Stable 1 Gal Step Mash Setup

[HardyFool]

Hey Everyone!

So, I'm an all-grain brewer, and I've been brewing one gallon batches, 20+ by now, for about two years. While it may seem insane to stick to one gallon for so long, I'm at any point either living in a tiny apartment, or with my parents who have more or less placed a moratorium on batches above one gallon, so I'm locked into that size for the foreseeable future.

As a bit of background, I love above all Lagers (Kolsch and Pilsner specifically), and sours (notably Berliner Weisse), and in the last two years, I've read How to Brew, Brewing Better Beers, the Yeast and Hop books, as well as more beer posts and forum entries than I care to admit to most people. This is all to say that I'm obsessive, and would like to be able to make beers requiring step mashing and/or wort souring, let alone precise fermentations.

So, my issue: the ~1.5 gal that comprise my mash and sparge water is a small enough volume that temp stability is a serious issue - with thorough insulation on a small cooler, I lose about 2 degrees F every 15 minutes or so. And even were I to reduce that to 2 degrees over the normal 60-90 minute mash, this setup doesn't allow for step mashing, outside decoction.

So here's what I have, what solutions I've seen, and what solutions I envision.

I currently use an 8 quart cylindrical cooler as my mash tun. I check the temp every 15 minutes, and add boiling water to bring the temp back up should it fall, weighing the amount of water used and subtracting it from my sparge water to keep total water use consistent. This method allows me to keep the mash temp within about 4 degrees of my target, but doesn't really allow for step mashing.

The solutions I've seen are simple but elegant - a ton of insulation, add boiling water to bring temps up, store the mash tun in the oven set on low, etc.. The solutions that would allow for step mashing require using a kettle of some description as my mash tun, which prevent me from maintaining laser-focused temp ranges, short of having a continuous, electric stirring mechanism and electric heating element with controller.

I've envisioned three solutions to my problem: the first, a simple crock pot and temp controller setup, wherein the heat is diffuse enough to not cause a large temp gradient or significant scorching, though I fear moving from one step to another would take a great deal of time.
The second solution is a RIMS setup, wherein I hookup a pump and RIMS tube to the outlet of my tun (it's a mini cylindrical), and recirculate it. The advantage of this setup is that I'd get continuous sparging for free, and temp control would be virtually exact. The problem is, I'm not sure I can pull enough liquid off of my mash to be able to fill the volume required by the tubing, pump, and RIMS chamber. I have maybe 1 L of mash liquid available before I compact the grain bed significantly, which would probably tank my efficiency.
Finally, there is the attractive option of a HERMS setup - the 6.75" diameter wort chiller sold on homebrewsupply.com will fit inside my tun, so if I hook that up, via pump, to a sous-vide controlled water bath, I could set up the HERMS tube at, say, a degree F above my mash temp target, and have a virtually lossless system. The issue I foresee is the time it would take to raise the temperature in a step mash recipe.

And so my question to you all, is: what do you think would be the best setup, that would allow me to maintain mash temps to within a degree F, as well as reasonably quickly raise temperatures for step mashing?

Thank you very much for reading all of this!

-Adrian

 

[Calichusetts]

Mash in a pot, in the oven. It will hold perfectly if you preheat the oven to 170, turn it off, and put in the pot.

RIMS/HERMS would be a nice option in that you can use it even if you go to another batch size. I'm guessing that either will also raise temps on a 1 gallon batch quickly, but you can easily use a calculator and find out how much boiling water to add to the mash to raise it up, or even do decoctions.

 

[HardyFool]

RIMS/HERMS would be a nice option in that you can use it even if you go to another batch size. I'm guessing that either will also raise temps on a 1 gallon batch quickly, but you can easily use a calculator and find out how much boiling water to add to the mash to raise it up, or even do decoctions.

Re: the RIMS/HERMS setup, I agree - one of the draws has always been that I can use whatever pumps/elements I buy in a 5 gal setup, even if I have to tear apart whatever I've built.

Re: boiling water, in all fairness, a two-step mash that started fairly thick would be totally doable with boiling water alone, but I'm hungry to be able to do a Berliner Weiße-style four step mash, for example, which would require a heating element of some description. Additionally, a water jacketed tun would be great for sour worting/mashing, so that kind of a semi-HERMS setup is tempting, though complex, and likely to require stainless welding.

