eramm01
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- Nov 29, 2009
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I have just bought a Klarstein Mash-kettle off Amazon for £209 and have now used it to brew an English Ale. I thought there might be somebody on the forum who might be interested in my review of it on Amazon:
It is an excellent piece of kit but the handbook is VERY misleading.
I brew in the way most English Home-brewers do with a 90 minute 65°c mash, a 76°c batch sparge and a 90 minute hopped seethe (rolling boil).
The specification in the handbook for the kettle gives a temperature range of 60-100°c. If this were true it would be impossible to do a seethe (rolling boil) as this needs a temperature of 103°c (or for that matter a stepped mash as needed to brew a German style lager). Luckily the specification in the handbook is WRONG! A good seethe (rolling boil) can be reached by setting the heater above 103°c.
The specification also misses the timer that comes with the kettle.
The handbook also tries to tell you how to brew using the kettle. The English translation is laughable and the method doesn’t reflect English homebrewing.
There is a HEALTH and SAFETY NOTE missing from the handbook. If you’re doing a good seethe (rolling boil) DO NOT put the lid on. If you do, then when you take it off half the wort will spring out and (like me) you will not only lose half your wort, but you may also spend a few hours in the local A&E department with a scalded foot.
There are a couple of other things to note. The temperature reading does not reflect the temperature in the malts being mashed. To get a steady mash temperature you need to use a thermometer and ‘shenk the wort up’ by drawing off jugs of wort and pouring them back over the malts in the kettle until a steady mash temperature is reached.
The mash bucket provided with the kit not only works well as a bucket to hold the malts but also as a hop-spider when you do the seethe.
It is an excellent piece of kit but the handbook is VERY misleading.
I brew in the way most English Home-brewers do with a 90 minute 65°c mash, a 76°c batch sparge and a 90 minute hopped seethe (rolling boil).
The specification in the handbook for the kettle gives a temperature range of 60-100°c. If this were true it would be impossible to do a seethe (rolling boil) as this needs a temperature of 103°c (or for that matter a stepped mash as needed to brew a German style lager). Luckily the specification in the handbook is WRONG! A good seethe (rolling boil) can be reached by setting the heater above 103°c.
The specification also misses the timer that comes with the kettle.
The handbook also tries to tell you how to brew using the kettle. The English translation is laughable and the method doesn’t reflect English homebrewing.
There is a HEALTH and SAFETY NOTE missing from the handbook. If you’re doing a good seethe (rolling boil) DO NOT put the lid on. If you do, then when you take it off half the wort will spring out and (like me) you will not only lose half your wort, but you may also spend a few hours in the local A&E department with a scalded foot.
There are a couple of other things to note. The temperature reading does not reflect the temperature in the malts being mashed. To get a steady mash temperature you need to use a thermometer and ‘shenk the wort up’ by drawing off jugs of wort and pouring them back over the malts in the kettle until a steady mash temperature is reached.
The mash bucket provided with the kit not only works well as a bucket to hold the malts but also as a hop-spider when you do the seethe.
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