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Did you order one. I am tempted
Hazelwood Brewday
- Thread starter Hazelwood Brewery
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Once I get the kegerator built I will get a look.Not yet!You go for it!
Having decided to pick up the brewing over the next few days I’ve just written up my draft brew sheet for tomorrow and made adjustments to @Clint ‘s recipe to account for a 21 litre brew (rather than 23, mine is going in a corny) and because I plan 80% brewhouse efficiency. My hop AA is slightly different too but not enough to worry about. Will now prepare water and grist for tomorrow.
I tried my sparge contraption today and it already flows faster than I was hoping for, sparging 8 litres in 28 minutes (I would have liked 10 litres per hour).
However, even at twice the speed of my manual stepped fly-sparge it looks like I will still get the same 80% BHE.
I’m now wondering if I will get even better BHE if I slow things down a little so I’m going to remake the spray-head with smaller holes and have another go.
I’m not chasing BHE particularly but I do like problem solving and challenges.
However, even at twice the speed of my manual stepped fly-sparge it looks like I will still get the same 80% BHE.
I’m now wondering if I will get even better BHE if I slow things down a little so I’m going to remake the spray-head with smaller holes and have another go.
I’m not chasing BHE particularly but I do like problem solving and challenges.
Are you recirculating during your sparging?
How fine do you crush your malt? I go quite fine and that makes a difference. Then again, I mash in a bag in a coolbox with single batch sparge, so don't have stuck sparge issues from a really fine crush.
Fine crush and regular stirring of mash seems to work wonders for efficiency.
I created a similar contraption to you to fly sparge in my coolbox and it maybe made 1-2% difference to efficiency, whereas crush and stirring with a batch sparge gets me a good 8%ish improvement.
I suppose if you're chasing those marginal gains and looking to avoid extracting tannins, a decent fly sparge must help in some way when you've already plucked the other low hanging fruit.
Fine crush and regular stirring of mash seems to work wonders for efficiency.
I created a similar contraption to you to fly sparge in my coolbox and it maybe made 1-2% difference to efficiency, whereas crush and stirring with a batch sparge gets me a good 8%ish improvement.
I suppose if you're chasing those marginal gains and looking to avoid extracting tannins, a decent fly sparge must help in some way when you've already plucked the other low hanging fruit.
Yes I am.
I do mill to quite a fine grist, yes. I don’t stir the grain because I recirculate the mash water through the grain bed throughout the mash.
My sparge process was just rinsing the drained grains with fresh sparge water but I’ve since been improving on that and gained another 10% - taking me to 80%. I believe I should be able to get another 5% using the “contraption”.
That's a large gain. The much increased flow of liquor through the grain bed from recirculating and gradually thinning the liquor must help with extraction a lot. If you get a system that is easy to execute (no faff) and doesn't hugely impact length of brewday that's quite appealing. Food for thought.
It does add maybe 40 minutes on a brew-day but for that I save (so far) 700g of grain per brew. It also means, for my max grain capacity, I can brew higher gravity beers when I want to.
I also don’t mind at all spending a little longer on a brew-day, I enjoy it.
Cheshire Cat
Landlord.
I'm going to try and make something with a splatter guard and an unused 10 litre plastic fermenter like in the Burco or Klarstein thread. I've got some Aluminium insulation wrap for the Burco.
In between a trip to the farm shop and all the subsequent eating a drinking I’ve managed to keg my Nimrod ale, 24 litres, 6%, 36 IBU, 6 SRM, OG 1054, FG 1008, hopped with Citra, Cascade, Simcoe, and a touch of Galaxy. Tucked up in the brew-shed.
Also in between other activities I brewed another batch of Summer Breeze. In the fermenter now and all cleaned up.
I’m now working on the recipe sheet for tomorrow’s brew - my brown ale.
I’m now working on the recipe sheet for tomorrow’s brew - my brown ale.
How did the new sparging gizmo perform?
Sore point, my mash today was screwed by pH (4.97) so my numbers were all out. I corrected to end up in the right place but it meant that efficiency was thrown. I’ll try again tomorrow. When I investigated I found that my tap water, normally around 7.7 was 6.7! I’m half minded to phone the water company and ask what they’re playing at but actually it’s my responsibility to check the readings.
I removed the inner ring from the gizmo and using just the outer ring gave me a little under 10 litres / hour so that’s good.
Better luck next time! 
That’s it, the end of a busy brew-day. One kegged, one brewed, one prepped for tomorrow. Tomorrow’s ale will be a brown ale, I haven’t brewed one of these for several weeks so overdue.
Slippers and pipe time...
