
500 g Crystal Malt
500 ml honey
1 oz Galena Hops (60 min in the boil)
1 oz East Kent Goldings (final 15 min)
.5 oz Tettnager (final min)

Its a single mash using 8 litres of water at 166 deg F to achieve 151 mash temp. I mashed for 90 min, and sparged using 170 deg water at a rate of 1 litre per minute. I collected about 12 litres of liquor.

Added remaining malt extract honey brought to boil and then added Hops , Galena for 60 min, East Kent for final 15 min and Tettnager for last min.

Added water to make 23 Litres pitched yeast and drank a beer.

Any questions give us a shout

Dogger

[munkey]

good pickys!. excilent joke, what more can i say.

i have just made a mash/boil all in one .......well....... thing i suppose.
out of an old beer keg
erm i will call it the beer`o`tron.

all was going well in the test run untill the breather plug thing on the side melted, thank god it was full of water and not beer.

i assumed it would be made of nylon of something that would withstand them temps, obviously not.

long story short kitcen=flooded beer`o`tron=in garden.

going to machine up a suitable plug tomorrow.

wil post some pickys of it next week .

[db]

i like your mash tun DD.. how did you fix the manifold in? & did you use holes or slots in it? & is the soldering necessary?

i've been trying to mash in an esky without a drainage hole/tap.. & its pretty much impossible to do without causing aeration i think its about time to pull out the drill & make some mods to our esky.. i'm not sure the girls gonna like it

[Guest]

Buy her a new eski...or buy yourself a new eski and that way the she won't notice

Jay

[Dogger Dan]

db,

The are just compression fittings. Coleman Coolers come with a drainage hole already tapped. I took advantage of that.

I cut slots into the manifold ON THE BOTTOM. This has ended the stuck sparges as I don't have the grain bed dropping on the slots. I don't think you need to solder if you can get a good tight fit. I am still puzzling that one out. Doesn't seem to matter though.

Dogger

[db]

oh she'll notice.. she notices all things beer (esp if we have to drink it outta a cooler bag next time we're out)

but i think a new one might be the way to go. i'm just having trouble finding a small esky with drainage..

slots on the bottom eh?.. makes sense. i shall take that on board
i have heard that using a screwdriver placed across the join & a hammer to tap it & slightly crimp it works

cheers

[Dogger Dan]

This was my first attempt at plumbing anything. I like the sounds of the crimp, although I would argue that the increase in your brew by whatever is in the solder will have no ill affects. There simply isn't enough of it.

Other than you folks I don't have a great deal of help. I have more time going backward than my local HBS has going ahead when it comes to Homebrewing so they aren't much help. Told me I had an infection in one of my brews that I generously gave up. Got it tested at work for yeast moulds and bacteria, all was fine (Didn't think about the yeast thing, next time will not do that, came back TNC, go figure).

Dogger

[db]

i'd agree with you on the solder & the i'll effects.. i was just thinking that it'd make it a b!tch to clean.

& yeah i've dealt with a couple of below average hbs.. luckily i've now found a good one. although i don't have the chance to get in there as much as i'd like

while reading up on this mashing/ag bizness i've been spending abit of time checking out the forum on http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com (sorry Oliver).. check it out.. seems to have a lot of experienced all grainer's about to offer advice

[Dogger Dan]

db,

Cleaning has never been an issue, I can get my FINGERS under the manifoldto get out the spent grains and nothing is trapped inside as it is flushed both fwd and back. By the way, I don't use bleach here

Dogger

[Shaun]

The most common solder is 60/40 60% tin 40% lead. The problem would be the flux if the solder has a flux within its core (flux is an acid that cleans the surface of the area you are soldering). You would need to clean it extremely well inside and out to remove the spent flux. It can be difficult to remove without the specialist cleaning agents. You can get fluxless solder however to get a good joint you then need to add a flux yourself.

[Dogger Dan]

Don't worry it was cleaned very well prior to use, including a good passification. Then I gave the first batch to the neighbour to try.

Dogger

[grabman]

very generous Dogger!!

Is he out of hospital yet

[The hooha man]

Nice set of pics Dogger,your black dog looks as though, he/she may be in need of a "hair of the dog"

[Dogger Dan]

Its not a dog, its a rug. Really though he sucks as a drinking mate, never brings his own and can't play darts.

Yep my neighbour seems to be fine

Dogger

[munkey]

in the spirit of us all showing off our manhood`s <cough> beer equiptment </cough>
i have thrown to gether some pickys of my latest creation .... THE BEER`O`TRON.

firstly id like to say that i had a message all typed out and the fookin page lost it (i hate php)


so this is the short and to the point version (probably better)

right back to topic.
cut top of keg.

inserted eliment

my mash pot

inserted so all sides are in contact with heated water, (digitaly controlled by a microprosessor unit and relay i use to controle all my heat sensitive opporations)
insert mash pot



and finaly i insulated the lot with a water boiler insulating jacket.



and last but not least ... my dog.


we actualy live on the side of the word and our dog is a gefaffe sprayed black.

//edited

all systems go go go go.

i just had to use it.

digital control unit

result!!!

[Evo]

Congratulations Munkey. You've bloody made it.

[Dogger Dan]

How did you spray the giraffe black? Does it wash off in the rain? By the way did you know the first thing a baby giraffe does when it comes into the world is free fall six feet. (Bit of a shitty start)

On another note, let me know how you make out with the element. I have been hot and cold on setting one up as I hear, and it is only that, you can carmalize the sugars if you are not careful. I am leaning to a heat exchange system where I regulate the flow using PLC logic based on that probe you have there. And as Hydro has gone up, I would much prefer the propane fired system.

By the way, two thumbs way up, I can't believe the missus wont go for a fridge. I have a spare in the driveway if you want to come pick it up., thing is an electric pig but boy, they don't make them like that anymore.

Dogger

[munkey]

i had a little trouble with the regulating the heat at first, i had the probe on the bottlm and the differance between the top and the bottom of the liquid was about 10°C so i moved the probe up into the top few inches of the water and it stabelised.

as for caramalisation i had a quite substantial boil on the go and theres no resadue that would suggest caremalisation on the eliment, i didnt see any,
i will let you know on the tasting it theres any strange tastes in a few weeks. i had the eliment floating just on 100°C and im not shure what temp shuger charemalises at??

i word of the upmosed advise would be go all out to insulate, i did a few exsperiments and test runs, which showed me the tremendous differance to the time to get to mash/boil temps, i ended up using a water boiler jacket and aluminium foil tape in the end (standerd industry stuff for
insulating) this would keep those energy costs down.

oh.. and she has gone for the fridge idea, just have to wait till july 1st when we move into the new house till i can build the home bar,
got her a wine pump for the wine WE made and a beer had pump for myself, was thinking of having real taps and beer coming out of them for novalty purposes.

[Shaun]

munkey so the element is in the mash, from your pics I had the impression the mash was in the smaller saucepan which was heated buy conduction from the water you heated in the keg?

Well done, I may have the fridge however I am a long why behind you in this regard well done hats off.

Hand pumps working as a novelty, try envy

[munkey]

yeh the mashing takes place in the pan which is sitting in the water.

and then i use the water which is conviniantly at the correct temp to sparge, i lift the pan out then siphon the water into a fermenter. then sparge into the keg (with pan removed) so it acts as a mash/boiler all in one. so only the wirt is in contact with the eliment. never the grains.