Two Vessel Two Tier Brewing

[MrC]

After a bit of research and applying what I've learned over the past few years I decided to trial a two vessel brew setup.  It's a basic proof of concept brew with not a lot of fancy bits and pieces and is still quite manual.

Here's the recipe:

http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/forum/topics/1500433:Topic:8?commen...

Brew day went well, was quite relaxed and was all over in 4.5 hours.

Here's the basic setup.  Mash Lauter Tun on top with Kettle below and a pump just below the kettle.  The pump is used to transfer from the kettle to the MLT and the MLT then gravity drains back into the kettle.

 

Step 1: Heat the strike water in the kettle.  In this case I heated 15L to 77C.

 

Step 2: Turn on the pump to circulate water around the system and preheat the mash tun.

Step 3: When the temp is up to strike temp, close the valve on the MLT and continue pumping strike water into the MLT until target mash water volume is reached.

Step 4: Turn off pump, close all valves and mash in.

Step 5: Leave the mash to to sit while heating up the remaining water minus 1L per kg of grain.  In this case I heated the remaining water to 67C.  By this time the mash was 30mins in and was already fully converted.

 

Step 6: Begin full system recirculation sparge.  Open all valves and start pump.  I started with a slow flow rate to set the filter bed and then increased the rate until the recirculation rate from the pump matched that of the fully open valve on the MLT (gravity fed into the kettle).

 

Step 7: Turn on the heat in the kettle and let the temp rise up to mash out temp and continue recirculation until the gravity in the kettle equals the target OG.

 

Step 8: Turn off pump, close valve on kettle and let the MLT drain into the kettle.

 

Step 9: Add the final sparge water of 1L per kg of grain to the MLT.  This is based on the 'cold' water sparge theory where cold means not up to sparge temp.  I decided to use 1L per kg of grain in an attempt to replace the wort that is absorbed by the grain with water.  I used water straight from the hot tap which for me is around 60C.  Seemed like a good idea during the planning phase.  

 

Step 10: Drain into kettle untill desired preboil volume reached and boil as usual, etc, etc

 

That's it!  Let me know what you think and whether I can improve on anything.

 

Cheers.

 

[Michael van Wijk]

Would you recommend the Hauraki element over the Craftbrewer one? The Craftbrewer looks easy to set up.

[MrC]

They're both equally easy to setup.  The CB one is 2200W and the HHB one is 2000W but they both perform about the same.  I like the CB one because it is stainless steel, easier to clean, sexier and cheaper.  The main difference is that the CB one is longer and you need a kettle that can accomodate it.

I have both and if I stick with the two vessel setup I will mount both elements in the kettle.  Both on to get temp up fast and then one only for a rolling boil.

[Chad Keven]

how much did your element set you back mate? have you got a link?

cheers

[MrC]

About $55 nzd delivered. I bought other stuff with it so hard to know exact shipping costs.
http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=3853

[Brent Marquis]

Out of curiosity, is there a reason you didn't go to 3-vessel?

you could throw a blanket around a fermenting bucket with a tap to fly-sparge through properly.

i.e...

heat water, pump to MT, mash, while mashing heat sparge liquor, pump/drain to fermenting bucket, sparge from Bucket->MT->Boil Kettle.

You may loose a little heat in an insulated fermenter, but probably not enough to worry about.

While my HLT element was broken, I was doing this (but with the HLT pot instead of a fermenter)

[MrC]

I'm in the process of removing as much plastic as possible from the hot side of my brewing process and getting out of the kitchen. I got a new kettle and then started thing about two vessel setups. Out of curiosity I decided to give a go to see what I thought before committing to buying new gear.

I started out try to mimic commercial processes on a small scale but then decided to focus on building something specifically for me that makes great beer easily, quickly and without too much equipment that only gets used 12 times a year. I may well end up with a 3 vessel system, we'll see. I haven't tasted the beer yet.

[Brent Marquis]

Sweet!

Well its a cool setup and seems to hit the spot of what you were trying to achieve.

[mattd2]

Hey MrC, I never got a reply from Craftbrewer when I asked if their light duty tube is actually 16.7OD (2mm WT). Don't suppose you could take a quick measurement of you stuff when you next get a chance?

[MrC]

It certainly looks like 2mm wall thickness.  As for 16.7OD it's hard to tell when the hose isn't perfectly round.  Mine is oval but I'd say yes it's about 16.7mm when round.

You be the judge:

[mattd2]

Thanks MrC, Yep looks like 2mm to me too.

Cheers!

[mattd2]

 thought it was also wise to use a GFCI even with circuit breakers?

[mattd2]

I am definately no sparky so don't trust anything I say but I thought it was only "wet" areas that required the mandatory RCD (been hanging out to much on the American forum with thier "GFCI"s) breakers. Just checked and I've got 1 RCD breaker (20 amp) feeding 1(!) socket in the bathroom and that is all, but this house was built in 2001 and I think I remember one of the places I used to live having a single whole house RCD after the main switch.

Good to know that you shouldn't use 2 RCD in series though!