New Brewery!

[discochris]

Originally Posted by Dansrc51

bought a plate filter and filtered an IPA last night. All I can say is that it was money well spent. no more weeks of waiting for beer to clear, no funky yeast flavors or trub left in kegs. No worrying about moving a keg and stirring up crap, only to have to wait for it to settle again. nope, just carb and drink. Crystal clear IPA.

I usually just filter out a lot of the trub when I rack to the secondary carboy, and then run it through a screen funnel when it goes into the keg. Never had any issues with that.

I made the mistake early on of just dumping the whole batch into the keg. Ended up ruining a good amber ale when all the trub crud clogged the output line in the keg. I had to disassemble the whole mess to clean it out and then the beer got contaminated. I won't go into detail on what that did to my stomach when I drank it anyway.

[discochris]

Made a terrible mess the other night. I was brewing a kit with the White House honey porter recipe. I was also bottling another porter the same night. It was about 2 below zero outside, so I decided to set the kettle outside on the patio table to cool while I bottled the other batch.

Oops. The pot slid off the table, and dumped wort all over the deck. It froze instantly to a sticky awful mess. My wife was not pleased, as it also splashed all over the sliding glass door. Ugh.

It got up to about 40 today, so when I got home, I was scraping nasty beer residue off the deck and the door. And then I brewed again.

[fifthcircle]

Hey levain,
Do you feel RIMS is worth it?

I have been really thinking about building a system, but I just don't know why. Plenty of awesome beer at the local home brew club comes from cooler MLT's.



Sent from my fat thumbs on a small touch screen.

[levain]

Originally Posted by fifthcircle

Hey levain,
Do you feel RIMS is worth it?

I have been really thinking about building a system, but I just don't know why. Plenty of awesome beer at the local home brew club comes from cooler MLT's.



Sent from my fat thumbs on a small touch screen.

Worth it in what sense? I brewed for 10 years with 2 SS pots, a propane burner, an insulated box for the mash and a bunch of hoses. My beer is no better today than it was then. Well, maybe its better now, but that's because of more experience.

When I bought mine, my ultimate goal was to end the mayhem that I had created. I was tired of lifting that bucket over my head just right. I wanted a fair amount of automation. Easier to clean. Pumps. Solid build. RIMS was low on the list for me. I love my Brew Magic, but its an older version. I think it cost me $3K shipped new from Sabco. Would I do it again? Yeah, but I won't need to. It's a solid, well built system that should last me a lifetime. I love the ease and flexibility it offers.

The RIMS is great since it produces crystal clear wort quick. I can mash out in 20-30 min. but since I batch sparge, I still need to recirculate a bit after mash out.

I considered the B3 1550 when I bought my BM, but it was really cheap in comparison. there was just something really flimsy about it. I chose the BM for build quality, not because it was a RIMS versus a HERMS. I would always choose a pump based system over gravity just for height. That is certainly something to keep in mind.

[fifthcircle]

You answered my questions. Makes brewing more convenient. That is worth it, partly. The other part is consistency. And that's great for the few beers I would brew and keep on tap. I can't swallow the price though, so if I do have a system, I will build it. I know a great welder for the stand.

Sent from my fat thumbs on a small touch screen.

[tootal]

+1 on the RIMS. I understand the cost factor, that's why I have a brewing partner and we split the cost of all the brewing equipment. We take turns deciding what to brew except for the Imperial Stout which keeps his wife happy!!
We ended up with the Sabco because we were tired of stirring since we like to do step mashes and heating a mash in a big pot and keeping the temps even is a pain. I love the whole idea of recirculation. The clear mash and that it's much easier to repeat a recipe are two big advantages. Another brewing friend built his own RIMS system by incorporating friends to weld up, wire electronics and build him a heat exchanger. It all folds up and is about 2 feet square and 4 feet tall and rolls around. Very cool.

So if you know someone equally interested in brewing maybe you could form a partnership and cut the cost in half?

[fifthcircle]

Originally Posted by tootal

+1 on the RIMS. I understand the cost factor, that's why I have a brewing partner and we split the cost of all the brewing equipment. We take turns deciding what to brew except for the Imperial Stout which keeps his wife happy!!
We ended up with the Sabco because we were tired of stirring since we like to do step mashes and heating a mash in a big pot and keeping the temps even is a pain. I love the whole idea of recirculation. The clear mash and that it's much easier to repeat a recipe are two big advantages. Another brewing friend built his own RIMS system by incorporating friends to weld up, wire electronics and build him a heat exchanger. It all folds up and is about 2 feet square and 4 feet tall and rolls around. Very cool.

So if you know someone equally interested in brewing maybe you could form a partnership and cut the cost in half?

Get some pics of that system. I would really be interested in seeing how it works, and folds up!!

[Apocalypse Cow]

It has been a gooood weekend.
Saturday night resulted in 5 gal of partial grain vanilla Porter and while that was cooking I brewed my first 5 gal. all grain brew, an Amber Lager.
Of course I had to pick two beers that will both take at least 6 weeks to mature.
Still a great weekend.








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[mud]

Originally Posted by fifthcircle

Get some pics of that system. I would really be interested in seeing how it works, and folds up!!

Something like this???

http://www.tomsbrewshop.com/prod/261...t-Brewery.html



I know it is not RIMS....

[fifthcircle]

That's pretty cool. Simple and easy to build. I would just recirculate onto the top of the mash, and direct fire to maintain/raise temp.

Thanks for posting that.

[levain]

Originally Posted by fifthcircle

I would just recirculate onto the top of the mash, and direct fire to maintain/raise temp.

Thanks for posting that.

That's exactly how I run my Brew Magic.

[Prior]

This morning I bottled by first all-grain batch, an imperial stout. Pretty tasty right off the bat, can't wait until it's carbed up!

[tootal]

Mmmmm, Imperial Stout! Got 5 gallons in the fridge and it's a wonderful thing. Brewing a Sticke Alt with one friend tomorrow and on New Year's my partner and I are doing a Dopplebock!

Now here's a question I'll extend to the masses. For those using a plate chiller, do you go from the kettle, through the chiller and right into the fermenter or do you recirculate back to the kettle until you reach your temperature?

The reason I ask is we have always recirculated the hot wort for 15 minutes to clarify using a whirlpool method. Once we have clear wort we switch the beer line from the whirlpool to the chiller. As soon as it comes out of the chiller you can see the cold break forming. Others I talk to say they cool the whole kettle by running through the chiller and then back into the kettle and after thinking about this the thought that the "filter bed" would trap the cold break also making the wort even clearer in the fermenter.
So what are your thoughts on this?

[hyperboarder]

Ruby Street is local to me, good guys over there. They make nice systems.

[Dansrc51]

We now recirculate thought our chiller and back into the kettle to trap the cold break protiens. It clears the beer up even more and afterwards you have a nice cone of stuff whirlpool end into the center of your kettle and not in your fermenter. Haven't had a problem yet with that method.