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cunnyfunt's SD Biab Blog

I finally got a chance to use my SD boiler and rims to do a biab wash.

I plan to use this thread to document my progress. Please feel free to post any advise as it would be greatly appreciated.

I did a peated whisky wash yesterday using 12kg of pale malt and 8kg of peated malt. I mashed for 90min @ 66c in 100l of half reverse osmosis water and half tap water. PH is usually around 7. One thing I totally forgot to do was to check pH during the mash just for my own reference. You get 100% conversion @ 5.4 pH usually

I managed to get all the 20kg into the bag. Because of the 8in opening in the top of the SD 120l boiler, I knew it would be impossible to pull the full bag of wet grain out, so I spent around 10min spooning the wet grain out into another grain bag set up to drain. It was the only downside of using the boiler, but positives far out way having to scoop out for 10min. Maybe try a bigger spoon.

I sparged with 10l @ 80c, mashed out @ 75c for 10min then set the controller to 100c. I managed to get to 90c with the rims until I switched off the element. When I use this set up for beer I will have to supplement the rims with another element to achieve a rolling boil but 90c is perfect for a wash. I ran the wash through a plate chiller and got 84l into the fermenter @ 1.056sg. Oxygenated with O2 and airstone for about 1 min. Pitched with still spirits whiskey yeast and ec 1118 combo.

Things to consider next time.- Check mash pH and adjust. Start with 110l of strike water and possibly 2-3 kg more grain. Sparge with 15l as spent grain was still fairly sweet. This should bring me up closer to 100l into the fermenter. Try a different yeast.

My gear is a SD 120l boiler, SD rims tube and 3600w element, cheap no name heat rated mag drive pump, custom made whirlpool return inlet, olddog controller, 30plate chiller, various SD fittings.

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Comments

  • I just mashed some feed grade wheat for 2 hours and got a sg of 1.01. That sould net me a 2% wash lol *google places to buy bulk brewing grain

  • edited May 2014

    If you have a boutique brewery close to you it might be worth having a chat to em. They get it by the ton.

    The only bulk home brew shop i've ever seen with cheap grain is in Perth. They retail for less than i get wholesale grain delivered for.

    http://www.bulkbrewingsupplies.com.au/

    You're mash up top worked really well. I usually use 18-20kg of malt for 84l finnished beer in the same range as you, so the rims is pretty efficient. Did you match your numbers up to brewmate to get an efficiency?

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  • looks good - very interesting for me. What material is the bag?

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  • @Sunshine. They are made frome food grade nylon.

    @punkin. I checked out those guys and they have great prices. I also found out my LHBS does bulk grain so I will check them out today and see if pricing is ok.

    Efficiency was 75% and probably could bump it up a few more points by adjusting the pH. I always have to adjust it. I dont know what I was thinking the otherday.

  • 75% is pretty good too. Maybe a finer crush for the biab will give you a boost too?

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  • I think a finer crush too. It was the first time I used the MM mini and I am still dialing it in.

    I managed to buy 3x 25kg bags of distillers malt and wheat at the LHBS for $70 each. Probably a bit expensive to do a full wheat mash neutral so I may split the bag and do 8kg wheat mash per 100L and suppliment it with dextrose. I did a spirit run of the dextrose wash,couple of kg of unmashed wheat and ec1118 I did and it is definetly getting closer to the neutral profile I am after.

  • why not use 50% feed grade wheat 50% wheat malt?

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  • I used 50% malt 50% flaked barley and the SG was 1010

  • There's problem there then, but it's not the recipe

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  • Still bubbling away after 6 days

  • edited May 2014

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  • edited May 2014

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  • edited May 2014

    Just checked my current SG, it's down to 1000 and still slowly bubbling after 6 days ferment Sorry dont mean to hi jack your thread CF

  • Please hijack away. I'm very keen to hear your results Od.

