Bulldog Master Brewer

[ChrisD123]

Just arrived today....cant wait to get started just need to source some ingredients now....happy days

 

[ChrisD123]

A quick question re using the Bulldog with regard to mash water to grain ratio. Is it safe to assume 2.5 litres of water to 1kg grain. Any advice appreciated.

 

[Oneflewover]

A quick question re using the Bulldog with regard to mash water to grain ratio. Is it safe to assume 2.5 litres of water to 1kg grain. Any advice appreciated.

I've got an earlier version of the bulldog brewer, so may not be terribly helpful, but I tend to go with a thinner mash at 3 litres per kilo. There's quite a bit of dead space at the bottom and around the sides of the grain basket

 

[ChrisD123]

Cheers for that, just awaiting ingredients....nothing too fancy for my first time.
ordered
10kg Maris Otter
500g Carapils
500g Crystal malt
Chinook and Amarillo hops already have some Saaz
Should be enough for a couple of brews to cut my teeth on, plan to keep it simple.

 

[Oneflewover]

Cheers for that, just awaiting ingredients....nothing too fancy for my first time.
ordered
10kg Maris Otter
500g Carapils
500g Crystal malt
Chinook and Amarillo hops already have some Saaz
Should be enough for a couple of brews to cut my teeth on, plan to keep it simple.

Yep, should be able to make a couple of lovely beers with those ingredients

 

[ChrisD123]

Ingredients arrived....now what to start with...

 

[Andrew Taylor]

Hi,

I have the same bulldog set up and i have done about 10 brews of differing volumes so far. All have turned out very drinkable or better (although that might be personal taste ). the system works well (although there are a few idiosyncrasies that i wish i could change with the programmer) and there are a few good reviews on youtube about the set up to get you familiar.

If you are hoping to get 23 litres in to the FV, just be careful, while the kit holds 30 litres, I have found that you will need 29 litres of boiling wort to get about 23 L in the FV as there is approx. 4 L of evaporation/and shrinkage for a 1 hour boil/cooling effects and a further 1.8 litres of dead space at the bottom below the tap, plus a little for hop absorption. This come to 29 L and you really have to be careful with the hot break near the start of the boil, even while stirring to keep it under control I have had a couple of boil overs which were not ideal, boiling hot sticky wort all down the sides and over the floor. I am reducing my volume to aim for 21 L in the FV to give a couple more litres of headspace to accommodate the hot break.

Let me know how you get on with the kit.

 

[ChrisD123]

Thanks for the advice, every little bit helps. I will probably start with a simple 5 kg max grain bill and 15l strike water ( as its my first attempt and just to familiarise myself with everything. What was your boil volume for 21 litres in FV?

I notice on the videos that the sparge plate and overflow is slightly different from mine....I will try and explain....
So.. my overflow tube comes in two parts...one part screws into the bottom of the malt pipe and then the second part slots onto this, it has a small circular disc which I assume the sparge plate then sits on once fitted....is this the correct way....stupid question I know but the ones in the videos don't have this 'circular disc' if you get my meaning

 

[Andrew Taylor]

Hi, boil volume is about 26-27 litres which should give enough headroom for the hot break. can you post some pics of what you are trying to describe?

 

[ChrisD123]

 

[Andrew Taylor]

Hmm, i see what you mean.

if you put the sparge plat on top of the tube to sit on the disk, are you still able to adjust the height of the sparge plate up and down so that it would sit just above the grain while sparging?

also while sparging, i found that the silicone tube supplied for the malt pipe was not long enough to reach so i have to push a longer tube on to the malt pipe so that it would reach up to the basket and on to the sparge plate. has this been resolved by bulldog or will you also need a longer tube?

 

[Andrew Taylor]

mine just has the single fixed pipe attached to the basket and the sparge plate just slides up and down that.

 

[ChrisD123]

It slides down to the length of the fixed tube (top pic) if I put the tube in the other way round so the disc is on the bottom I cant adjust it up as it just slides freely. I am probably being a bit thick but want to make sure I do it right.

With regard to sparging I am going to sparge manually with a jug as I don't have a sparger

 

[ChrisD123]

sorry meant middle pic

And the silicon tube is still short...once I get a sparger will modify it.

 

[Andrew Taylor]

i think you have it the right way around in the bottom pic and the sparger will sit on top of the disk. Got a pic of your sparger plate?, as mine has a short length of the ss tube fitted to the underside to allow it to slide up and down the fixed tube in the basket.

 

[ChrisD123]

Mine doesn't have a ss tube...just a hole hence why assumed that it just sat on the disc with around a couple of cms tube protruding. So i think the plate sits on the disc then the tube (top pic) and plate slides up and down the fixed tube. If inserted the other way I cant adjust the tube at all as it just slides down to the length of the fixed tube.

 

[Ghillie]

Thanks for the advice, every little bit helps. I will probably start with a simple 5 kg max grain bill and 15l strike water ( as its my first attempt and just to familiarise myself with everything. What was your boil volume for 21 litres in FV?

I notice on the videos that the sparge plate and overflow is slightly different from mine....I will try and explain....
So.. my overflow tube comes in two parts...one part screws into the bottom of the malt pipe and then the second part slots onto this, it has a small circular disc which I assume the sparge plate then sits on once fitted....is this the correct way....stupid question I know but the ones in the videos don't have this 'circular disc' if you get my meaning

With only 30L total volume, I'd be inclined to start with 4kg or less!

I brew on a 35L all in one vessel, and efficiency suffers north of 4.5kg.

 

[Andrew Taylor]

"hence why assumed that it just sat on the disc with around a couple of cms tube protruding. So i think the plate sits on the disc then the tube (top pic) and plate slides up and down the fixed tube "

yep, i think that sounds about right.

 

[ChrisD123]

Cheers mate...appreciate it. Probably just overthinking. Will go for it today and see how I get on....once I get my head around calibrating for the boil haha..not an issue though

 

[ChrisD123]

Thanks for the advice Ghillie much appreciated