Got a few upgrades...

[MadBrewer]

I have been pretty content with my brewing for a little while now but lately I've had an itch to make some upgrades. It started off back in June I bought a small chest freezer for fermentation, that has been great. I started thinking of what I really wanted to upgrade and I chose to go with a new cooler/mashtun. I have been using a 12 gal Igloo Cube with a bazooka screen that was just way oversized for what I normally brew. At best I fill it only halfway most of the time and I lose heat more than I think I should, I figure that is because of all the deadspace. I also wanted to go back to a round mashtun with a false bottom, I like that setup better. So looking around I ended up picking this up on sale, it has some features that I really liked and being 7 gals is perfect for the beers I brew. It will hold over 15 pounds of grain with the water ratios I use. The false bottom also has a flat, smooth flanged edge all the way around which is supposed to help keep grain from getting underneat causing stuck sparges. I had that problem with my regular dome false bottom on my old 5 gal setup, so we will see how this new setup does.


I also picked up a new 6 gal S/S pot to use as a sparge pot (HLT if you will) for $55 on Amazon with free shipping. I have the same exact thing in a 9 gal pot that has been a great brew kettle. It's solid, good quality and a hard price to beat. I have a ball valve on the 9 gal kettle and I will be putting a ball valve and thermometer on the sparge pot. Of course I don't need or be using the steam basket, it just comes with.


And last I am making the switch to glass carboys. Plastic buckets have done me well over the years but as I get more serious with my brewing the purity of glass is more and more appealing. Easy to clean and sanitize with no odors and less chances of potential problems. I admit glass scares the hell out of me so I picked up a carboy handle and the Brew Hauler harness for glass carboys. That will make picking it in and out of the chest freezer much easier. I always had a temp controller so to go along with the carboy I bought a carboy stopper thermowell to drop my temp probe into so that it's sitting in the fermenting beer. No more taping the probe to the side (which has also worked fine) but one less thing I will have to do.


I guess Christmas came a little early but I don't have any other hobbies or spend my money on anything else. Having a wife who is very supportive of my brewing helps a lot too. These are just some upgrades I have been wanting to make for a while now. Time to break in the new gear and get brewing.

[JohnSant]

Hope you enjoy your new toys, and makes your brewing much better.

[John Sand]

Very cool.

[mashani]

Nice goodies. I used to use glass carboys, but have "devolved". A carboy explosion does that to you.

[MadBrewer]

Nice goodies. I used to use glass carboys, but have "devolved". A carboy explosion does that to you.

Did you drop it? I know im leary of glass I will have to make some consious effort to be careful with them. I almost went with the Bigmouth Bubbler plastic carboy from Northern Brewer.

[BlackDuck]

Isn't new brewing equipment awesome. It's like Christmas when you were a kid!!!

[Inkleg]

Very nice upgrades! You're gonna love the thermowell.

[Pudge]

The Brew Hauler is awesome. I've been using mine for years. Glass is fine. You just have to remember it is glass. No matter how sturdy it feels... it is glass. Easy peasy to clean/sanitize too.

[Beer-lord]

Sweet score of some nice brewing hardware. Now get to brewing.

[Gymrat]

I am interested in that false bottom. I have had a lot of stuck sparges with mine. I would like to know if that works for you.

[teutonic terror]

Merry Christmas my friend!

Sounds like your brewing is going to take a serious step forward!

[MadBrewer]

First brew day with the new setup worked out quite well. The new mashtun held temps really well (the main reason I bought a new on). As for the false bottom...it's like dejavu. Stuck mash/sparge all over again. I think I'm just not use to having to lauter so slow, my bazooka screen doesn't have these problems. I want to like the false bottom, I really do. It's a more permanent installation and much more durable but damn these stuck mashes/sparge. I think my crush was a bit fine for this...I double crushed it to get my effienciency back up to 75%. It has been way down since starting to use this LHBS, usually low to mid 60's. That old crush I would see quite a bit uncrushed grain. So I might have to tweak that blance of crush and effeciency to get better lautering. And use some damn rice hulls and runoff a lot slower. Maybe even add in a mashout and mash a little thinner to help. I'll be trying it out again soon.

[JohnSant]

Happy to hear you had a good brew day. As far as the mash I'm sure you'll figure it out. Like your new equipment.

[mashani]

Nice goodies. I used to use glass carboys, but have "devolved". A carboy explosion does that to you.

Did you drop it? I know im leary of glass I will have to make some consious effort to be careful with them. I almost went with the Bigmouth Bubbler plastic carboy from Northern Brewer.

Some how I missed this but I'm sure the bottom or rounded edge of it hit my basement floor too hard on multiple occasions. It "looked fine" thought. Whatever was wrong with it was a micro fracture, not a visible crack. But it was enough that with the bung jammed in too tight and blowoff clogging it up that the pressure literally blew it apart before the bung popped. It was ugly. That was 20+ years ago, but I'm still afraid of glass fermenters. I am planning on getting a couple of the "little big mouth" fermenters though, I need glass for some of the small batch stuff I want to make. But those are small, and I will be careful to not abuse them, and I would be smart and use a blowoff if I thought I needed it these days...

[Gymrat]

First brew day with the new setup worked out quite well. The new mashtun held temps really well (the main reason I bought a new on). As for the false bottom...it's like dejavu. Stuck mash/sparge all over again. I think I'm just not use to having to lauter so slow, my bazooka screen doesn't have these problems. I want to like the false bottom, I really do. It's a more permanent installation and much more durable but damn these stuck mashes/sparge. I think my crush was a bit fine for this...I double crushed it to get my effienciency back up to 75%. It has been way down since starting to use this LHBS, usually low to mid 60's. That old crush I would see quite a bit uncrushed grain. So I might have to tweak that blance of crush and effeciency to get better lautering. And use some damn rice hulls and runoff a lot slower. Maybe even add in a mashout and mash a little thinner to help. I'll be trying it out again soon.

I have my crusher set on .39 I never double crush. I find I have fewer stuck sparge problems when I mash a bit thin. Around 2 qts to the pound. My efficiency usually TN runs between 75 and 80%.