Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

bluc wrote:So did a quick read seems you need an external heat source to circulate. While this is my end goal to setup a herms system. I have more important things to spend money on atm. Like buildi g my bubbler..so will have to put up with low effeciency. Was also reading about high gravity brewing and 67% effeciency on a 8% mash is not completly awful..

For my recirculating mash tun I just have a rims stick and a March pump hooked up to my voltage controller. And a few elbows and hose barbs with some silicone hose. Bluc if you are building a bubbler a rims would be an easy build I think just some 2 inch pipe an easy flange and a few hose barbs soldered on and your away.

My next mash will be a smaller grain bill of 10kg with a finished wash size of 48-50 litres. Hopefully at 1.060. Don’t even know if this is possible or what efficiency I need for this? Will be mashing and sparging a bit longer times. Will see :-B

As an example 10kg pale ale malt 50l wort at 1.060 needs 97% effeciency. :scared-eek: .
Next 2-3 mashs for me will be 14kg pale ale at 3l/kg see what i get. Been looking at rims setups last few days. Look interesting. Any good rims tube builds on here? I have seen the herms one with 6" copper build. But have not seen a good rims build thread..

How about this?

At that price i wont be building. But i want to get my bubbler underway first..

97% haha that’s a bit ambitious, don’t think I’ll be getting anywhere near that. 8-}
Will be trying less grain next mash though.

:laughing-rolling: yea i am going thinner too see what happens..

Just finished 10kgs of marris otter in 48 litres, mashed at 65 degrees for nearly 2 hours, drained 10 litres added 10 litres of cold water. Recirculated through mash for a further 25 minutes. Without adding any more heat.
Ended up spot on 48 litres at 1.050.
Mash was noticeably thinner and think I’ll go back to my previous grain bill of 12.5 kg for same wash size.
Think I calculated right if wash finishes at 1.005 I’ll have 5.91 % abv
Happy days

Well done efficiency of 76 when you say you removed 10l and added back 10l, did you batch sparge with 10l cold water? :-B

Yeah just cold water mate. Turned my element off and just recirculated, temp was around 57-58 I think :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Second lot finished at 1.013 stripping now..

bluc wrote:Second lot finished at 1.013 stripping now..

That fermented out quick bluc. Nice and warm up there hey? Temps have been up and down like a yo-yo here. That combined with slightly too acidic wash has meant very slow ferment for us :crying-blue:

Yea not ott temps but around 30 ish..

We’ve had 35s and 16s! Great for yeasties... they just love heating up and cooling off :angry-banghead:

With summer not far away my next purchase is an old fridge to keep my ferments at a more stable temp.
At the moment my fermenter just sits on the concrete floor. We have had low 20’s here this week and my wash from Thursday is done, in the boiler and not far from taking fores

:handgestures-thumbupleft:

I was thinking of pluming two 60l fermenters into a deep freeze so they can be drained without lifting them out. Dont know if it would be possible guess it depends where freezer pluming is..

bluc wrote:I was thinking of pluming two 60l fermenters into a deep freeze so they can be drained without lifting them out. Dont know if it would be possible guess it depends where freezer pluming is..

We are only limited by our imagination! :-B

Figured out maybe why my hearts yield is so low, filled the bubbler up with water for a soak and she leaked like a sieve :angry-banghead:
Never noticed any leaks steam or drips while stillin.
Pulled apart checked seals tightened with a shifter and still leaks.
Off to the cnc machine shop to get a recess for bubble plate to sit in snug.
Hopefully fix the problem.

Thats a bugger at least you found it before anything nasty happened. With all the talk of leaking plates on hear lately. I may soft solder my plates in..

Saturdays mash will be 14kg barret burston pale ale mash thickness 3l/kg aiming for 45l. Will see how it plays out..