Two bags of grain

[Pom]

Well my first Oktoberfest is bubbling away nicely. Had a few issues keeping the temp up in the mini mash. Hit the stike temp spot on at 66C, using 74C water. But after 15mins open it to give it a stir and check temp and it dropped to 60C. Added small amounts of boiling water but didn't want to water it down to much even after 350ml it still only came up to 62C.
It stayed at that for the rest of the mash with a little more boiling water after the half way point. My OG was only .001 off the beersmith estimation so my mash im presuming worked. Grew my first liquid wyeast up to a 5l (500g) batch, managed to get the wort temp down to 24c in 20mins with an ice bath but if im going to go further with grains im going to have to make a wort cooler. Almost finished making my keg conversion boil kettle which will make the next one easier as well. Thanks TL for your help and Doc for the help with the Yeast.
Cheers Rob

[Trough Lolly]

Good work Rob - there'll be no stopping you now. Keep good notes to ensure that you can iron out the process using the same equipment. Mash temp is important, but with today's malts, a lot of the conversion occurs in the first 20 to 30 mins of the mash anyway so it's not the end of the world if the mash temp drops savagely after 30 mins. It's all the more reason to start eyeing off a large keg shaped vessel for mashing with a flame underneath or a nice big cooler that keeps the temp pretty constant.

Cheers and enjoy your beer!

TL

[Pom]

Cheers Tl
Im looking to improve my mashtun, have looked at maybe getting a Rubbermaid cooler like yours, Have good supply of beer kegs thanks to my local publican, would it be fesable to make one from a keg and then as you said have a burner under it?
Or do you think its better to go an esky type?
Need to make up a chiller as well, will hit up the brother-in-law who's a plumber to make a copper coil up and maybe set up a pre-chiller on it so when I run the water from my shed tank through it I can get the temp down a little quicker. Although the water in the shed tank always seem fairly cold. Also I want to improve my sparging technique before I even think about AG, my method at the moment seems clumsy and messy. I want to be able to sparge out of my mashtun, therefore I think a hot liquor tank will be needed. Seem's Im heading down that dark path towards AG. One day maybe need to crawl first.
Cheers for all your help
Rob

[billybushcook]

Cheers Tl
Also I want to improve my sparging technique before I even think about AG, my method at the moment seems clumsy and messy. I want to be able to sparge out of my mashtun, therefore I think a hot liquor tank will be needed.
Rob

only early days for me so I'm still using my kettle to heat my sparge water, I just heat it to 80 C then drain it into 2 x 10L water drums (plastic containers) This makes it easy to lift them above the mash tun too.It only looses 5 - 10 deg by the time I'm into the sparge so I can strian the wort straight from the mash tun into the kettle.

On the subject of a chiller, Iv'e got 16 meters in mine (3/4") & it works a treat.
You can buy it already in coils & is malleable & easy to bend & work by hand. Although I used a sheet metal roller to help.
Trouble is, these days 16m of 3/4" copper is about 300 bucks, 1/2" would be a bit cheaper but still around the 150 - 200 dollar mark.
Even 3/8" or 5/16" would be ok. (if you can get it)

Cheers, Mick.

[Pom]

Cheers for the input Mic.
The price of copper is a worry. But I have a few contacts in the plumbing industry hope I can get a good deal. Im about to go and get another beer keg from my mates pub and look at turning it into a hot liquor tank with a tap and a dial thermometer built in. Im also in the middle of building a multilayer stand to hold my HLT, MT and BK so that I don't have to use a pump at the moment and wont have to lift heavy bodies of hotwater about. There's so much to think about! As soon as I try somthing esle I want go furthur with the brewing, its very adictive.
Cheers Rob