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60L Maxi-BIAB Brew

Post #1 made 14 years ago
by stux
I decided to fill my 60L fermenter.

I have a 98L pot and my old 50L pot.

Lower gravity recipe and used my CE BIABcalc to calculate the grainbill... whooo 87% end of boil efficiency ;)

Anyway, I doughed in with 80L of strike and 9.9KG of grain

I then dunk sparged with 20L in my 50L pot

First Run off was 73L, and I added the 20L of sparge over the course of the boil.

aiming for a 120min boil (scottish), ended up doing 135 min boil as my evap numbers are still not dialed in.

66L post boil, 6L trub, of which I rescued 3L or so for starters.

60L in cubes, should give me about 81% efficiency into fermenter.

I setup a second skyhook so I could lower the bag into my other pot, on an old two ring burner, and then raise and drain. New pot makes my old 50L look so small ;)
1 Ready for Dunk Sparge.jpg
Here comes the boil!
2 Start of Boil.jpg
4 Little babies all lined up :). If I wanted to I could've done 4x17L, and made them slightly over gravity to end up with 80L in the fermenter...
3 4 little babies.jpg
And the kettle trub. I poured this through a sieve and stored in a fridge. Then I decanted 3L of good starter wort.
4 6L of kettle trub.jpg
Notice there's no tap ;)
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Last edited by stux on 29 Feb 2012, 12:51, edited 3 times in total.
Fermenting: -
Cubed: -
Stirplate: -
On Tap: NS Summer Ale III (WY1272), Landlord III (WY1469), Fighter's 70/- II (WY1272), Roast Porter (WY1028), Cider, Soda
Next: Munich Helles III

5/7/12

Post #3 made 14 years ago
by stux
Beachbum wrote:Rivers of beer :o
Is that a Craftbrewer bag?
Nope, 2nd generation swmbo original, has extra lifting straps which go right through the south pole of the bag
Last edited by stux on 29 Feb 2012, 21:44, edited 3 times in total.
Fermenting: -
Cubed: -
Stirplate: -
On Tap: NS Summer Ale III (WY1272), Landlord III (WY1469), Fighter's 70/- II (WY1272), Roast Porter (WY1028), Cider, Soda
Next: Munich Helles III

5/7/12

Post #4 made 14 years ago
by hashie
Nice work stux, that sure is one big pot.

Not sure on your maths though, isn't 4x17=68???
Last edited by hashie on 01 Mar 2012, 04:56, edited 3 times in total.
"It's beer Jim, but not as we know it."

Post #5 made 14 years ago
by stux
If you fill those cubes to the band it's 15L, to the brim is 17L

I did 4x15 for 60L

But if I did 4x17 I'd get 68L, I could then add 3L of water per cube to get 80L if made them slightly over gravity

Easy to work out with ce calc, just set cube limit to 68L and target 80L

As I only fill kegs and my large fermenter is 60L, not much point doing more, but I am contemplating hosting a brewday and 4 cubes which can make a keg each would be usefull. Good thing with a brew day with four fellas is all the faffing about to do the big maxi stuff becomes trivial
Fermenting: -
Cubed: -
Stirplate: -
On Tap: NS Summer Ale III (WY1272), Landlord III (WY1469), Fighter's 70/- II (WY1272), Roast Porter (WY1028), Cider, Soda
Next: Munich Helles III

5/7/12

Post #6 made 14 years ago
by Aces high
Thanks for hte inspiration Stux

I've gotta try this Maxi brew one of these days. Ive had a mate who likes to brew with me and we end up with 1 keg full each, but with friends dropping over etc I really need two kegs from each brew day just to keep up my own stocks (either that or brew every other weekend, which just isn't possible sometimes). If I can fill 3 x 20L jerry cans I can ferment them side by side in the fridge. I calculated that with my 114L pot and a full 5ish% beer I just can't fit it all into one pot, but this looks like the answer.

Post #8 made 14 years ago
by stux
What evaporation per hr do you get from your 114L kettle?

If I can do 60L in a 98L, you can in a 114 ;)
Fermenting: -
Cubed: -
Stirplate: -
On Tap: NS Summer Ale III (WY1272), Landlord III (WY1469), Fighter's 70/- II (WY1272), Roast Porter (WY1028), Cider, Soda
Next: Munich Helles III

5/7/12

Post #9 made 14 years ago
by Aces high
stux wrote:What evaporation per hr do you get from your 114L kettle?

