Wort Chilling

[maheel]

So with what you say about BIAB and not needing to sparge...Do you really need a grain mill? Could you get away with a light whizz in a blender (small amounts at a time)? Obviously you'd get some flour if you went to long...

some blenders / food processors will work on grain but some dont. mine wont do it but i know some beer guys use them
i have used a commercial coffee grinder but i reckon the dust would kill the grinder fast

you can mod a pasta maker into a grain mill, kmart has them for about $12. i made and used one for a while with a drill

some brew shops will mill it for you when you buy the grain


you can also use a esky for a mash tun and do a sparge after you 1st drain the grain buy tipping in more hot water
but you would need to make a manifold or use braid / false bottom
if you dont sparge your efficiency will be lower with less extraction of sugaz

[Brendan]

So back to grain mill, mash tun with sparge arm, and wort chiller then? 8-}

Haha, thanks maheel.

I do like the idea of the cubes, but you would have to boil the wort to use them as in beer, where I have read this isn't ideal for whisky...so would need the chiller to get from mid 60 degrees down to pitching temp...

[cdbrown]

What size batches are you looking at brewing (I don't remember reading it anywhere)? You could do concentrated mashes and then top up with cold water to help bring the temp down. If it's say a 20L batch, do a mash based on 15L and add 5L at the end. That size you could put into the laundry sink with cold water to bring the temp down. Wouldn't take long at all to get it to 30 from there. You might not kill off the bugs from the grains, but when you throw the yeast in there they should take off pretty quick and take up the sugars before the bugs, eventually the alc of the wash is too high for most of the bugs to take hold.

All the biab info is here - http://www.biabrewer.info/ take a look around to get an understanding of the process and see that you do get all the starch conversion and high efficiencies the bigger rigs have got all in a single pot.

For the grains - are you looking at buying 25kg sacks or just purchasing as you go? If it's on the go then get the HBS to crack it for you as they do it free. If it's a 25kg sack, then work out how long it would take to get through it all - if it's a month or so then I'd probably get the HBS to crack it all for me, longer I'd want to crack as needed. There are some cheap mills around. Or you could get it all cracked, purchase a vacuum sealer and seal up the grain in few kg batches. Vac sealer has the added benefit of sealing up food.

Just trying to keep the costs down where possible to use it on more important things - the still!

[Brendan]

That is good idea with the vacuum sealer!

I am planning on 25kg bags, so was looking at my own grain mill.

I'm guess I'm so used to dealing with boiling sugar washes...whereas getting a whisky wort down from 60 deg to 25 deg will be a fair bit quicker...I've already sunk a lot of money into my stills :p Now trying to play with flavours (from grains) a bit, and hopefully be able to age something a few years...

Will document everything on here when I do it...maheels posts haven't given me a lot of confidence, my pot still head could do similar...

Yes McStill, we all need a bubbler! :roll: ...one day...

[R-sole]

So back to grain mill, mash tun with sparge arm, and wort chiller then? 8-}

Haha, thanks maheel.

I do like the idea of the cubes, but you would have to boil the wort to use them as in beer, where I have read this isn't ideal for whisky...so would need the chiller to get from mid 60 degrees down to pitching temp...

I just single batch sparge for beer. It works fine.

My system is pretty simple really. I have an esky with a copper mainfold (120l), a grain mill (crankenstein ), a 50l keg (my still boiler) and a 160l gas pot (custom stainless boiler black betty). I do 84l batches (4 kegs)

I use brewmate software and buckets.
Design recipe in brewmate, printout brewday stuff. heat mashtun with a little hot tap water from the solar water heater tap in shed and put 50l on to boil in keg.

Mill grain as per print, add water with temp probe of digital thermo on float till it gets to the temp printout says (15l at atime and adding cold water from hose as bucket fills).
This sounds like a rough shod way to do it, but it is suprisingly accurate once you have a couple of goes at it.

Add grain and stir in till no lumps, temp will be very fucking close to predicted temp from software. Close esky lid and wait one hour.
In the last 15 mins start a new 50l of hot water on to boil (you probably want 70l or more but it will be at 84c or so and can be made up with cold from the 50l boiling water) at the one hour mark, start the drain from the esky into buckets, iadd this to the boil pot, but you'd be adding to the fermenter.
By the time the mash tun has drained the water will be boiling so turn the mash tun off, and add the hot water tempered with cold 15l at a time till you have the correct volume at the correct temp (usually 74c)
Stir it all up again and then wait ten minutes, drain as before and add to fermenter.

That's it.


you can choose to cool or brew stronger and dilute or whatever. I don't see the benefit in biab for this style as mostly it's because people can use just one pot seems to be the positive.
You obviously already have a 50l boiler, it probably doesn't have a great big opening so better off using an existing esky or buying an esky that will double for camping or whatever.


I can definately advise getting in on the bulk buys here if you live in a major city...

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/i ... owforum=33

base grain round the $60 for 25 kg is hard to beat.

I'd advise on purchasing a mill too, they are only a couple hundred $ and will last a life time.
Otherwise maybe join a brewclub in your area and see if someone local has one you can use.

I wish i had started allgrain (for beer anyway) twenty years ago

[Brendan]

Thanks for the rundown of your operation 5Star :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I am pretty set on getting my own grain mill (prob monster mill ss 2 roller)...

And as for the mash tun, I was looking at coolers, but was thinking more of doing a keg conversion with false bottom (as I have a few extra kegs already laying around with the intention of this purpose)...Can use my 50l keg boiler as HLT as you said...and with all that setup, will prob want to do beer anyway :p

Hey if I had 10 inches, i'd do porn right? :liar:

[R-sole]

I have read a couple of negative comments the other day on aussiehomebrewer regarding the MM's.

Two people have said that after a couple of years the idle roller stops wanting to start up and needs to be flicked with a screwdriver to get going :shock: :?

Pretty difficult with 5kg of grain in the hopper and rather dangerous at any time.

I can say without doubt that the equivalent mill in a crankanstein has never let me down. It has failed to start if i load wheat in first, but fine if i load the wheat in after a handfull of barley. This is related to my crack setting though.

[Brendan]

Thanks mate...I have been trawling through the AHB forum for a few months reading all that stuff...

Might have a look and price up a crankenstein...I don't see a problem with starting it empty and then pouring into the hopper once she's rolling...

[R-sole]

Yes, it's the second lazy roller that plays up though apparently.

[maheel]

i am loving my mash master mini :)

http://mashmaster.com.au/p/4571858/mash ... -mill.html

not sure how it would go on corn, but i don't think i would ever do whole corn anyways...

[poompy]

so is the general consensus you can either chill or no-chill? I brew AG beer and use the no-chill method. I am looking at making scotch whiskey and i thought i would need to chill the liquid from the mash-tun seeing that it has no hops or hasnt been boiled.

EDIT: sorry for digging up an old post.