BeerBorg

Okay, so as I mentioned in another tread I finally after all these years of piecing together my BIAB brewing stuff I splurged on a new Anvil Foundry 10.5 gallon brewing system. It showed up on Saturday while I was at a homebrew festival so I didn't get to unbox or put it together until Monday. Once unboxed it only required some basic assembly to add some brackets to the basket, attaching the valve handle and getting the hoses connected to the immersion chiller and re-circulation pump that all came with the system.


This rig is capable of either 240V or 120V. Since I don't yet have a 240V outlet I'm using just a regular 120V outlet. Once I got it all together I decided to filled it with water (7.5 gallons) to makes sure there were no leaks and everything was working as it should. I heating it up from about 54*F (tap water temp) and it took almost 90 minutes to get it up to 155*F and another 50 minutes to get to boil. The boil seemed a little weak but gradually increased so it shouldn't be a problem using the 120V but it is something I will need to keep an eye one when I do my first batch on this. I've decided to do an Oberon clone recipe as I feel it will be pretty straight forward and easy to brew while I'm learning the new system. I'm hoping to brew this weekend but I have some family commitments to work around.

I'll be adding more photos (and video) to this photo album as I use the new rig. Anvil Foundry Brewing System Photo Album

Let me know if you'll have any questions.

Congrats! Looks like a mighty fine rig.

Sweet! Happy Brewing!

Nice! I'd like a rig like that, but I don't think SWMBO would care for the cost. I'm pretty sure she tolerates my brewing expenses and activities as it is because she knows it makes me happy.

That looks nice, but i think I'd get tired of waiting for 10 gallons to come to a boil with 110. 5 gallons is bad enough with the mash and boil. Is that an electrical junction box behind it? If so, it might not be too bad to get a 240 outlet. I used to be able to do things like that on my own, but now, I'm more likely to hire it done.

Actually, now you've got new thinking. Ive got a 240 outlet in my laundry room. Maybe i should consider something like that when I'm more mobile.

Over the weekend I did a boil off test and brewed the first beer with it. Below are the notes. I added some additional pics and short videos to the Foundry Photo Album

Everything went relatively smoothly. I need to get used to using this new system and refine my process. This was the first time brewing in the house since I used to do Mr. Beer/Brew Demon batches. SWMBO complained about the smell so I will need set up some type of vent system, which shouldn't be too difficult as there's a window and or dryer vent that I can use. I also have an old vent fan that I can get hooked up.

Boil off test - 120v:
- starting volume 7 1/2 gallons
- water temp at start 121°
- approximately 35 minutes to bring the temperature to 155°
- 200° one hour and 28 minutes
- boiling at one hour 38 minutes
- 1 hour boil off = approximately 1/2 gallon.
- From 155° to boil 63 min

First Brew Day: Oberon clone

I set the time delay on the unit to have strike water at 165 when I got up in the morning. At 7:30 when I checked it it was about 20° below what I had set it for. (I will need to do a better job of calculating the time.)

I slowly drop the grain basket into the fermenter with no issues. I then slowly added the grains to the grain basket. Temperature didn’t fall quite as much as I anticipated so it’s a little bit higher mash than what the recipe called for currently at 157° and the mash temp should be about 150°.

Running the circulation pump, I lifted the lid to find that wort was flowing over the top of the green basket. I shut the pump off and stirred the grains, and the water level went back down. Restarted the pump and adjusted the flow and had no other issues. (Observation, I need a longer mash paddle. This one does the job but it’s just a little too short.)

Mash got down to 150° after about 45 minutes and the heating element started cycling on to maintain the temperature.

The mash finished at 9:47 AM. Lifting the grain basket was a little bit challenging considering the low ceiling height and the Foundry being on a small 24" high bench. I had to use a step stool to get leverage to lift it and let it rest on the edge of the unit so it could continue to drain. - May need to have a shorter stand to put the Foundry on to make it easier to lift the grain basket and keep an eye on the mash/wort. I may get some type of wench to help lift the basket.

Started the boil at 10:40 AM added the first hop edition 1 ounce Perle

The boil seems to be just a very gentle rolling boil definitely not super vigorous, but enough to do what it needs to do.

At 30 minutes added the second hop addition 1 oz. Hersbrucker

At 45 minutes into the boil, I added whirl flock and yeast nutrient, and put the immersion chiller in to sanitize it.

At one hour boil, turned off the power to the unit and added the 2 ounces of Saaz hops for flame out hops.

Flame out hops in for 15 minutes, then started cooling wort. Temperature of the wart fell below 200° during the flame out hops.

Cooling of the wart down to 68° took approximately 25 minutes from 200° I used the pump during the cooling which seemed to help with the cooling.

Thanks for the indi. That sounded less painful than i feared.