Greetings

[Paul Dunlop]

G'day to all, Finally got my finger out and sorted my fear of 'networking'. good to be here. To be fair i'm not the most prolific user of forums so i apologise in advance. I have recently decided to move up and on to All-Grain after a wee while with extract brewing. I'm completely inexperienced with All-Grain but understand the basics of the process and a wee bit of the chemistry. I have a wee question for you guys n gals out there. Ive converted a chilly bin into a mash tun with a bit of copper pipe and fittings as per John Palmers specs and i am pretty much decided on a Blichmann boiler for my 5 gallon batches. I already have a brew pot which i will use for my HLT after ive transferred the first run of Wort from the mash tun to the Blichmann, then batch sparge. The only thing i am having trouble finding is an immersion chiller. Ive looked at a few websites and although i know how expensive copper pipe is in nz i reckon there must be a cheaper solution? Or am i just a tight arse? Anyway thanks for reading or just skipping through my personal dilemma hope to get some feedback!

Cheers

[Michael]

Congrats on going to AG! It is not as hard as some make it to be, but the experiments you can do to make beer to your taste are endless!

I guess it depends whether you want to make your own if your handy, or have someone else do it if your not so handy. Personally, I barely know the right end of a hammer to swing, so most of my stuff has been modified by others.

Bank's brewing hardware made my immersion chiller and my keggle, and modified my HLT to go electric.

He brazed fittings onto the IC, so that I can just plug it into standard hose taps. The wort generally get down to temp within 20 mins, depending on time of year, and where I am at. (In NZ winter, easy 15 mins. In Miami, much longer so I used prechilled water.)

[Paul Dunlop]

Cheers Michael

Personally it was a big mental block to go through in regards to AG but now i've made the decision i'm raring to go!!. Obviously Miami aint in my neighbourhood for an IM but would you prefer to use an IM rather than say, a plate chiller? I'm trying to make this step as financially viable as possible (spending the majority on my kettle). I have looked at the offerings from NZ HBStores and the difference in costs seems to reflect the difference in size/ability. What length of pipe (based on 15mm (half inch diameter) would i need for a 5 gallon batch in the Blichmann 10gallon boiler? Any fedback with these boilers would be good :-) Cheers

[jt]

The general opinion lately is get your copper from brass123 on trademe and the bend it yourself.
Or if you're about Titahi Bay, in Wellington, I'm sure that Chris at Banks Brewing Hardware would coil it up really well

Reckon there might be one ot two people about in Nelson that've done that already and might be ble to give you a bit of advice, maybe over a beer maybe ?

[Paul Dunlop]

jt thanks,

Thats the tip i'm lookin for, albeit i'll have to wait for tuesday. I dont mind doing the bending, its copper after all, but i couldn't find the copper!! Reckon there must be a huge black market for this stuff in nz. Bunnings warehouse are selling 1 Yep thats one, metre of 15mm copper pipe for 22 bucks!! Ive seen metres of brand spankin 15mm pipe in skips on site. Bugger!

 

Yeh i wouldnt mind meeting up with the Nelson guys and i especially wouldnt mind trading ideas for beer. Sounds like a good way of meeting up with the lads (and having a coupla hours with people not talkin bout poo  lol)

 

Cheers 

[Michael]

I personally use an IC as I do not trust the plate chillers with respect to infections. I am sure you can clean them well, but the immersion chiller is cheaper and easier for me.

I think my IC is around 45 feet long, and I use it to chill anything up to 45 litres. 

PLate chillers can be extremely efficient, and if you really need this efficiency go for it! Having said this, an IC is the cheapest and easiest option in my experience.