The best setup I've been able to envision has been a small, food grade pump, which takes the output of the ball valve at the base of the tun, and with as little tubing as possible, runs the wort back up the outside of the tun, and then through *gasp* a plate chiller, with the "chilling" water set to the target mash temp, or a degree above; given the small volume of wort, I can't imagine it would take more than a few minutes to move up or down by 20 degrees F, and mash temps would be stabilized as the plate chiller would bring wort temps asymptotically to target, assuming even moderate environmental losses. This would likely cost >$200, even assuming I use cheap, albeit food grade and temp rated, sous vide pumps (I don't need high flow rates, though the drag from the plate chiller may prove a considerable hurdle for a smaller motor, as I've read) for about $30/pump, a $100 shirron chiller, and a fairly accurate, if single output, temp controller, silicone tubing being relatively cheap compared to the chiller and pumps. Should I see a windfall of cash, I'm likely to throw caution to the wind and build this, unless I am advised otherwise.

Thanks for your response, Calichusetts!

 

[ChocolateMaltyBalls]

I like my plate chiller, but for this application I'd consider making a small compact counterflow chiller for your heat exchanger. It'd be less restrictive and you'd be less concerned about clogs.

 

[HardyFool]

That is a solid idea, the issue of clogging definitely crossed my mind, and having a filter to prevent that might further strain the pump. In fact, if I had even part of the counterflow device below the liquid line, I wouldn't have to be as concerned about drawing off too much liquid from the tun, which is a massive help

Thanks for the advice CMB!

 

[JosephN]

Fermwrap around your MT, get a $16 inkbird dual stage relay, 4"x4"x4" PCV box, 2-15a outlets, and make you a temp controller. Place the heating pad around your MT, place the temp probe in your mash, and let the fermwrap keep a steady higher temp placed on the outside which should help with the inside.

Remind me to send you a few pictures of the ones I've made for ideas.

 

[HardyFool]

JosephN,

I think that regardless of my mashing solution, I should put a FermWrap and controller of some sort near the top of my shopping list, for fermentation and wort souring alone. Though I do wonder - how much heat can these things produce? Could I maintain a mid-150s (F) mash, assuming I started there? Most reviews I've seen mention using the FermWrap as a fermentation control device for saisons and occasionally sours, so I haven't seen any upper limits to its heating ability - though the MoreBeer product page says the upper limit is 20F above ambient, which locks me in at about 100F (regardless, I'll be getting one for sours and saisons and/or winter)

As for building a temp control unit, I'm open to the prospect, and I've worked with electrical wiring and Arduino-based I/O projects before, but I was wondering if you had a preferred DIY article for building one. I've seen a few that seem viable, and further, have often been advised to just buy a simple 2 output controller, i.e. this bad boy. Thoughts?

And thanks for the advice!

 

[JosephN]

Well if I understood correctly you were having an issue with your temp dropping several degrees every 15 mins. I was suggesting to simply wrap the fermwrap around your cooler, then the blankets or whatever you use for insulation. I figure that if you kind of preheat the exterior that you would lose less heat during the mash. And I'm not exactly sure how warm they get but I could test min and find out. I do agree that it can add +20 degrees to the liquid in a fermenter compared to the ambient temp. So with this logic, it should at least help stabilize your mash temp.

About the temp controller, you can seriously make one for $30-40. I'm an electrician that does custom work on houses and for businesses, so I don't have a link or anything to pass on. I could tell you how I made both of mine, two different types and both with a different purpose. One of mine controls a duplex receptacle, one outlet for my chest freezer (cooling item) and the other for my fermwrap (heating item that is tapped to the underside of my chest freezer lid). I also added an additional duplex outlet that is always hot, live, active. I added that for a fan to circulate air in the chest freezer and for whatever else I want to hook up. Again please remind me to send pictures and I'll do so, I'm at the movies right now with my wife and I had a little time to check in.

One thing about the mash for souring, I think that lactose bacillus needs to be between 100-105, which id say you could do with the fermwrap. I think it needs to be that temp for a few days. And I guess the style I'm referring to is a Berlinerwise.

 

[JosephN]

Here are those picture of my chest freezer temp controller.

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And here are some of the one I made for my mash. I just put the probe in the grain/water mixture and it lets me know the internal temp from outside of the cooler, leaving no need to open my MT. Oh and btw right now I'm using it to allow me to see the current temp of my bottle storage room. This allows me to control the temp better so my bottles carb quicker and without stressing the yeast. And one more thing. I have that duplex receptacle in the orange box so when I'm fermenting a saison as well as another beer that doesn't need the temp raised, I can pull the saison out into the room and up the temp as desired without messing the other beer up.

