Brewed up my first batch on my new Top Tier setup yesterday-the NB California Common all grain kit- still need a bit more experience keeping the temp in the Boilermaker mash tun in range using direct fire with recirc using the March pump, as well as figuring best preboil volume to start with to hit my target postboil volume- but overall, a very sweet setup that should give me hoards of brewing options going forward!
Hey Dawson- look familiar??? I sorta “copied” your basic config, although I added the HopRocket and the Therminator in the back end- wort came out very clean filtering it through 2 oz of Northern Brewer leaf hops in the HopRocket- thank you Mr. Blichmann!
Thats some serious coin sitting in your garage. Very nice setup, Blichmann is great stuff. So does the hop rocket filter all the trub out of your newly-chilled wort without clogging?
The hot post-boil wort gets pumped through the HopRocket (which can hold up to 3 oz of whole/leaf hops), then through the Therminator, then through a Thrumometer (so I can monitor post-chiller temp and adjust pump rate if needed) into the fermenter. The wort that ended up in the fermenter was very clean- no visible break/trub material that I could see. With all the scurrying around getting a few final things set up after the end of the boil, the sediment in the boil kettle had a chance to settle before I started slowly draining it to prime the pump- alot of the break material was still it the bottom of the Boilermaker when the dip tube started sucking air, and the rest seemed to be filtered by the hops in the HopRocket. When I did the backflush of the Therminator, no visible hop/break material came out. Sweet!
I guess you do see a lot of trub settling out even before chilling. Glad its working for you anyway, I bet that Hop Rocket would clog like a big dog if it were post-Therminator. I also like the idea of running hot wort through the Hop Rocket, that seems like it would extract the hoppy goodness so much better than chilled wort. I never thought about doing it that way. Now I want a Hop Rocket and a Therminator. Thanks for nothing.
Glad I could be of service
Maybe you’ll win them at the next competition Lenny!!! LOL
Holy hell, Blichmann barfed on your garage. Congrats. That’s a hell of a startup cost but I doubt you’ll look back in terms of quality. Now to slink back to my keggle, ladder, trashcan and plywood setup with my tail between my legs.
Being single has it’s advantages…when I got a bit of bonus cash near the end of last year, I decided to treat myself to a little Christmas present…total cost (including the two Boilermaker pots, one with false bottom for the MLT) amounted to about $2300. I expect this system to have me pretty well set for at least the next 10 years or more, which will average out to about $200/year. Still have a few more “tweaks” to apply (looking now for a way to better insulate the Boilermaker MLT, as it did drop close to 10 degrees temp over the 60 min mash time), but overall I’m very pleased to say the least. The Cali Common is now fermenting away in my basement. Coming up soon will be my first batch of a special brew I came up with…if it works, I might even consider tweaking that for possible NHC entry next year.
You could always just build a cooler mashtun. Then you could use your MLT boilermaker as a HLT. Cheap, easy and does not have nearly as much heat loss.
