Doughball killers

[SkiBeagle]

"No fixed abode" 
My rig is also a wanderer, in need of a permanent home. Usually to be found lurking around the back door on brew days before being moved on by the TidyTown Police.
CH: Thanks for the clarification. I'll definitely try this next brew. I usually try to get everything ready the night before, so I just have to heat water next morning. This would help to speed up starting the mash.

[molc]

Well the compression fittings are in the elements as well, so I'd be more worried about those leaking overnight with almost 40L in the HLT. The camlocks have never spilled a drop for me.

You mention the flow rate on your pumps being an issue. I have valves in my outlets and I only open them halfway for the herms, so the false bottom can keep up. A chugger at full flow rate just sucks it too fast to keep up for me.

Switching from mash in to herms is one connection for me, swapping the MT out to the second pump input, which will already be connected to the herms coil. Stirring the mash is more work than that

What we need is to have a brewday somewhere and show people these things in action! Might record my next brewday steps or something to show how it goes...

[Leann ull]

Yeah go on we have all done it

[Shanna]

Sorry Shanna my crushing and boiling all done morning of
30-40 mins with lids on hlt to get 50 litres up to temp temp and I'm weighing water adds grain hops and getting whirlfloc during that
It's molc I'm envious of having said that I'm usually pottering setting up mt boiler etc as mines of no fixed abode.

Time unfortunately is a precious commodity for me so I have to crush grains, fill water and weigh out hops in to hop bags (no more since i got the hop spider) so I try and save time any where I can get it I note you fill your hlt and heat it all in one go, I do the same. Rossa mentioned to me one evening at a SD meeting that I should consider changing to heat just the mash water to reduce the time taken as less water will boil quicker. Honestly I never thought of it and at the time & it was such an obvious easy way to shave time off the brewday. It must have appeared as if I was simple . I had gotten used to doing things in a particular was and tended to stick to it to minimize the tendency to make mistakes.

The idea being that the additional sparge water could be filled & heated while the mash is on. I tried it once but never really repeated it. On that one occasion I forgot to add the camden tablets to the original mash water as normally I add them to the full brewing amount. I ended up with a phenolic beer (american amber that Bubbles & Shiny pinged). Reviewing my brewing setup with others they reckoned it was my impatience in pitching the yeast on 25C wort. At the time I was also using an LCD strip on the side of the fermenter so I can't be sure how accurate it was. I subsequently added a thermowell and also a 2nd immersion coil for chilling so I have not had a repeat. I also invested in a more reliable thermometer & confirmed that the temps in the thermowell are with .1C of the temp from the liquid direct in the fermented.

I still think that the lack of camden tablets were a contributing factor as the water around my area at the time was rank with the aroma of chlorine. Going to try the underletting and also give the split mash water approach to reduce the time taken to heat the mash water. I would assume if one is using camden tablets to treat the water that it should include both the mash water and sparge water.

Shanna

[Shanna]

Well the compression fittings are in the elements as well, so I'd be more worried about those leaking overnight with almost 40L in the HLT. The camlocks have never spilled a drop for me.

You mention the flow rate on your pumps being an issue. I have valves in my outlets and I only open them halfway for the herms, so the false bottom can keep up. A chugger at full flow rate just sucks it too fast to keep up for me.

Switching from mash in to herms is one connection for me, swapping the MT out to the second pump input, which will already be connected to the herms coil. Stirring the mash is more work than that

What we need is to have a brewday somewhere and show people these things in action! Might record my next brewday steps or something to show how it goes...

about
Yeah the camlocks are great, absolutely delighted with them since I switched over from those plastics connection fittings. I know what you mean about the elements leaking I lost an American Amber over XMas when the collar on the heating element worked it way loose. I was sickened as 5+ hours of work literally drained on to the floor. I await with interest (and pictures) how your switch over to ss locking nut and nipple goes . It should ensure that this kind of leak does not happen. I have valves in my outlets also and was using them at about 1/3 initially on the output of the mashtun. What I observed was that the initial flow would be slow and steady but after 5 or 6 minutes the mash outflow would eventually be drawing quicker that the liquid could flow through the mash to the false bottom. Only when I added them ss colander did it allow the liquid to percolate through the mash and it also allowed there to be enough volume in the bottom of the mash tun to prevent the mash running dry.

A shared brew day sounds like a great idea. I had a few of these in the past who were great company, provided an extra set of hands (always welcome) but also were constructively critical and helped me out by constantly questioning my approach. i used to attend the brewdays in tog in the past for this reason. I would be willing to host one in the future or attend one hosted by others but would need a bit of notice so that its factored in to the schedule

Shanna

[molc]

I was doing the split water thing but that's how I burned out my element, as I drained and forgot to turn it off. Going to try just in the hlt next time as I need less moving parts

[molc]

A shared brew day sounds like a great idea. I had a few of these in the past who were great company, provided an extra set of hands (always welcome) but also were constructively critical and helped me out by constantly questioning my approach. i used to attend the brewdays in tog in the past for this reason. I would be willing to host one in the future or attend one hosted by others but would need a bit of notice so that its factored in to the schedule

Shanna

Aye ditto. I have plenty of space for it as well so always up for it. Sounds like the perfect excuse for a BBQ wonder can you get 40L brewed in the keggles. That way everyone even gets a batch into a corny to bring home...

[CARA]

I underlet with quite a few of our recipes. Helps give an even temp and reduces HSA vrs splashing from the top.
e.g
Lager Process:
Add first infusion volume @54℃, add malt, temp 50℃ for 30mins.
Hook hlt to mt outlet, slowly pump desired vol of liquor @91℃ to give desired second infusion temp.

Mashing in at 50 also completely eliminates any chance of dough balls

[Leann ull]

Yep I do step mashing for pilsners or helles think one of my recipes starts at 34! That's using floor malted stuff just to convince myself I'm not missing out anything if it's not 100% modified!

[neoanto]

This is a good idea. Basically have the correct volume of water sitting in the HTL overnight and have a timer to turn on the element (run through a thermostat or STC).
Might save about an hour.
Im definitely going to try the underletting idea next brew.

[Leann ull]

Post how you get on

[neoanto]

Tried that underletting today.
It did not turn out well for me!

So I underlet the water into the mash tun.
I was doing a medium thickness mash.
I had to stir it in a bit to get rid of the dough balls.
Grand let the mash sit for an hour.

When I went to lauter I got a stuck sparge.
Blowing through the outlet didn't do it.
In the end I had to take apart the manifold (after pouring the mash into another container!)
Got it working eventually.

It's the first time I had a stuck sparge that bad.
Maybe it was something else that caused that but for me I think my experimenting with underletting is over!

[nigel_c]

I've been under letting for the last few years and never had any problems. Not one stuck mash and only the odd dough ball that is easily spotted. Did you change your mill getting or have a recipe with high amounts of rye or wheat?

[Leann ull]

Underletting was not your problem there, as Nigel says crush or Rye

[neoanto]

I was using a simple bill of Mild malt (never used that before) and a tiny % of acid malt (again never used that before).
I dont have a mill at the moment.
I'm getting my grains crushed from HBC when i buy them.
That could be the issue.