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[HardyFool]

Well if I understood correctly you were having an issue with your temp dropping several degrees every 15 mins. I was suggesting to simply wrap the fermwrap around your cooler, then the blankets or whatever you use for insulation. I figure that if you kind of preheat the exterior that you would lose less heat during the mash. And I'm not exactly sure how warm they get but I could test min and find out. I do agree that it can add +20 degrees to the liquid in a fermenter compared to the ambient temp. So with this logic, it should at least help stabilize your mash temp.

That's a great point; the whole origin for my HERMS idea was that I wanted a way to essentially nullify heat loss due to inefficient insulation material, but I strongly suspect that you're right, that a FermWrap would do just as good of a job, and with no need for costly copper and pumps. Regardless, I need a FermWrap and controller anyway for the souring you mention below (I've tried using plastic bags to hold my wort in a water bath, and refilling the water every few hours, to surprisingly reasonable success, though I don't have the will power to do that every time). In short, I'll be moving the fermwrap and controller to the top of my list, and will likely conduct my next several mashes like that, as the next several slated beers are single infusion.

About the temp controller, you can seriously make one for $30-40. I'm an electrician that does custom work on houses and for businesses, so I don't have a link or anything to pass on. I could tell you how I made both of mine, two different types and both with a different purpose. One of mine controls a duplex receptacle, one outlet for my chest freezer (cooling item) and the other for my fermwrap (heating item that is tapped to the underside of my chest freezer lid). I also added an additional duplex outlet that is always hot, live, active. I added that for a fan to circulate air in the chest freezer and for whatever else I want to hook up. Again please remind me to send pictures and I'll do so, I'm at the movies right now with my wife and I had a little time to check in.

Now this is an interesting dilemma. Eventually, once I have my brewing setup where I want it, I'll likely have two pumps (wort and temp-controlled water), one 2-output temp controller (fermenter), one 1-output controller (temp-controlled water), and a continuously running fan, at least. So an argument could be made that I should just build two encompassing control panels now (fermentation & wort production), so that I don't have to worry about basically re-buying controllers when that day inevitably comes.

However, for fermentation alone, I just need a hot/cool controller and a constant, live outlet for my, say, chest freezer; for wort production, I'd need (for now) one pump which I need to have manual control over anyway (on when mashing, off otherwise), and then just a temp controlled heating element for the temp-controlled water bath, so while I suspect I will eventually build a control panel, given the fairly minuscule $40 price difference for two, the path of least resistance is guiding me to get two of these prefab bad boys and simply toss a button onto a SPST solid state relay for the pump. However, I'll likely order one of the ITC-1000s and start tinkering on a control box. And your setup looks both gorgeous and seamless, so I'll definitely be putting time towards building a fleshed out control, with hopes to finish it by the time I order the inevitable, costly pump and build a small counterflow heat exchanger for my step mashing.

And thank you very much, JosephN, for sharing your setup and wisdom with me!

 

[HardyFool]

So, I built the RIMS system. It works, and I'm currently building an upgraded version that has the ability to output a % of power in order to power the electric kettle I built. I thermowell my fermentations, have plans to purchase a plate filter (the canister ones require too much volume for a humble one-galloner), and have already made use of a spunding valve and my 1.5 gallon keg for pressure fermentations. I also have plans to implement a steam-heated grant for my RIMS system as an alternative to my electric element version, and a sous-vide supplied "reverse HERMS," wherein heated water, used down the line for the sparge, is pumped through a (you guessed it) copper chiller in order to maintain heat in, and possibly raise the temperature of, my mash. At some point, I'll buy a tilt, and monitor my thermowell'd and/or pressure ferments, in order to do fun stuff like "cask" conditioning milds in the keg by dialing in the spunding valve once X points are left in the beer.

Am I a psychopath? Yes and no. My reason for doing all of this, I tell myself, is that hand-making virtually everything, from the manifold to the PID RIMS controller (hand wired, holes hand-drilled, hand-designed), really teaches me about each element of a generalized, worst-case scenario nightmare brewery, wherein temperature drops of 10˚/hour are standard fare, and if fermentations aren't thermowell'd, you can have swings of easily 10˚/day due to the lack of thermal mass. Early on, I realized I had to build what amounted to a professional-level setup, and while I'm not there yet, I can tell you that designing a mash tun virtually from scratch, a RIMS system that pulled about a quart of wort and that I designed entirely from scratch, and a fermentation regime wherein I monitor temperature and pressure to within a degree and psi, has made me a much more competent manufacturer. If any of you have questions on one gallon brewing, by god I've at least contemplated the answers, and I'll continue to post here as the progress advances. Included, as such, are some pictures of that wild prototype of a PID controller

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