Although I really like the quick disconnects on mine. I reckon you could always just wrap some copper tubing around a corny keg, and put some tubing on the ends with clamps. I am not handy, but here is a link to a guy who made his own on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8EolKTDZUQ

[Paul Dunlop]

Thanks Michael

i reckon i'm sold with the IM. Seems an efficient AND easy way to go for a start. 45 ft is a fair piece o copper tho. Ah well the wee lad is gonna be wearin the same nappy for a bit longer!! Cheers for the link, between you and jt ive realised its not too hard to make and is def the right way to go at the moment

 

 

cheers

 

[Paul Fraser]

Yes, i bought my copper from brass123 off trademe too. It was 15m and i think it cost $60 or $70ish including delivery. I did what Michael had done and got a plumber on site to braze a hose fitting on the end so i could just quick connect the hose on to it. I then have just some hose on the end for the outlet which i just clamp on. It wasn't too hard to make, just use some tube benders to avoid kinks. Pic of it before fittings were brazed on.

[Stephen Leslie]

Just a tip I picked up on here. Get a male to male brass fitting from mitre or bunnies and saw em in half then easy flo em on for strength then you dont have to bother with clamps, I run the water from the chiller to the pool as I am on tank.

[Paul Dunlop]

Cheers muchos Paul and Stephen,Had a look for the mysterious 'brass123' but cant seem to find any listings however Ive seen some copper (of possible dubious origin) on trade me, gonna zip down to the local plumbing shops in Nelson and see what typ of price i'm looking at brand new. Figure that its a long term investment and may be worth the initial outlay. I'm on the assumption that you guys have used 15mm dia? As there was some 1/4 inch heatpump rated pipe going for a pretty good price......  

[Paul Fraser]

You won't want 1/4 inch- way too small. 15mm diameter is the internal measurement but the stuff I got was refrigeration copper which was actually 15mm outer diameter so about 13mm internal. 15m of it though so it still has a decent amount of surface area in contact with the wort. It works well for me.

[Paul Dunlop]

G'day all,

  Okay so i have managed to source some copper but it wasnt as cheap as brass123 is giving away his for... ;-) but at the end of the day ive managed to 'rough' up an IM (relevant to the sizes of my,waiting for the courier to deliver, boil kettle) that i believe will do my possibly world dominating beer (daydream believer!) a good kick in the guts and get it down to pitching temp quick smart. My mash tun/ chillybin with another bit of copper in it is fabricated and i have ordered and paid for my blichmann 10 gallon boiler and burner from INIBrewsupply. I will have some photo's to upload of my set up to add for any/every ones humour hehehe but am now focusing on my first brewday with AG. Wee question for you guys, i plan on batch sparging and need to know how much liquor i am initially using and how much to sparge with? I plan on making a John Palmer Victory and Chaos IPA as my first batch. 23litres. As i have been making this brew with extract and grains with good results. Cheers

  

[jt]

Depends on you deadspaces, grain absorption and evaporation.
Can sound finicky, but it's worth working them out.
I read over the article at grain & grape in Aussie several times before it made sense. Also read something
here which was good, bayareamashers.org/content/maindocs/BatchSparging.htm


One important thing to note is that extraction efficiency will be optimized if the two runoff volumes are equal. For example, if you are going to runoff a total of 11 gallons, then the first runoff volume will be 5.5 gallons, which will also be equal to the second runoff volume. This makes it easy to calculate the total amount of water to add for each of the two runoff phases. The total amount of water added to the mash tun for the first phase will be greater than the second phase because you need to account for water retained by the grains.

The mashing process starts out the same as it does for a continuous sparge batch. That is, enough hot water is infused with grain to achieve the desired mash thickness for the particular recipe. The difference comes when initiating the sparge. At that point, an additional volume of hot water is infused into the mash tun in order to bring the total volume to ½ of the total expected runoff, plus additional water to compensate for what is retained by the grain. The mash is then thoroughly mixed to dissolve as much extract as possible and uniformly distribute it. The runoff is recirculated until clear and then allowed to drain into the kettle. Once the first runnings are completely drained, the second volume of water is infused into the tun and the mash stirred again. The runoff is then recirculated until clear and then run into the kettle.