[IBU] Building 10 Gallon System - Questions

Thu Jul 3 12:03:30 CDT 2008

Andy,

McMaster-Carr sells the stainless screen you're looking for.

----- Original Message ----
From: "Cleghorn, Andy" <Cleghorn.Andy at principal.com>
To: Mike Young <myoung at mikeserve.com>; Iowa Brewers Union <ibu at iowabrewersunion.org>; amesbrewersleague at yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, July 3, 2008 11:49:03 AM
Subject: Re: [IBU] Building 10 Gallon System - Questions

I would like to hear what you come up with as I have not 
found a good solution.  I really need to since I have not been able to find 
any deals on leaf hops.  I have a plate chiller and have been using a pie 
pan false bottom in the boiler.  If I have at least 2oz of leaf hops, I can 
use as many pellets as I need.  I do recirculate mainly to sanitize the 
chiller and to set a bed of leaf hops over the screen to help filter.  I 
recirc for about 5 minutes or so without any cold water and then about another 
10 minutes with the water on to catch some of the cold break in the 
kettle.  It isn't necessary to do that to get the temp down, I can run from 
boiling right to the carboy and be chilled far enough.  If the ground water 
is really warm I put an immersion chiller in a bucket of ice water and pre chill 
my cold water before it goes into the plate chiller.  I have only done this 
a couple times in the summer.

I have tried screens and other mesh to filter the stuff 
out, but haven't had much luck.  I had a stainless scrubber that looked 
like a Chore Boy and connected that onto my drain, but it had a tendency to 
plug up.  We stuck 10 gallons of barley wine once that had about 20oz of 
pellets in it.  With that and the hot break their was about a foot of gunk 
in the bottom of the kettle.  I ended up using a racking cane and taking it 
off the top.  Not fun.  I have never plugged up the chiller.  I 
back flush when done then recirc boiling water through it.  I have an older 
one that is thicker.   I don't think it is the Shirron.  I could 
not heat sanitize it because it has some plastic around the edges.  Like 
the threads, the plates are sharp and the plastic helps to keep from cutting 
yourself.

March pumps work pretty well.  I have had a few.  
I still have a brass one, but the plastic ones seem to hold up to the 
boiling temp ok.  They are a bit brittle and if you are not careful you 
break the pump housing so mounting it securely in an out of the way spot is a 
good idea.  They are not water tight, so don't put it in a place where it 
could get water with out some type of cover.  If it is under a burner I 
would put on a heat shield, too.  You do need to get to it to oil it 
occasionally.  They will push quite a ways, but won't lift a foot.  
Put it at the bottom or you will have priming problems.  The valve may be 
handy, but all you have to is either take the discharge hose off or lower it 
down to get the liquid to push the air out.

Two things I would do differently with mine.  Mine has 
a higher hot liquor tank and then the mash tun and boiler on the same 
level.  I added a couple inches of space between the tun and the boiler, 
but didn't do that between the tun and the liquor tank.  The burner from 
the liquor tank is too close to the top of the mash tun and it gets very 
hot.  It sounds like your configuration will be different, but just be 
aware of how close things are together.  Mine doesn't make a lot of 
difference unless I am doing back to back brews.

The other thing is about the quick connects.  I have 
the 1/2 NPT and female quick connect mounted on the kegs and the pump and then 
the barb male fittings on the hoses.  If I was going to do it again, I 
would go the other way.  1/2 male NPT quick connects and barb 
females.  The female fittings stick out too far from the kegs and I have 
broken a couple.  Also the females cost more and you use less of them if 
you put them on the hoses.

If anyone knows of a place that would sell that super fine 
S/S screen like the Hop Stopper uses, I would be interested in buying some and 
experimenting.

________________________________
 From: ibu-bounces at iowabrewersunion.org 
[mailto:ibu-bounces at iowabrewersunion.org] On Behalf Of Mike 
Young
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 1:42 PM
To: Iowa 
Brewers Union; amesbrewersleague at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [IBU] 
Building 10 Gallon System - Questions

After brewing three 5 gallon batches 
of beer in the last three days, I've decided that I need to build a 10 gallon 
all-grain brew system.  I've got a couple kegs that are waiting to become 
my hot liquor tank and boil kettle and I just ordered two Bayou Classic SQ14 
burner stands w/ burners today from Amazon that I've read will support a keggle 
just fine.  I'm planning on putting my hot liquor tank and boil kettle 
directly on the burners and building a wooden stand to elevate my mash tun 
cooler above the boil kettle so I can gravity feed my wort into the boil 
kettle.  I'll mount a march pump on the bottom of the wooden cooler stand 
and use that to pump my hot water into the mash tun.  I was also planning 
on using the pump to push my wort through a Shirron chiller (not purchased yet) 
to cool it down.  That being said, I've got a few questions to ask my 
fellow brewers:

When using the Shirron chiller, what type of pickup 
tube do you use so the chiller won't get clogged?  I use pellet hops 
exclusively, and have seen several different options that I could use 
(whirlpooling, Hop Stopper (too expensive), and a hop bag).  The idea of a 
hop bag seems nice, but I don't really want to give up hop utilization.  
whirlpooling seems nice as well, but I've read several posts online where people 
have problems.  I've seen several people that just use a piece of copper 
tubing directed at the side of the kettle and pinched slightly.  What do 
you guys use that works well for you?

Also related to the Shirron chiller, do you have to 
recirculate the wort back to the boil kettle to chill it down, or do you find 
that just running it through the chiller and straight into the fermenters works 
well for you?  I'll probably do some initial testing when I get my system 
built, but it would be nice to know what to expect.

I'd also like to know what everyone's experience 
with the March pump as been.  From what I've read, you want the pump to be 
below the liquid you are planning on pumping since it isn't self-priming.  
I found the following link which explains add a little valve that makes it 
easier to prime.  I think that's probably what I'm going to do: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/1456549408053500498HeldvV

I think that's about all the questions I've got for 
now.  If anyone has any helpful hints I'd be glad to hear them as 
well.

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