  • edited May 2014

    I downloaded that calculator and punched in my figures, wash size, grain bill, mash temp etc along with the SG of my wash when I finished mashing and the current SG after 6 days fermenting. It calculates my final SG as 1025, I measured 1000,and indicated "bottle" (for beer) temp variation could account for this difference. I know when I was pouring the mash into the fermenters, I splashed some on the workbench and did not notice, it run down under the teflon gasket I use on the still, next day it was very sugary and sticky and actually stuck the gasket to the workbench, so I think I must have got a reasonable conversion, but running through the column will tell.

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  • I want to brew beer like you someday, CF, when I grow up and have all the nice beer toys like you have to play with. Got most but they are for distilling and not really setup for beer, probably no real difference but brewing has never been my forte (French for "I think I know what I'm doing").
    I feel it must take a level of organization and cleanliness to produce beer that is not meant to be distilled that I don't really have. And I'm not really plugged into grain supplies here - but I haven't tried hard to be plugged in yet. Getting molasses was a huge turn off as it has been drastically out of reach for me here.
    Just saying, if I do grains... SHE will be pissed off at the amount of space needed to store it and use it.

  • You should get a much lower FG Olddog as you are not making beer, therefore not denaturing the enzymes by boiling or a hot sparge. The enzymes will keep on working in the fermenter for a while.

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  • @Lloyd Ha it really helps when SHE is the No1 beer drinker in the house and she thinks I am doing her a favour by making it for her. I also dont know what it is with molassas... I live in the middle of sugar cane country and I cant find any decent supply unless I buy it by the tanker.

  • edited May 2014

    Ross's Summer Ale is a good easy drinking ale with strong hop forward traits. Simple but a real quencher for your first brew for her. Your mates will be impressed too.

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    Same goes for Dr Smurto's Golden Ale. A tap regular here most of the year. Bit more muted on the hops and more concentrating on the malt. You can swap the Rye out for more malted wheat if you don't have or like rye. Also the pilsener is swappable with ale, i've just used pilsener here to use some up (plus i was getting it for free when i translated the recipe.

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    To scale the recipes just use the % amounts by hitting the "switch grain mode" button. The use the IBU's of each addition to do the hops and end up with the same total. The Smurtos has the No Chill button clicked too, so you need to just make the total ibu's the same as up the top if you are not no chilling.

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  • Smurtos is a classic. It's all she drank for a whole year once lol. Our palette has changed quite a bit and we really enjoy hoppy aroma now. I will try Ross thanks punkin. I also want to do a stone and wood clone. Byron Bay brewery. Galaxy hops. Mmmmm

  • Righto, wasn't sure how much brewing you'd already done.

    I'm right into the Hop Hog style beers atm. Favourite bought one now is the Hasslehop by Burleigh brewing. BWS/Dans has it at most places i think.

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  • we need a place on SD with its own threads for making beer. Im only new to beer making and SD make's so much gear that can be used for making beer its silly that we dont have a set of threads that are away from the main stilling line of comments and questions.

  • On that note, I'm surprised SD doesn't have a dedicated Mash-tun type vessel/pot/etc.

    I mean, it isn't hard to use a cooler, but eventually you want to upgrade if you do that much. Just like when you start with pot still made from scrap copper, and then find SD and mortgage the house to buy every shiny little thing offered.

  • We can't compete with the companies that are bringing in container loads of these things.

    We have a core business where we set out to service the artisan distilling community with gear they could not buy elsewhere.

    We developed and improved and listened to what our customers needed and couldn't get and brought out more and more, but we aren't in the business of trying to take other peoples ideas and use them solely to make money.

    The Rims came about because there wasn't an Australian company who had anything like what the brewers wanted off the shelf. People were using stainless nipples and tees to make complex and expensive units or they were importing ugly expensive units.

    There are already a stack of companies making mash tuns and false bottoms for standard vessels, especially in the States. :ar!

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  • edited May 2014

    @Irishman using my stilling gear to make beer or Ag washes is my ideal scenario.

