I have been brewing for about 5 years now and my process/equipment
haven’t changed much from the beginning.
I’m going to give you an overview of my mash tun set up and how I
accomplish my sparge. There are other
methods out their but these are the ones that seemed the simplest to me when I
started and the ones I continue to use today.
If you are new to homebrewing and /or all grain some of this might seem
overly complicated but don’t be discouraged.
If you can make tea, you have all the mechanics down to make beer.
One of the first decisions you have to make when making the jump to all
grain is what kind of mash tun you are going to use. My Mash Tun of choice is a rectangular
Coleman Cooler. This is what I had in
the garage when I decided to make the jump to all grain and have loved it ever
since. Wait WTF is a mash tun? A mash tun is basically where you are going
to mix your cracked grains and your heated water. Inside the tun the heated water will cause
the starches in the grains to “convert” and change into sugar. There are different variables to change the
outcome of the beer profile but the typical values are 1.5 quarts of mash water
to 1lb of grain at a temperature of around 152 F. Once the grain is mixed with the water, you
have to let it rest. This will typically
take about 1 hour and then you are ready to start rinsing the sugar out of the
grain. To do this you will be completing
a process called sparging.
While sparging you must separate
the wort(sugar water) from the grain and drain it into our brew kettle without
excess grain/husk material. To do this
you will need to use a “manifold” device to strain the wort out of the
grain. Many people use a stainless steel
braid manifold but I chose to go with good old copper. It was cheap to buy, easy to make, and is easy
to clean. I started off with a 2 leg
copper manifold in my previous mash tun and stepped up to a 4 leg copper
manifold in my newer mash tun. The 2 leg
was super easy to make and netted me about 70% mash efficiency which isn’t
outstanding but gets the job done. The 4
leg manifold in my larger mash tun gets me about 80% mash efficiency but was a
little more complicated to build. If you
are just getting started, I recommend the 2 leg copper manifold for the
construction simplicity. The slits in
the copper tubing were cut using a hacksaw blade and some elbow grease. The copper manifold is not soldered together
so it will come apart easily for cleaning.
The only real design consideration is that you don’t want the
legs/drains of your manifold too close to the wall of the cooler. If it is too close the water will run down
the cooler walls instead of running through the grain. According to John Palmer you want the
distance of the outside leg/drain to be ½ the distance of the spacing of the
legs. So if you have a manifold with two
legs spaced 6 inches apart the closest you want it to the cooler walls is 3
inches. A lot of photos you see where
people are using coolers for mash tuns they have replaced the stock drain hole
with a ball valve. I found that vinyl
tubing fits perfectly in the stock drain hole and I can use a plastic valve on
the end of the tubing to control flow.
That saves your from having to buy a ball valve and bulkhead assembly.
The next area a lot of people get glossy eyed when I start rambling is
about water chemistry. It seems a ton
more difficult than it really is. John
Palmer does an outstanding job explaining how water chemistry effects theoutcome of a mash. I use his spreadsheet
to calculate all my water additions prior to brewing which is simply a matter
of typing in the numbers of my local water report and choosing the amount to
dilute with distilled water. The only
issue I have found with our local water is it is really high in sulfate which
has the potential to make hop bitterness very astringent. To combat this I typically add some calcium
chloride to my water which will even out the effects of having too much
sulfate. Water chemistry is a big hang
up for a lot of would-be all grainers but it is not near as complicated as it
seems. Once you get a couple brews under
your belt figuring the water will be second nature.
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If you’ve made it this far you are on the home stretch. The other major equipment upgrades you will
need for all grain is a turkey fyrer/burner and a wort chiller. With all grain you will be doing full batch
boiling and you will need to heat up a full 7.5 gallons (or whatever batch
size) worth of wort and on the flipside cool all that hot wort down. Cooling could take hours if you are trying to
submerge your pot in an ice bath. The cooling
solution is an immersion chiller. You
can make one of these for the cost of copper tubing and the labor of wrapping
it around a cylindrical object. I used
50 feet of 3/8 inch copper tubing to make mine.
One important concept to help cut your cooling time down is to stir the
wort with a sanitized spoon as it is cooling. If you ever go full force into brewing and buy
a pump, check out Jamil’s Whirlpool Chiller.
Mash Tun – Cooler $40.00
Hot Liquor Tank – 5 or 10gal round cooler $25.00-$50.00
Copper Manifold - $25.00 for simple 2 leg design
Plastic Valves 2X – $6.50
Boil kettle capable of boiling 7.5 gallons of wort - $80.00
Immersion chiller – 50’ of 3/8in copper tubing $60.00
Cost of taking grain and making beer out of it – priceless
