Reconfiguration of brewery

CRUNK

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I have tried a few infusion, and step infusion mashes, along with recirculation and I am now going to reconfigure my brewery on a permanent but adaptable setup this weekend, I have received my parts and I'm going to tear it down and clean it and reassemble it. If the test afterwards goes well I am gonna brew next weekend.

On a good note, I used a yeast collected months ago, to make a starter for my octoberfest, and it worked beautifully, I have been collecting my yeast for quite awhile now, so I have plenty of 34/70, wlp001, and a few others, so my yeast bank is coming along very nicely

My next purchase is a malt mill, so I can mill my own, then I'm gonna start purchasing in bulk.
 
thats one of the best investment I've made
Just for my own curiousity, why? I buy in bulk form my LHBS store. They essentially keep a record of how much I use, so I don't actually keep the whole 50lb sack at my house. I just buy 50lb at once for the bulk price.

I thought about a mill, but realized I had to go there all the time for yeast and hops and what not anyway. Looking for an excuse to get a mill is all, not judging :)
 
the size of your crush is very important to how you brew, I need a larger crush but for bib you need fine, I have mine set to a certain gap that helps keep my system running smooth, any deviation changes the ball valve adjustment on mine
 
Ah, I had not thought of that. I have always used the same shop, thus the same grinder, so remains consistent :) . Interesting thought for the future though. Thanks!
 
Just for my own curiousity, why? I buy in bulk form my LHBS store. They essentially keep a record of how much I use, so I don't actually keep the whole 50lb sack at my house. I just buy 50lb at once for the bulk price.

That is a pretty cool idea.
 
I buy my hops in bulk ie: 2 lb bags that last quite awhile I seal them up after use, and I have been building a yeast bank, so I rarely need yeast.

Buying malt in bulk, just a 50lb bag would be 63 cents a pound for weyermanns barke pilsner malt, not to mention, custom milling with my own mill COULD produce better efficiency.
 
for continuous recirculating and fly sparging you need the largest crush, I use 0.045. no circulation, no fly sparging needs the finest crush
 
The way I'm setting my system up I have the ability to do recirculation or I can still close off certain valves and do an infusion Mash if I choose to later on

In the long run it still saves me money if I want to do my own Milling
 
Just for my own curiousity, why? I buy in bulk form my LHBS store. They essentially keep a record of how much I use, so I don't actually keep the whole 50lb sack at my house. I just buy 50lb at once for the bulk price.

I thought about a mill, but realized I had to go there all the time for yeast and hops and what not anyway. Looking for an excuse to get a mill is all, not judging :)
My LHBS does a grain book , works out you pay upfront for a whole sack and they just deduct your weight from that .
I bought whole sacks of my preferred base malts on a club buy at great prices but no way I'll use 25 kg of the spec malts in a hurry so this works well for those malts I won't turn over in a hurry
 
Another great thing about buying in bulk is the freedom to brew on a whim whenever you so desire.
 
Do any of you guys buy grains in bulk online? If so where?
 
Another great thing about buying in bulk is the freedom to brew on a whim whenever you so desire.

+1 to that. I too found it convienent to use the LHBS mill, but then i found myself wanting to brew, but not able to take the 2 hour run to the store. Just a few days ago I found an afternoon with nothing that couldn't wait, and said huh, look at my shiny new mill dying to be used (finally bought one last week), then BAM 10 gallons of nectar fermenting away
 
This weekend I will be taking my brewery apart, cleaning, and reconfiguring it with permanent but adaptable and easily changeable pex tubing, which I can buy at work for $3.10 per 20 foot stick, that's cheaper than hose from my lhbs. I change my hoses every 6 months for sanitary reasons.

Now that I have brewed in a few different ways, to see what works best for my system, I decided to set it up for recirculation and infusion mashes if desired by adding valves, this will also allow me to recirculate my mash tun/cooler only to set the grain bed during dough in, then open up the entire system to recirculate, as I am running a kettle rims system.

I have a few more items I am looking for, I still need a chest freezer or Keezer, a mill, and about 5 to 10 korny kegs.

That leaves me with one thing I have not tried yet, and that requires another burner, and kettle, I'm talking decoction mashing, I will try it a few times, unless I determine it a necessary process, then I would have to adapt my system with mash pumps etc... to stay low 02.
 
This weekend I will be taking my brewery apart, cleaning, and reconfiguring it with permanent but adaptable and easily changeable pex tubing, which I can buy at work for $3.10 per 20 foot stick, that's cheaper than hose from my lhbs. I change my hoses every 6 months for sanitary reasons.

Now that I have brewed in a few different ways, to see what works best for my system, I decided to set it up for recirculation and infusion mashes if desired by adding valves, this will also allow me to recirculate my mash tun/cooler only to set the grain bed during dough in, then open up the entire system to recirculate, as I am running a kettle rims system.

I have a few more items I am looking for, I still need a chest freezer or Keezer, a mill, and about 5 to 10 korny kegs.

That leaves me with one thing I have not tried yet, and that requires another burner, and kettle, I'm talking decoction mashing, I will try it a few times, unless I determine it a necessary process, then I would have to adapt my system with mash pumps etc... to stay low 02.
Ok ill give you my shoddy one burner way of doing decoction 5 gal volume your measurements. So single vessal biab mode dough in as per usual correct ph and start at first rest or wherever suits a protine rest 56 ish centigrade. Lift biab bag draw out required grain to fill spare brew pot mines a 15lt stock pot. Then manuallylift off your main brew kettle off burner and wrap in blankets whatever to keep temp. Add your decoction pot to main burner and bring this to its sac rest of 65c for 15 then boil and add back to your main kettle to hit your step temps as needed.

Heres my yummy pilsner finally cleared single decocted this way for 30 mins. Its a lovely delecate brew well ballanced i think with a nice honey malt mouthfeel finnishing nice and crisp on the pallet. An easily smashable brew that rewards you for your patience and hard work with each sip;).

My second time brewing this beer all floor malted bohimianpilsner malt and nothing else. A rewarding malt to brew with and i love the 34/70 s well balanced malty clean flavour i presents. Maybe ill try some carahell in the future and ive got a new larger yeast strain from whitelabs im going to try out the Czechoslovakia pils strain it think its called beouvice yeast:rolleyes:.
 

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I purchased a brew bag to adapt into my system as well, I'm almost finished with the setup, then I will be able to brew I 4 different ways, recirculation, infusion, decoction, biab, or a combination.

The brew bag is primarily to help me filter my wort during transfer to the boil kettle.

I'll have pictures later today.
 
That's not 4 different methods buddy , using a bag is great if you don't have a screen or manifold or if mash tun is also your kettle .
Recirculating is a good move no matter how you brew though and adding a pump to my brewery is next move
 

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