Managed to get up to 1.082 on an Imperial Stout by stuffing the malt pipe with 6.3kg of grain and a two hour boil, but still wasn't satisfied, because obviously with that amount of grain the efficency suffers.
If you got 1.082 out of 6.3kg (13.86lbs) with a 20L (5.3g) batch size; you had ~ 86% brew house efficiency. I wouldn't quite say your efficiency is "suffering" lol.
I only got 17l (4.5g) into the fermentor on that brew and Brewmate calculates a 70% brewhouse efficiency.
No, it can't, and it isn't. You can build a brutus type system for 1/3 what this system costs, and this system will never give you the flexibility a brutus will. For most of us here, it's not about having some cheap beer at hand, nor about how much we can brew: it's about learning from the process, so we can eventually make a better product, or one that's more suited to our particular tastes. Evolving.
That system could never give you that, simply because it takes control of the process. That way, you just become a material handler, not a brewer.
And that's great. If that's what you want, go for it. But, again, you can achieve the same goal, at a fraction of the money (and the work) by just brewing kits. But then again, it's your call.
I wouldn't recommend brewing a beer with a lot of wheat as the VERY FIRST beer you brew. Especially if it's the first beer you've EVER brewed. I recommend finding a nice all-barley recipe because you will have a lower risk of getting a stuck mash or something related.
irish91001 said:I just used mine for the first time last weekend. It was awesome to use and very easy. The only problem I had was that my control panel never got above 95C, even though there was a mild boil. I am not sure if it's because I live at 4,000 ft or something is wrong with the control panel. Not a huge detriment as the mash temps were hit and the boil was actually going. All in all, I am very happy with it.
I don't have any experience with this particular machine, but from brewing for almost 2 years, I'd say its pretty fan hard to brew a bad beer! Good luck!
Yambor44 said:What was your set temp at on e control panel?
I set it to 102C. I even tried it in manual when I was cleaning the BM. It did achieve a mild boil, so the water temp is ok, it's just that the readout on the control panel stays at 95C
flemming said:You mentioned that you were at 4,000ft. If you use a boiling point calculator like:
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/boilingpoint.html
You'll find that your calculated boiling point is right around 95C. Your profile says you're in Ogden, UT so I used a barometric pressure of 30 and an elevation of 4334ft.
Robert
mattdru, only thing caught my beady eyes were do you have enough minutes in the mash schedule to convert?
Yep I used that exact calculation s few days ago and came up with the same answer. It's not a big concern because I do achieve a boil. Just wondering if anyone else has had this issue. The main pitfall is that the boil timer doesn't activate since 100C is never reached. But I can just set it to 95 and overcome that issue.
Hello to everyone. I have been reading the message board for years, finally went out and bought a SB. Finally showed up, got my electrical done and I am ready to go. Good news is is that I am really excited. Bad news is is that I have never brewed beer before. I have read several books, watched all the You Tube videos (and yes I was devestated when I read Yanbor44 sold his SB...almost derailed a year of research at that point ), read a bunch of blogs and drank a lot of beer.
For you experienced brewers...do you see anything majorly wrong with my game plan for Brew #1? It is a Boulevard Wheat Clone (I like in Kansas City)...and it is a combination of a bunch of data I have gathered.
Grain Bill: lbs
MaltEurop American 2 Row Pale Malt 5.75 54.8%
Rahr White Wheat Malt 2.50 23.8%
Rahr Unmalted Wheat 2.00 19.0%
Belgian Munich Malt 0.25 2.4%
10.50
Crush grain at 1.25
Liters Gallons
Initial water 23 6.1
Mashing Schedule C F
6.5 minutes (mash in) 47 104
25 minutes 50 122
12 minutes 63 145
15 minutes 73 163
5 minutes (Knockout) 76 169
70 minutes (Boil) 102 216
(Add German Magnum Hop Pellets 10 minutes into boil)
(Add Simcoe Hop Pellets 60 minutes into boil)
Any advise would be helpful. I don't mind honest feeback, my goal is to spend time and effort trying to create some good beers and have fun.
Thanks
Matt
I now been juggling with the idea of having the 50l malt pipe cut down so it would fit about 10kg of grain. My only worry is if there is going to be enough water to rinse through the malt bed if I, lets say made a 20 litre batch with 9kg malt using ruffly 32 litres of brewing water?
A change in plans. Got this idea from a fellow member on a finnish homebrew forum, that instead of cutting the malt pipe, i'm just gonna drill about ten half inch holes in the side of the pipe. That way I don't have to make new lifting bolts, and if I sometime in the future want to make a 50 l batch, I can just plug the holes with bolts and nuts.
a couple of thoughts...
I wonder if you might need to cut a custom length pipe/spacer to keep the top mash screen/sieve below the level of the holes to keep the grain escaping when the pressure inevitably pushes the mash up, thereby raising the screens as well.
I also wonder if slits cut into the sides might make more sense. Maybe use a cut off tool or angle grinder to make them every 1/2" or so, maybe at 45 degrees to the X axis of the pipe, spiral like, if you catch my geometry. You could use something like a Silpat (the big commercial baker kind) wrapped around the interior to keep the seal intact when doing 50l batches. Just wrap in and fill the pipe to keep it in place...less troublesome than bolts and whatnot.
I just used mine for the first time last weekend. It was awesome to use and very easy. The only problem I had was that my control panel never got above 95C, even though there was a mild boil. I am not sure if it's because I live at 4,000 ft or something is wrong with the control panel. Not a huge detriment as the mash temps were hit and the boil was actually going. All in all, I am very happy with it.
Wait so you're going to cut the 50L pipe so you can brew high gravity 5G batches? (tried to read back a few pages but missed the purpose of slicing up the malt pipe)
Couldn't you just add less water and use the 50L malt pipe as-is for 5G end batch? Guessing you would have extended boil since need min amount to not run pumps dry. Have you checked?
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