All Grain Home Brewery Project...

[FelixFire]

Hello All, im going to use this thread as a project blog for my all grain home brew project, im doing this so i can receive help and feedback and hopefully it will come in handy to others aswell.

I will be starting from scratch with no current brewing equipment but with some brewing knowledge as i have just finished my first year working in a local micro brewery.

I do understand the basics of brewing, but tend to get confused with alot of the technical jabba on most brewing website :) so ill keep it simple.

I started my planning today, and i will upload my first, very rough, plan of what i am going to do in a minute so i can hopefully get some feedback.

Thankyou

Owain

 

[darrenwest1]

good luck with it mate i had my first brewday this week
you will love it

 

[FelixFire]

ill be relying on gravity/ pouring to begin with but will probably move onto using small pumps in time

 

[darrenwest1]

looks spot on to me
the hlt will be quite high up tho

 

[FelixFire]

O wow congrats Darren, did it go well,? how long did it take you?

 

[darrenwest1]

O wow congrats Darren, did it go well,? how long did it take you?

real well thanks
i started at about 930 and all done by 3 ish
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=12462
this is my set up

 

[timbowden]

best of luck :thumb:
Did my first brew for 2011 today - woolly jumper!


tim

 

[FelixFire]

I will probably reply on gravity for HLT to Mash then to copper, im planning on using my dads big gas stove to boil the copper then possibly pour or jug out into the fermenter so it will actually only be three tiers high.

 

[FelixFire]

Ah nice Darren, i see you went for the cool box mash, im really torn, between that and the two bucket method everyone on here says go for the cool box but alot of people iv talked to around here seem to have gone for the two buckets and it seems alot easier, although you have to insulate the box yourself.

Do you have a false bottom in your mash or a tube with holes/ slits?

 

[Sean_Mc]

All the best for the build Owain :thumb:

If you drain the tun to a bucket, then you could have the tun and copper on the same level, drain copper to FV

 

[darrenwest1]

my mash tun can be found here
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=9663
did not take very long and works really well

 

[FelixFire]

righty then i recon i may do the same as you, be warned i will be asking lots of questions about the plumbing, do you have a bit of a shopping list for what you bought? especially the rig out of the mash?

thanks

 

[darrenwest1]

mine is just a cooler box then 1x tank connector . 1x ball valve . 1x 15mm tee 8x 15mm elbow's and a length of 15mm copper pipe
to get the copper pipes to be a snug fit just squeeze the fittings before you put the pipes in to them then they will fit tightly

 

[FelixFire]

Right, after further discussion with my boss about his old home brewery, im really tilting towards the idea of having a 2-in-1 mash/copper, he said he had a plastic bucket and invested in a false bottom for it, then under the false bottom he had an element and a tap. This meant he could use it for the mash, then drain the wort into a empty bucket, cleanout/rinse out the mash tun and then reuse it as a copper, this also meant the false bottom is reused at a hop filter and makes the whole process a lot easier.

 

[darrenwest1]

i dont think it makes it easier but it may make it cheaper
there is nothing easier than transfering from bucket to a mash tun
you will have to go from the mash tun to a bucket whilst sparging then once you have abour 30l of wort then wash out the tun and start to boil

 

[FelixFire]

Yeah good point, but it means i can double up false bottom on the mash tun as a hop filter which i think would work quite well, then if things progress there is nothing to stop me just using that as a copper and making a new mash tun.

 

[Aleman]

If you want to go single vessel brewing then consider the Brew In A Bag (BIAB) Method.

You fill the boiler with all teh brewing liquor (so say 30L for a 25L brew)you immerse a big voile bag in teh brewing liquor, when the liquor is up to temperature you add the grain (to the bag), stir and leave for 90 minutes. . . . to drain you lift the bag out and allow it to drain into the boiler . . . switch heat on and allow to boil adding hops as required. . . . Simples

 

[FelixFire]

Yes i have heard of the boil-in-a-bag technique, but im more set on using the more traditional method.

Im pretty certain im going to go for what my boss suggested, therefore saving me money and above all space.

If i do that i also then have the option to expand a bit at a later date.

(FYI: I don't upload diagrams because I don't think people understand, I draw them to help me visualise it and thought i may as well upload them.)

 

[Wendy1971]

looks similar to our set up good luck with it

 

[FelixFire]

Thankyou :)

Does anyone know where i could get a false bottom from? i really want to try and get on with this this weekend as im going to be forced to be home anyway, but i realise iv probably left it too long to be able to get a false bottom here in time....i could jsut build the rest then wait for the final piece!