Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Sparging now. 15L (copying last successful mash-up) so 45L initial mash-in, then 15L to sparge... lets see what she brings...

Oh, put a couple of weight discs under the butt of the ET and its now trickling out... :doh:

ThePaterPiper wrote:Could it be that with the higher flow rate, there is more energy in the flow, compacting the grain more firmly. Are you slowly opening the ball valve or just swinging her open? I remember reading somewhere that when sparging you should start off slow and gradually build up the rate of flow so that the grain bed doesn’t compact too tight.

no opened her up slowly, I read the same...

Just read the whole thread from start to finish, very interesting. I think I'll be making the plunge into all grain pretty soon. I know it was mentioned early on but haven't seen it mentioned since; do any you guys ferment on the grain? I want to be able to do this with all the equipment I currently have and fermenting on the grain would help that.

Hi dB,
I don’t, that’s not to say I won’t in future. I’m still struggling with the basics of AG mashing... :laughing-rolling:

db1979 wrote:Just read the whole thread from start to finish, very interesting. I think I'll be making the plunge into all grain pretty soon. I know it was mentioned early on but haven't seen it mentioned since; do any you guys ferment on the grain? I want to be able to do this with all the equipment I currently have and fermenting on the grain would help that.

Not with whisky/scotch that's more a bourbon thing.. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

How did you go with your drain/sparge Ezi? Did it free up any over time? A temporary fix might be some kind of manifold in pvc pipe with slots to spread the inlet over the base. A lot of guys just do that and you could always continue to use it after you have the false floor in too to distribute the flow evenly through the grain bed.

:D well, without allowing our minds to slide into the gutter, I got on my knees and blew its brains out! :laughing-rolling:
Seems like the Rye formed a plug. Once I got that out it flowed nicely... first half grain extraction = 1.5 hours... second half (post-blow) 25 mins!

So I’m now in a place where I either do the manifold thing or the false bottom ... pros/Cons of each? Comments please...

NB: post sparge SG ended up being 1.086 which has me absolutely extatic! Pitching yeast (made a starter) and I’m keeping it inside the house as outside today as as a crappy 41 degrees! I had sweat-stains on the legs of my pants today! :scared-eek:
Never had that before...

sure they were sweat stains Ezi? after being on your knees blowing?? :smile: :D :)) :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

But seriously, great result! Stuck sparge after all. I am going the false bottom, but I was un/lucky and had a washing machine shit itself so voila! false bottom material a plenty. :angry-banghead: :dance:

Having said that, I am thinking about the manifold in addition to it so that the liquid is drawn equally across the grain bed. Probably overkill, but I have seen plenty of beer peeps doing the same in the states.

I'm happy to do either, but my thought process (OK, hear me out) OR my logic tells me that a false bottom is good & workable IF it sits above the drain.
That way the fluid can be easily drained off for either Fermentation/Sparging or Recirculating (thats what makes sense to me!).
If it sits below the drain off valve, even if it is connected to the false floor via a silicone pipe, it can't, in my mind, be effective to drain off the wart... Please, please show/tell me I'm wrong!!

Now a manifold with 2-3mm cuts facing down would be similar to a false bottom AND connecting to the drain pipe could (as in it makes more sense to me) be beneficial in draining off the wart, once it builds up in the lower part of the Tun. But then you have air trapped stopping liquid flow ... :teasing-blah: :teasing-blah: :teasing-blah:

I don't know.I'm overthinking this, I'm sure - hope someone has some experience and can shed some light on this subject!

Back On Track:- pitched the yeast tonight, wort looks amasing. I am biased, tho, as it is my first solo mash-up and it seems to have yielded the desired results, up to the fermentation stage anyway! So fingers crossed it works out well!.

I see what you are saying, but as there is at first plenty of liquid above the drain, even if the pickup is below the drain, you would form a siphon action, which would continue to operate until the pickup, or pickups, in the case of a slotted pipe, started to suck air.

On the other note, absolutely stoked with your results! it is really rewarding when things work!

Yer, really really looking forward to it!

Cant remember what our others fermenter out to but IF it gets down to 1.010ish, we’re looking at a 9-10% wort!

@ near 60L I’ll gill my 3L barrel and have enough for a top-up! So very chuffed!
Thank for all the guiding hands! Especially bluc for putting up with my rants

Drain is below the false floor the pipe that goes up through guts of it collects wort effectively from below the tun drain. Think of it like a dip tube. Only time its ineffective is if you turn the tun drain off when liquid level is below the tun drain. Then drainage wont re start. :-B :handgestures-thumbupleft:

1.086 is a mighty fine sg :handgestures-thumbupleft: do you know what you did different this time?
What was kg/l ratio and final volume?

bluc wrote:1.086 is a mighty fine sg :handgestures-thumbupleft: do you know what you did different this time?
What was kg/l ratio and final volume?

Funny you should ask that... I’m thinking 1 hour mashing time is NOT enuogh time! Using ET I mash for hours...

Still at 1.008 stripping now..

Just had another go at all grain single malt today and so far so good. A copy of the EZi 30 liter urn recipe, very helpful, thanks EZi.

5kg Golden Promise
1kg Manuka smoked
21 liters of strike water
About 5 - 6 liters sparge water

Ended up with about 19.5 liters at SG 1.064

This is the best I have ever managed to achieve after several very poor attempts in a 160 liter cooler and blowing up about $130 worth of grain for a pitiful SG result.

I have changed over to a Gluten micro brewery ( all in one system ) it was reasonably cheap compared to a Grainfather/ Robobrew. Still have to fine tune things a little but seem to be heading in the right direction.

I have decided to keep things small, about 20 liters or so, if it goes wrong not so much to lose.

Nice.

I find that the 1 or 1.5 hours of mashing is not working for me... when I use our ET I find that mashing for at least 4 hours helps raised the SG significantly! One (last mash) was left overnight and gave me a pre-sparge SG of 1.098...
That blew my mind!

What is your grain to water ratio Ezi? And did you stir the mash at all in your earlier attempts and this one?

I’ll try a 4 hour mash time and see if can get a few extra points.
And a slooooow sparge and see what happens.
Hopefully tomorrow if time permits

I am hoping for another mash saturday. 75c Ssslloooowww sparge will be the name of the game :D

ThePaterPiper wrote:What is your grain to water ratio Ezi? And did you stir the mash at all in your earlier attempts and this one?

I’ve been throwing figures around and measuring and checking but in the end, with the ET I filled it with 45L of heated water and then added the grain bill (see above). So it works out to be 3L/Kg.