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nothing like a home brew rig for home brewing!
And be sure to order a pint before asking!
Maybe time to take the next step with the homebrew gear.
- Thread starter RoadRoach
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nothing like a home brew rig for home brewing!
And be sure to order a pint before asking!
Just be willing to hear no. Also you will need to be there while the production staff is there. If they have a brewpub shoot for lunch. If not swing by around 2pm and you might be able to poke your head in and ask someone who is working.
They can also help you with your process. Bring some homebrew by around 3 or 4 and see if the brewers want to try it. Get friendly with them and they can help you a lot! We used to have homebrewers come in pretty frequently and bring us beer to try. A lot of brewers have done sensory training(or atleast all of the ones that I trained).
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BrewHardware sells stand-off grids to use as false bottoms for BIAB. I have a 10gal Bayou Classic as a Kettle and the 14.75-inch model works perfectly. I installed my own pickup elbow and Spincycle whirlpool ports as low as I could so the 2-¼-inch legs work perfectly. They sell various sizes to accommodate your kettle. (and they fabricate too!) https://www.brewhardware.com/category_s/1826.htm
The standoff false-bottom allows you to direct fire your mash to maintain temp if needed. But we also have a pair of Keggles where one is the 'boil kettle' where we direct fire to maintain temp, and we recirc this to the other which holds the bag and mash. It is a bit of a juggling act, but using a pump with a G2 valve, we can dial the flow just right. The key is to maintain more wort in the pot that you are not pumping from. That allows gravity to drain it to the other pot while the pump pulls it the other way. (about ⅓ as much difference seems to be the sweet spot) In our case, we maintain about 8–10 gallons on the mash side, and 4–5 on the boil/fired side. We pump from the hot side over the mash via an Ultimate Sparge Arm, and the mash side gravity drains back to the hot side. Incidentally, we developed this not for indirect heated mashing, but to brew more than our single Keggle could initially hold. Rule of thumb is you can brew a batch half the size of the vessel with single-vessel BIAB. We can easily BIAB 10 gallons this way, and we plan to try 15 gallons in the near future. Yet, the keggle can only hold 14.5 gallons of volume. (both keggles end up being used initially during the boil, and later combined, though with 15gal, we'll just boil separately til the end.)
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Ditto on saving yeast. And no, you don't have to 'bank' it and *don't* wash it! (just top crop into a 4oz. mason jar during high Krausen) Yeast like acidic environments. If you wash the previous beer out with distilled, they won't be happy. If I can't top crop (say for Lagers, or if I'm busy) I hold back as much beer as cake when racking, swirl well to blend and then pour the resulting slurry into 2–3 quart jars, cover, and let sit at room temp for about 30 minutes to re-settle. I then decant the milk-yeasty beer to a 1L starter flask, cover with sanitized foil or cork and crash hard for a week to get a solid yeast layer. Then decant again, holding back as much beer as there is yeast cake, swirl, and transfer to a 4oz. mason jar. The result is about 125–150ml of healthy fresh yeast with enough beer on top to keep them happy and I keep that <40℉ until ready to use. (fill to the brim! - and don't forget to label & date!)
As for the weevils/beetles, when you get a new sack in, and if you use a chest freezer for fermenting (or divide in ziplocks and use your house freezer) crash the grain down for 3–7 days below 32℉, then you can store the grain at higher temps with little chance any of them surviving to start turning your malt to powder. I haven't tried Vittle Vaults, but I do use food-grade buckets and lids from Lowes. They have a screw-top lid that is much easier to work with than the snap on kind. (similar to the Vittle Vault lids, if not the same thing)
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Who cares what fermenter you use? Only you should care. Use what you like. I've used glass carboys, plastic buckets, and Big Mouth Bubblers. My friends have used Fermonsters, Speidels, Stainless BrewBuckets, Spike Conicals, etc. There are pros and cons to all types.
Trub? My personal experience is it doesn't matter. The yeast either don't care, or they like it. My beer tastes the same with or without it in the fermenter. Avoiding it going from kettle to fermenter doesn't necessarily mean clearer packaged beer. (see Brulosophy) But do whatever you like. It is your beer.
The point of the Diacetyl rest is for the *yeast* to clean up after themselves. I will admit if you crash first, rack off of the yeast and then raise for the rest, you might inhibit that process a bit. (less yeast in suspension, and they have to wake up from cold sleep first) But if you don't have Diacetyl issues with your beer, then keep doing what you do.
Cold crashing is the easiest way to clarify a beer prior to packaging. It only takes time and the ability to get <32℉. (but stay above 28!)
He frowns at BIAB? Ha. Ignore him. If you want to use that method. Use it. BIAB brewers have more medals, gold or otherwise, than that guy, I can assure you. And if he's a judge, I'd bet him a keg of beer he's judged BIAB beers without knowing and given them excellent scores. I have a friend that uses a 3-vessel gas-fired Spike HERMS system with a basket, but still uses a bag for easy cleanup.
This shop guy sounds like a jerk. Buy what you want. Never accept what you don't. YOU make substitution decisions if he doesn't have or can't get what you want - not him.
