Brewday - In pictures!

[molc]

Following in the long tradition of pics of a person's brewday, here's mine today. Started late around 10am and got the water heating and the grains selected. I run the water from the HLT through a pump and then through the herms coil, to get everything moving and make sure it's clear after the last brewday. There's a temp sensor on the out of the herms, which lets me also control the water temperature from the ArdBir.

The second pump is setup for sparging so I don't get confused trying to work out connections later.

Recipe is a simple American Amber.

[molc]

The grains are milled into a plastic bag that lines a fermenter. This keeps the dust down later and the bag serves as the rubbish bag for the rest of the brewday.

I've switched over to buying my base grain in 5kg bags, as I can get fresher grain rather than having a stale 25kg bag lying around. Plus, they fit on top of the mill so I don't have to make a mess adding in grain all the time!

I toss the bag into the mash tun and then just pull it out, leaving the grain behind with no dust. Easy peasy!

[molc]

Ardbir now takes over and gets the water to mash in temperature.

[molc]

After having a coffee, came back to find water at temperature. Connect the herms out to the mash tun and underlet the grain.

[molc]

Finally, connect the herms out to the sparge arm on the MT and connect the MT-OUT to the HERMS-IN. The Ardbir now does the rest and I walk away until the water is at sparge temperature

[molc]

Mash is done. Time to sparge. I connect the HERMS pump back to the HLT-OUT and connect the MT-OUT to the BK, let it slowly drain, then batch sparge and drain while bringing the BK to the boil.

[molc]

At this point, I also swap around the element connections to the BK, so I don't inadvertently run the HLT elements when they are dry. Learned the lesson the hard way here!

[Leann ull]

Love when folks post their brewdays
I'm such a lazy bastard I just mill straight into MT now
One essential piece of kit there I need to get, croissant, group buy anyone?

I am so fighting the will to automate my herms brewing like Nigel and you with a box, I still like the steam engine fiddling approach which does give me 100% temp control accuracy, just feel like I'm more in control of the process(clearly control freak).
Maybe when brewpi get their shit together. Edit end of this year which means middle of next 
Interesting discussion on Jims recently where a significant number of braumeisters were bought by old hands but they miss the fettling and some have sold them to start again .

@shanna see where that arrow is pointing on that chugger thats where you put your oil.

Keep posting!

[molc]

Mash and sparge complete. The boil just hit rolling as the last of the sparge water came into the BK - about 40-50mins overall. Coming in at about 75% efficiency, mostly due to having too small a mash bag so there's channeling along the sides. Replacement is already winging it's way over.

MT gets a quick rince and is kept connected for the full cleaning cycle later. I run the pump to the sink to pump out the last of the cleaning water as well.

[molc]

Since the boil has started and I again have nothing to do, I get the cooling and cleaning cycle connections all done at this point.  Plate chiller goes inline and the water out goes to the MT. Always need to remember to stop before the MT is full, otherwise it gets messy

The earlier connections for the HERMS are still in place, so for cleaning, I'll be pumping clean water from the MT, through the HERMS, into the Whirlpool arm of the BK and then out to the sink from the BK-OUT. It looks like a bit of a maze, but it's prety simple when it's running and means everything gets a really good rince with about 50L of hot water.

Now I just get to stare at the ArdBir while it does it's thing. It's set to beep for each of my hop additions, so I just watch a tv show in the other room while it works away.

[molc]

Love when folks post their brewdays
I'm such a lazy bastard I just mill straight into MT now
One essential piece of kit there I need to get, croissant, group buy anyone?

I am so fighting the will to automate my herms brewing like Nigel and you with a box, I still like the steam engine fiddling approach which does give me 100% temp control accuracy, just feel like I'm more in control of the process(clearly control freak).
Maybe when brewpi get their shit together.
Interesting discussion on Jims recently where a significant number of braumeisters were bought by old hands but they miss the fettling and some have sold them to start again .

@shanna see where that arrow is pointing on that chugger thats where you put your oil.

Keep posting!

Yeah it's taken me a lot of time to come up with a quick and easy system for using the new kit. There's a lot of fiddling with plumbing which keeps it's entertaining, but I can also walk away and ignore it for a few hours, which is great if I want to brew and get something done.

[molc]

Almost had an overflow with the cleaning water. Every single time I manage to forget to shut off the flow. Lucky this time though.

[molc]

Filling the fermenter. Ground water is quite warm at the moment, but managed to get it down to 19.3 after 30 minutes. Put some ice in the container around the plate chiller to help it a bit. Quick blast of O2, pitched the yeast and threw it into the fermentation fridge for it's 2 week workout

[molc]

The sample is exactly what I was aiming for with the colour. Really nice rich red hue from the pale chocolate malt. Last time I tried this recipe was for the Wicklow american ale competition and it came out a nasty murky brown instead that time.

You can see I pump all the break into the fermenter as well

[molc]

Alas cleanup has to be done. I do everything in place, so the BK-OUT is redirected to the sink and I pump in water from the MT, via the HERMS coil. Throw in some W5 and the whirlpool arm mixes it. Some elbow-grease after letting it sit for about 20 mins and it's clean as a whistle, followed by 3 rinses. Using the 2 pumps means I can control the in and out flow all from the BK, so I can just stand there and work away until I'm happy it's clean.

That's it - brewday complete, from start to finish in about 6 hours. If I get the grain and water ready the night before, it can be done in about 4.5 hours, or less if I'm not using a whirlpool addition or brewing in the summer, when chilling takes ages.

Hope you enjoyed