Just a quick homebrew update. My three-tier stand is great, but I kept melting hoses when they would touch the hot metal. Luckily none ever burst and spewed hot wort all over, but I knew that was just a matter of time.
So a friend and I got out the torches and hard-plumbed the stand. The hoses are now short jumpers that connect vessels to the center line. Brewed a dunkelweiss with the new setup on Thursday. Works well and no burned hoses.
Some eye candy:
I purchased a used 3-tier stand yesterday from a local homebrewer. In brief, it is professionally welded 2″ box iron. The vessels are all converted kegs with weldless quick-disconnect fittings. Propane is hard plumbed up the center support.
Before plunking down money Clint invited me to make a batch of beer with it. This is that beer’s story.
Clint and I started heating strike water around 9:15 Saturday morning.
Fermentables:
Doughed in with 1.3 qts/lb of RO and tap water to rest at 145° F for 30 minutes. Direct-fire heat to bring the temperature up to 160° F for another 30 minutes. Sparged with 170° water to collect about 6 gallons sweet wort. Boiled 60 minutes.
Hops:
SafAle S-05 California Ale yeast
We were done and cleaned up by about noon-thirty, making a relatively quick brewday. OG was 14.6 °Brix with an estimated 51 IBUs. I call it Bitter Blonde.
I love the recirculating mash and all the direct-fire vessels. The mash tun and hot liquor tank have temperature probes for use with common digital oven thermometers. That gives me fine control over the mash, meaning when I find a recipe I like I can accurately record and recreate it. The kettle doesn’t have a sight glass which is critical to me. Kettle volume combined with the gravity of the sweet wort is a guide to hitting target OG. My current 20 gallon aluminum kettle has a sight glass and fits on the bottom burner, so I will continue to use it (and I already have a prospective buyer for the keggle).
I also get a March pump with the deal, doubling the number of pumps I have. Now I have a spare mash tun and HLT which will go up for sale. It is a little sad to see my mash tun go because it is the second piece of homebrewing equipment I made – the first being an immersion chiller which was sold long ago.
Bitter Blonde is bubbling away in my 6.5 gallon carboy. Looking forward to tasting it and brewing again on my new brewstand.
With my Pilsner still lagering it’s third week away (after a week-point-five fermentation), I finally started on the new brewstand!
The design is a pretty standard 3-tier setup even though I have a pump.
I’m not a welder (a quarter of welding in college isn’t enough), but want a metal stand so I will bolt together angle iron. While doing my research, I came upon the idea of using discarded bed frames instead. They are made out of the same stuff and I can easily find them for free. After a few weeks of trolling Craig’s List, I had enough to start.
Yesterday, using a chop-saw, hacksaw and power drill, I cut four 42-inch legs for the tower that will hold the kettle and HLT. It’s a slow process because the frames are pretty hard.
With five weeks work and a little luck, my stand should be done at the same time my pilsner is coming out of lagering. Really looking forward to kicking one back and brewing a batch on the new brewstand.