By all means, go with a motor if you can. I have a MM-2 Monster Mill and use a Dewalt ½-inch drive 8A drill. It takes a minute or so for 10#. I have a feeler gauge, and I crush once at 0.035˝ and a second pass at 0.030˝. (I do BIAB) My friends have an MM-1. Sometimes we stack them with 2 drills and double crush at different gaps in one pass. I guess a 3-roller, like their MM-3 would be the ticket here except most of those can't be adjusted on the 3rd roller. But it is little effort to do it yourself with one mill, a feeler gauge, and 2 buckets. You don't need long rollers for homebrew. That new Spike mill looks sweet by the way.
That goes without saying. I usually order the sampler sizes (4 oz) so I can try a few different things without getting schnockered. I like beer, but don’t like being drunk.
I have seen this mentioned multiple times on this thread alone. Why do yall mill the grain twice? Is this only a BIAB thing? My mill is set so that 99% of the grain is cracked, not pulverized(I dont remember the actual gapping on it it is 8/10 on a blichmann 2 roller).
Have yall every done Sieve testing on it? I have not done a sieve test on my mill yet, I will see if i can borrow a sieve set and ill post on here what i get.
2nd grind is more for exactly what you’re asking, to get a more consistent size. I read a few articles about sieve testing and efficiency, as well as overall process impacts. For BIAB process, it’s better to grind finer because there’s little or no risk for a stuck sparge because sparging is little more than rinsing the spent grain a little. For loose grain mashing, a coarser grind results in less destruction of the husks which provide a natural filter, and also gives some small assurance against a stuck sparge. The rollers in most mills will flex at least some amount, and the second pass will recrush anything that went through the larger gap when the folls flexed. 3-roll mills reduce if not eliminate the need for recrush. Saves a few minutes and watts of energy.
Makes perfect sense. I have very little homebrewing experience. its a different world!
Best way to get the experience is to jump in with both feet. My stepson gave me a one gallon kit for Christmas a few years ago and was already in the hobby. I brewed that, which was an American Pale as I recall, and then a couple more small batches, and realized the beer was so much better than commercial stuff, and I could get so much more variety than the supermarket carried. I’m slowly upgrading equipment and learning as I go. Don’t let anyone sway you from extract brewing while you’re still learning about different yeast and hop flavors and characteristics. Extract brewing takes a little work out of the process, but does impose a few limits that you don’t normally have with all-grain brewing. But it’s a LOT cleaner and easier. The rewards are good for learning as much as you can before doing more complicated beers. Find a simple recipe that you like as a base, and use that as your stock supply to keep some on the shelf. Larger batches really don’t take much longer, other than cleaning larger vessels and equipment. If you have any acquaintances in the hobby, I’ve found most to be very generous and helpful. I can almost guarantee you will swear off commercial labels.
I don’t have a mill (yet) because I’m that guy that over analyzes almost every thing I do. I hate making mistakes that I don’t properly research.
The best advice I can give is to read, a LOT.
Baseline, sanitation and patience are your friends in this hobby. You already made a good choice to join this SIG/forum. There’s a complete spectrum of knowledge and experience in here to draw from. The advice and answers are second to none from the folks here. I recommend bumping up to premium membership for a few more perks. I don’t have a dog in that fight, and have no idea who collects my fees each year, but it’s the best thing I’ve done for any hobby I’ve started since retirement (with the possible exception of my tractor and the forum I joined for that.)
I Second @RoadRoach thoughts above absolutely nothing wrong with Extract brewing man.
Actually one member here @Craigerrr has reverted back to extract recently.
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I started with extracts to become comfortable with the process. Knowing what I know now, I should have gone straight for the bag and saved some kettle money, but it did teach me a few things.
The only things I caution with extract, and maybe I was using the wrong brands, but: 1. Watch what you are putting on direct heat. My extract beers were always heavy on the Crystal side. 2. Those damn things never fermented below 1.020. I tried everything I could think of including pitching two packets of yeast. Nothing worked. My first BIAB fermented perfectly.
If you are going very small batch, extract might be a good option for learning and will be less time consuming. On the five-gallon level, it might take 30 minutes longer to do BIAB than it does extract. There isn't much of a difference in time.
The only things I caution with extract, and maybe I was using the wrong brands, but: 1. Watch what you are putting on direct heat. My extract beers were always heavy on the Crystal side. 2. Those damn things never fermented below 1.020. I tried everything I could think of including pitching two packets of yeast. Nothing worked. My first BIAB fermented perfectly.
If you are going very small batch, extract might be a good option for learning and will be less time consuming. On the five-gallon level, it might take 30 minutes longer to do BIAB than it does extract. There isn't much of a difference in time.
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I had that problem for a while too. Never with extract, but i found that it had allot to do with fermentility of the wort. Higher temp mashing makes a less fermentable wort. With extract, you don't have control with how it was made. Willing to bet, they mashed at higher temp
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You are probably right. I didn't have as much control with the stove either until I learned a few things.
My grand total of homebrewing was back in college around 2007. Buddy and I made a few beers, none of which turned out well. I have been brewing commercially since 2009.
Lol I was was confused by the milling it twice thing as it is not something that we do on the larger scale.
I really enjoy this forum! yall are so welcoming and knowledgeable! I am happy to contribute my knowledge and experience wherever I can, not that my stuff translates directly...
Ya' know, everybody knows something. And all of us are smarter than any of us.
Spoken like a true engineer.
for BIAB
BIAB gets better efficiency with a finer crush. In fact, a good portion of the grain bill can be pulverized to flour. At an old lhbs where I used to buy and crush my grains, I always double milled my grains, and regularly achieved brewhouse efficiencies of 80% or better.
