Like I posted about in my intro post ( http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=116113
), I’m jumping back into all grain brewing (and brewing in general) after a very long hiatus. I love all grain brewing and the experimentation/control it offers me.
Anyways, as a corporate droid who works in process manufacturing, I’ve started creating lots of process design documents to help me think through the various components I’m using. The equipment is home and being assembled for a late March dry run, and an early April first brew. I wasn’t interested in a Sabco, Tower of Power, Top Tier or anything like that – I want to build many components myself and I don’t like RIMS/HERMS style setups. I suck at welding so this approach will have to work.
This format (along with a huge Gantt chart and some wonky operations research spreadsheets) helped me think about what I was attempting to do. I travel quite heavily so I can’t brew every weekend; so I need to be able to pump 4+ batches out on a long Saturday once a month or so. (I assume that my friends will want batches; I don’t drink 20 gallons of beer a month!)
Additionally, I come from a heritage of being extremely conservative when it comes to sanitation. My first brewing partner (now a neurologist) was a biochem/bio/pre-med guy who helped me learn lab sanitation, and it paid off in great brews with few infections. So you’ll see multiple sanitation steps (pump SaniClean through chilling circuits, then test temperature drop, then rinse with boiling water, then chill wort) in the process here.
Take a look, tell me what you think, and I hope this helps you if you’re thinking about a big system upgrade. I’ll slowly upgrade the deck so each picture links through to an item on NB’s or other appropriate vendors sites; NB is where I got my first kit from and I’m pretty sure it was Dawson who answered my ~1,300 phone calls as I stumbled through my first few batches.
(Google Presentation, viewable if you have the link)
Enjoy!
PS – before someone RDWHAHB’s me, this process is actually very relaxing to me.
Just kidding. I’m guessing you are fly sparging, if so, then 20 min is way too short a time for the sparge.
If you are attempting to reduce your process flow time, why not move some of the internal processes so that they are external (i.e. crush grain night before)?
Sounds to me like you need to treat this as a set-up reduction project.
[quote=“fightdman”]I think somebody’s other hobby is Powerpoint.
Just kidding. I’m guessing you are fly sparging, if so, then 20 min is way too short a time for the sparge.
If you are attempting to reduce your process flow time, why not move some of the internal processes so that they are external (i.e. crush grain night before)?
Sounds to me like you need to treat this as a set-up reduction project.[/quote]
My other hobby is being a corporate droid :blah:
If you look at the Gantt chart… it’s not on the critical path. (The powerpoint represents everything serially) The critical path on a multi-batch day is clearing the lauter/mash tun. See the attached PDF at http://goo.gl/RtSA5
Yes, fly sparging is just nuts in 20 minutes. Cut and paste error on my part. Good catch, thanks!
+1 After 6 extract brews I’ve been contemplating a move to BIAB and even have the grain for an Irish Red Ale. This process frightened me so much I’m not sure I have the ability to make beer. It’s 8:30AM and I’m considering HAHB to calm my nerves. :shock:
I brew once every 2-3 weeks doing 3-5 all grain batches. I have 2 keggles and an 8 gallon pot on a 2 burner brewtus 10 type system and a banjo burner. My biggest hangup is having only one mash tun. If you really want to knock out a bunch of batches in a day you need one HLT, two MLTs and three kettles. Just my two cents.
+1 After 6 extract brews I’ve been contemplating a move to BIAB and even have the grain for an Irish Red Ale. This process frightened me so much I’m not sure I have the ability to make beer…[/quote]
It’s not hard at all - just takes a little time and care. Do it!
+1 After 6 extract brews I’ve been contemplating a move to BIAB and even have the grain for an Irish Red Ale. This process frightened me so much I’m not sure I have the ability to make beer…[/quote]
It’s not hard at all - just takes a little time and care. Do it![/quote]
It really isn’t. I remember brewing extract batches and thinking there was no way I could keep track of all this s***. Then one of my friends egged me on and one Saturday we brewed a super basic pale ale. I remember when the first wort ran off the mash tun and thought “I have been worried about this being hard for how many years?!?!”
It really isn’t. I remember brewing extract batches and thinking there was no way I could keep track of all this s***. Then one of my friends egged me on and one Saturday we brewed a super basic pale ale. I remember when the first wort ran off the mash tun and thought “I have been worried about this being hard for how many years?!?!”
I’ve been doing this a while and one thing I’ve learned through the years is that homebrewers themselves make this hobby (lifestyle) as easy OR as hard as they choose. Some people really get off on the technical tinkerings (I’m somewhere in the middle) but did you ever see the pictures of the guy who makes beer in a rusty barrel over a campfire? Seriously.
I wish I could view your ppt, but it’ll have to wait for my home PC. My first batch was an extract kit on a Sunday afternoon. I couldn’t figure out what the heck a “sparge” was. All I knew was that I had a linen hopsock full of grains on the stove and no idea what to do next. Now I have a full AG keggle setup. Honestly, I had as much fun building the rig as I have making the beer.
Alphastanly’s charts look like what happens when you leave a software guy unsupervised! They break things down into steps even a stupid computer can follow. Especially if you’re doing a single batch, it’s really pretty simple.
You ought to see the programming for a device to tie shoe laces - it made me switch to loafers.
Alphastanly’s charts look like what happens when you leave a software guy unsupervised! They break things down into steps even a stupid computer can follow. Especially if you’re doing a single batch, it’s really pretty simple.
You ought to see the programming for a device to tie shoe laces - it made me switch to loafers.
signed,
Cisco networking guy[/quote]
I’m about to find out. I’m heating my strike water for my first BIAB as I type this.
It really isn’t. I remember brewing extract batches and thinking there was no way I could keep track of all this s***. Then one of my friends egged me on and one Saturday we brewed a super basic pale ale. I remember when the first wort ran off the mash tun and thought “I have been worried about this being hard for how many years?!?!”
Cheers.[/quote]
So true.[/quote]
Add me to the +1 contingent. I did 3 extract batches, said F*ck this, went all grain and haven’t looked back.
You can go all grain batch sparge with little outlay of that precious green. Hell, my mash tun does not even have a false bottom, although I am building another one with a bazooka per Denny’s instructions( http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/
) I use a large nylon grain bag as a liner for my 5 gallon round cooler, and I replaced the stock spigot with a lever spigot I got at my LHBS. It would probably work fine for fly sparging too, but batch is the easiest way to break into it. Also, you can start off small with 2 gallon BIAB batches, to get the hang of the extra steps involved, that is what I did.
