Pete S
Member
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2020
- Messages
- 14
- Reaction score
- 5
I did a little bit of brewing in college. It was drinkable, but not great. There's so much more information available now. I've been doing a ton of reading and watching Youtube videos on all of it over the past few days. I have a 6 gallon stainless steel pot, so I could do some malt extract based brewing if I get a fermenter, Star San, a few other odds and ends, and a way to bottle or keg it.
After watching lots of Grainfather, Anvil Foundry, RoboBrew, Mash & Boil, etc. videos, I was leaning more toward not using one of them for the mash and boil, but instead getting a separate mash tun and kettle, plus using the 6.5 gallon Anvil Foundry with its stainless steel immersion coil as a HERMS for regulating mash temps, and for providing the proper temp sparging water. The costs of that adds up pretty quickly. It finally dawned on me that some of the issues that people were having with the 10.5 gallon Foundry (and competing units), which were pushing me away from getting one, are less likely to occur with the 6.5 gallon model. Some people seemed to be having problems with overly compacted grain beds in the bigger model, which could be from less than ideal grain milling or from too high a recirculation rate. It seems like Blichmann/Anvil decided to add more perforations up the side of the grain basket to help prevent stuck mash conditions, but what it potentially results in is more wort flowing out through the sides, and the center of the grain bed not draining or being sparged as well. The 6.5 gallon Foundry doesn't have the perforations in the side of the grain basket, which is probably better with a smaller grain load (or a larger one, if it's not too compacted).
Anyway, my high end system was to get a 10 gallon SS BrewTech kettle to use for both heating water to strike temp and also for the boil, a 10 gallon SS BrewTech mash tun, and a 6.5 gallon Anvil Foundry to use as a HERMS and to provide sparging water. I think for now I'm going to just order a 6.5 gallon Anvil Foundry and a 3.5 gallon SS BrewTech Brew Bucket with the cooling kit.
-Pete
After watching lots of Grainfather, Anvil Foundry, RoboBrew, Mash & Boil, etc. videos, I was leaning more toward not using one of them for the mash and boil, but instead getting a separate mash tun and kettle, plus using the 6.5 gallon Anvil Foundry with its stainless steel immersion coil as a HERMS for regulating mash temps, and for providing the proper temp sparging water. The costs of that adds up pretty quickly. It finally dawned on me that some of the issues that people were having with the 10.5 gallon Foundry (and competing units), which were pushing me away from getting one, are less likely to occur with the 6.5 gallon model. Some people seemed to be having problems with overly compacted grain beds in the bigger model, which could be from less than ideal grain milling or from too high a recirculation rate. It seems like Blichmann/Anvil decided to add more perforations up the side of the grain basket to help prevent stuck mash conditions, but what it potentially results in is more wort flowing out through the sides, and the center of the grain bed not draining or being sparged as well. The 6.5 gallon Foundry doesn't have the perforations in the side of the grain basket, which is probably better with a smaller grain load (or a larger one, if it's not too compacted).
Anyway, my high end system was to get a 10 gallon SS BrewTech kettle to use for both heating water to strike temp and also for the boil, a 10 gallon SS BrewTech mash tun, and a 6.5 gallon Anvil Foundry to use as a HERMS and to provide sparging water. I think for now I'm going to just order a 6.5 gallon Anvil Foundry and a 3.5 gallon SS BrewTech Brew Bucket with the cooling kit.
-Pete