luckybeagle
Making sales and brewing ales.
Hey all, I've been brewing for about four years now and have fallen into a routine. Sometimes routines are good, but other times you end up practicing the wrong thing over and over! I was hoping a few folks could comment on my process to identify any major flaws and to check my thinking on my processes:
I have a 15 gallon, 3 vessel system with a HERMS coil in my HLT. I use a 5500w heating element in my HLT and a 5500w element in my boil kettle. It's controlled by an Auber Cube 2E, and I run two food grade pumps.
Water:
*My process is based on time saving measures. I have 2 young kids and can't dedicate 4-5 hours' worth of attention to my system at a time. I usually mash during naptime and begin my xfer to the boil kettle once the kids go to bed. My cumulative hands-on time in the garage is probably about an hour, with the remainder of the brew day spent inside with the fam'.
*I almost never boil for longer than 60 minutes, even with all Pilsner Malt batches based on the exBEERiments showing that modern, modified pilsner malts don't produce DMS like they used to.
*My chilling method allows me to step away and not babysit the flow through the plate chiller. I usually fire it up and go inside for 15-20 minutes.
*I can fly or batch sparge, and I know it's more cost-effective to, but single infusion/no sparge requires no babysitting, and I'm content with my consistent 80% efficiency with this method.
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What do you all think? Can you see anything in my process or thinking that is flawed and might result in poorer beer quality? I tried to make timesaving adjustments that wouldn't affect the end product or couldn't be compensated with by more grain, etc. Thoughts?
Thanks for reading!
I have a 15 gallon, 3 vessel system with a HERMS coil in my HLT. I use a 5500w heating element in my HLT and a 5500w element in my boil kettle. It's controlled by an Auber Cube 2E, and I run two food grade pumps.
Water:
- I fill up my HLT with plain old tap water and do not use this for any other purpose than to provide temperature for the HERMS coil
- 4 stage RO filtration system. I add the full amount needed for brew day to my MLT and build the appropriate water profile.
- Begin recirculation within the HLT for temperature consistency (water drains from lower ball valve, passes over an in-line temperature probe hooked up to the controller, goes through the pump and returns to the top of the HLT to create temperature stability
- MLT goes from tun to pump, to HERMS coil inlet at the bottom of the HLT to HERMS coil outlet at the top of the HLT, back to the MLT via a silicone tube that lays on top of the grain bed. This is nearly identical to Kal's method.
- I set the temperature controller to 2F above my target grain bed temperature to account for temp loss and begin recirculating.
- Once temperature is reached, I take freshly crushed grain and add it to the MLT. I recirculate for anywhere from 1 to 4 hours, depending on how busy I am. My mash temp is always a little lower than my target since I'm doing a single infusion, no sparge, constantly recirculated mash.
- After the mash, I drain the full contents of the mash tun into the boil kettle and reach my preboil volume.
- I boil at about 55-70% power depending on batch size and ambient conditions, and reach a rolling boil quickly.
- All hops are added to a hop rocket.
- During the last 15 minutes of the boil, I hook up my plate chiller to the pump an begin pumping the boiling wort through it to sterilize it and back into the boil kettle. I do not have the water supply running through the plate chiller at this point
- At knockout, I shut off the heating element and turn on the cold water supply. This creates a whirlpool that simultaneously chills in the boil kettle. I have a temperature probe on my plate chiller outlet line to let me know when I've reached pitching temp.
- I disconnect the return to the boil kettle once pitching temperature is reached and begin pumping the chilled wort into a sanitized Fermzilla, creating a lot of splish-splash in the process (I do not yet use oxygen). The fermenter then goes in to an Inkbird-controlled chest freezer, where I follow style-specific fermentation schedules. I almost always use a spunding valve with the pressure set to as low as I can get it. I then do a closed transfer to a keg when it's finished and put it on tap.
*My process is based on time saving measures. I have 2 young kids and can't dedicate 4-5 hours' worth of attention to my system at a time. I usually mash during naptime and begin my xfer to the boil kettle once the kids go to bed. My cumulative hands-on time in the garage is probably about an hour, with the remainder of the brew day spent inside with the fam'.
*I almost never boil for longer than 60 minutes, even with all Pilsner Malt batches based on the exBEERiments showing that modern, modified pilsner malts don't produce DMS like they used to.
*My chilling method allows me to step away and not babysit the flow through the plate chiller. I usually fire it up and go inside for 15-20 minutes.
*I can fly or batch sparge, and I know it's more cost-effective to, but single infusion/no sparge requires no babysitting, and I'm content with my consistent 80% efficiency with this method.
------
What do you all think? Can you see anything in my process or thinking that is flawed and might result in poorer beer quality? I tried to make timesaving adjustments that wouldn't affect the end product or couldn't be compensated with by more grain, etc. Thoughts?
Thanks for reading!