BeerBorg

It’s definitely not in my nature to spend money if I don’t have to. But as I get older, I don’t want to forget about my favorite hobby so making it easier for an old man is the objective.
I know I will sell my 15 gallon spike brewing kettle but I’m not sure about the Blichmann burner. It’s so nice I may keep it around the house for crawfish and possible power outages in hurricanes to cook with.

Beer-lord wrote:It’s definitely not in my nature to spend money if I don’t have to. But as I get older, I don’t want to forget about my favorite hobby so making it easier for an old man is the objective.

I know what you are saying on this, I just and went bought a new rifle for deer hunting. have been using the same one for over 30 years. same as with my brewing, I bought a new system to change my brewing a little while back and I like it. change can be good, and good for you. I like what you got.

Beer-lord wrote:It’s definitely not in my nature to spend money if I don’t have to. But as I get older, I don’t want to forget about my favorite hobby so making it easier for an old man is the objective.
I know I will sell my 15 gallon spike brewing kettle but I’m not sure about the Blichmann burner. It’s so nice I may keep it around the house for crawfish and possible power outages in hurricanes to cook with.

I used to do all of my home repairs, electrical work, plumbing, etc. But I got to a point where I decided my time was worth more to me than the cost of hiring the work done. That's why the Mash & Boil appealed to me. I'm too cheap to spring fo a system like yours, but I understand the reasoning and I'm jealous.

The question is, will the beer be just as good as it is now or better. I know it takes a few brews to dial it in and learn the system but if the beer sucks, I’ll be pissed.
I’m not thinking it’ll go downhill!

Who cares what the beer tastes like when you've got shiny new equipment to play with, right?

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Beer-lord wrote:The question is, will the beer be just as good as it is now or better. I know it takes a few brews to dial it in and learn the system but if the beer sucks, I’ll be pissed.
I’m not thinking it’ll go downhill!

I don't think it's the equipment that makes or breaks a brew. It's more the ingredients and process.

The advantage of getting better equipment is that it takes some of the burden off of you and makes some things that used to take a lot of our time more hands off and automated. Some people dislike the automated systems for the same reason I like them. I don't think I'd like one of the systems where you just add the ingredients and push a button, but having something that is automated to the point where I can set it up the night before so it's at mash temperature when I wake up, and I can walk away without needing to monitor the temperature, and can just add the hops and set a timer etc makes brew day less of a chore.

I'm pretty sure your beers will be as good as they were before, and maybe better, since the temperature control makes it easier to be consistent.

My 240 was put in today by the electrician. It was $400 but he had to run 80 plus feet of PVC and line from the service. I opted to have it put outside under the back patio but with a 20 foot cord I ordered, I can then brew in or out doors.
The unit should ship later this week or next week. Got lots to learn and like the fact that I'm sorta starting over. Keeps me young (rationalization allowed when spending money).

I think you're going to love your new brewing system Paul. It seems like only yesterday I got mine and was asking questions here about moving to BIAB. That was over 4 years and lots of 10-gallon batches ago. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have. The option to brew indoors or outdoors is a big plus too. That allows you to brew in any weather. I'm just getting ready to kick off my Fall brewing season here. In late June I brewed 20-gallons of beer that lasted me up until two weeks ago. Good luck with your new brewing system it looks awesome.

Thanks much Vince. I'm sure I'll lean on you. For now, I'm curious about how to set up my pot in Beersmith and how much might be lost. As a BIAB'er, I'm thinking not much but I was going to ask Dave for his thoughts on kettle loss and efficiency.

So everything came in this week and I'm slowly putting things together, cleaning and hope to passivate and then possibly, do a leak test and burner test this weekend if I can find time.
I'm impressed with the quality of everything and the 2 emails I sent to Dave at High Gravity (generic questions) were answered in under 2 hours! I don't expect that but it's very much appreciated when customer service exceeds what you already knew was good.
I'll brag more with pictures once I get it all ready and then stop bragging and boring you with it.
Christmas came early but now I'm back to being poor!

Other than a possible scale error adding baking soda and making my PH jump to 5.9 (never do that again) I think I was able to get it down to 5.4 with lactic but who knows if it will affect the quality of the beer. Anyway, the actual brew day went extremely well and I am over the moon about this system. It was good to have the twin to help as doing it solo would be a challenge but is definitely doable.
Here are some poorly shot pics and videos of the brew day for anyone interested. I beat my numbers and don't think I'd change anything.
Here's some vids of the day.
https://youtu.be/g8mvyo4I3C8
https://youtu.be/iHPDRvBggOI
https://youtu.be/IHT7clufB_c

Have some pics that don't seem to want to upload so maybe later I can get it to work.

Now that my kettle is higher and not so wide, the Hydra Chiller kicked ass. With both 80 degree ground water and a pump with ice, it got to 60 in 13 minutes. Can't wait until I don't need to use the pump and ice.

Good looking stuff there, Paul.
1) Do the hops stay in that screen during the boil or was that just for the whirlpool?
2) I was hoping for a little Nawlin's voice-over on the videos!

I've been told that it's best to not go commando and either tie the hops in bags or use a screen. Some people do just throw them in but it's harder to clean the boil coil after many uses. I've written Blichmann and they strongly suggested the use of something to hold the hops. I kept it in the whole boil. On this batch, I really didn't whirlpool too much and in fact, didn't steep, just used the whirlpool to chill faster.

For a voice over, c'mon down and I'll bore you all you want!

Nice looking system. Do you think you'll lose hop character by using that screen? It seems to me, especially with the amount of hops you use, that they would get all bunched up in the middle and not be exposed to the wort.