    I came up with this idea las tnight using SD components that is well worth a trial. It is the same concept as brewing with a braumeister.

    With a braumeister the wort gets pumped up through the grain-bed that is in a inner tube inside the main boiler. The grain is mashed at set temps and as it flows up through the grain-bed it clarifies into nice clear wort after about an hour because the grain-bed acts like a filter. I really think the same thing can be achieved using 4 or 6" x 510 Tc pipe. I estimate 2x 4inch pipe would hold 10kg of grain and 2x 6inch, 20kg.

    Pumping the wort up through the grain filled Tc pipe and let it recirculate back into the boiler at your desired mash temps.

    The only thing that really needs to be considered is heat loss at the top of the pipe as you would want the same mash temp from bottom to top. Insulate?

    I will have to wait till @punkin gets back before I can trial this. As I need a few little things but I think it would work :)

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  • VERY interesting concept @cunnyfunt.
    I've only ever made beer from a kit so I don't know nothing from nothing...
    You may need a special fitting for blanking off the bottom of the beer column to the boiler (but is now called the "brew pot or kettle"?)
    An end cap welded to a ferrule would work but the inside corner would be hard to polish. A bubble plate without the caps holes might work too but disassembly may get messy.

    You would leave one of the top ports off of your tank for safety, just in case.

    You would circulate from the bottom drain port of your tank instead of from the side, wouldn't you?

    A center-of-the-column return pipe would be cool but would add to the complexity.

    Would you sparge from the top down or stay with bottom up?
    Would you still use a bag inside the pipes?

  • edited May 2014

    Sounds good Lloyd. I was just looking at how I can cap it off at the boiler:)

    I wouldn't use a bag but would use a nylon or stainless disk below the perforated disk and would do a very quick sparge like I have with the braumeister from the top and let it drain through the hose at the bottom to the boiler. Although you lose some clarity with wort but wouldn't mater with a wash

    I would circulate from the side and use the bottom drain to dump the trub. For a wort anyway. The two side ports use for a whirlpool. intake and out

  • this i a grate idear I am going to have to keep an eye on what you do with this.

  • @cunnyfunt Interesting. My mash tun is about 18" in diameter and about 24-26" tall. It holds about 40lbs of grain including a 2" false bottom and enough head room to stir it. The thing is, you have to calculate not only the grain, but the water you need to add. I've found 13 gallons of water is bare minimum in my setup with about 40lbs of grain. Your amounts WILL vary depending on space needed for the false bottom. Now, that's assuming you want it to sit on the water the whole time.

    Based on 2 of the 6" x 510mm triclamp pipe, I calculated about 5 US Gallons of volume. I'm thinking you could physically fit around 30 lbs of grain in that size, but I don't know how much water. Interesting concept. Would be interested to see what would happen if you did it. I'm curious the effect of not having all the water present, but always recirculating through the grain would have on efficiency. I suppose you need to pump up through it to get enough flow through the grain bed to make it work. Flowing down would certainly get you a stuck mash with all that vertical space and very little water. I'm curious what the channeling through the grain would look like....can you try it with a Crystal Dragon so we can all see it? Pretty please?

    Your "Cap" on the bottom could easily be a butterfly valve, but that's not cheap. Could be an easy way to drain the column when you're done though. I guess you'd have to get a 3" or 4" valve and some reducers to make it cost effective. 6" valves aren't cheap.

  • I have done a few brews on a friends braumeister and had it channel once. The thing is with the braumeister, the pump is on or off. You can't adjust flow rate. The malt tube is wider so channelling is a given at times. That's why I am hoping a steady flow rate spread evenly across the perforated plate slowly flooding the malt will stop channelling

    I would be interested on knowing how much grain I could fit into a 6inch Tc. I think your estimates are closer to reality than mine. I suppose one is only limited by head room and pump size:)

    Butterfly valve is a good idea but alot of extra bling.@punkin won't mind

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