If I can do 60L in a 98L, you can in a 114 ;)
Evaporation is 10.5L per hour, exactly what the calculator predicted. I can easily do full size double batches based on about 42L into the fermenter.

According to the calculator a 64L batch into the fermenter at 1.050 gives me a total mash volume of 113L (and thats with a 60 minute boil) with a start of boil volume of 96L.

I like the idea of the 20L dunk sparge. With a 90 minute boil the main mash would be 98L, then after adding the 20L sparge back in I would end up with 100L in the kettle pre boil which gives my comfortable headspace for boilovers
Last edited by Aces high on 03 Mar 2012, 09:05, edited 3 times in total.

Post #10 made 14 years ago
by stux
I took a couple of photos of the fermenter the other day

This is my 60L fermenter, with blow-off tube, thermoprobe, Digital Hot/Cold temperature controller and Heat belt sitting on a reinforced shelf in a 400L fridge, filled to the 60L mark. I tend to get 1L of trub per 20L, so that should give me exactly 3 kegs worth :)
5 60L frankenfermenter.jpg
And this is the blowoff tube and thermoprobe, with temp sensor arrangement. I use a bung as it allows me to seal the hole, add hops etc, and I've recently started using blow-off tubes, because of a few krausen explosions :)
6 blowoff thermoprobe.jpg
Next "upgrade" will be to start using fermenter lining bags :), so I can just line the fermenter with a bag, ferment in the bag, rack out of the bag... then toss the bag! no need to clean the fermenter ;)
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Last edited by stux on 08 Mar 2012, 10:33, edited 3 times in total.
Fermenting: -
Cubed: -
Stirplate: -
On Tap: NS Summer Ale III (WY1272), Landlord III (WY1469), Fighter's 70/- II (WY1272), Roast Porter (WY1028), Cider, Soda
Next: Munich Helles III

5/7/12

Post #11 made 14 years ago
by deebo
How did you make the reinforced fridge shelf? I need to get off my arse and do the same sometime.. at the moment just using a standard fridge shelf to hold up to 4 kegs and have got lucky that it hasnt broken yet.

Post #12 made 14 years ago
by stux
Its a sheet of rather thick ply, with some flat steel T brackets epoxied and screwed on the edges to make rails. It was then painted with some sortof gloss paint

I have a 4x2 beam supporting the weight of the 60L fermenter in the middle. I only started using the beam once I filled the fermenter to 60L, before that I used to do it at 40-50L, but I just didn't feel comfortable only supporting all that weight with the plastic shelf rails!

Others make shelves out of checkerplate, or aluminium sheeting, or even window security screens custom sized. The benefit with the security screens in the cold will fall through.

WIth my shelf it quite effectively prevents the cooler air from falling to the bottom half of the fridge. So effectively in fact that I drilled a hole in the back and added a fan to move the air from one compartment to the other!
Fermenting: -
Cubed: -
Stirplate: -
On Tap: NS Summer Ale III (WY1272), Landlord III (WY1469), Fighter's 70/- II (WY1272), Roast Porter (WY1028), Cider, Soda
Next: Munich Helles III

5/7/12

Post #13 made 14 years ago
by stux
Found some pictures...

I decided to install a fan in the shelf so that I could hopefully control two different brews from two different controllers... it sortof works.

I find the best thing to do is put the bottom shelf + fan on the the bottom controller, and the top controller just has a heat belt. Bottom has heat belt as well.

Good overview of the whole shelf
IMG_2058.jpg
detail of the rails
IMG_2059.jpg
Truth be told, the hole lets a lot of cold air through with or without the fan. So much so, that if I don't need the bottom shelf I put the hole "plug" in. In retrospect I think it would be good to have some sortof ducted cover rather than a hole, but that was the experiemnt.
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Last edited by stux on 08 Mar 2012, 12:09, edited 3 times in total.
Fermenting: -
Cubed: -
Stirplate: -
On Tap: NS Summer Ale III (WY1272), Landlord III (WY1469), Fighter's 70/- II (WY1272), Roast Porter (WY1028), Cider, Soda
Next: Munich Helles III

5/7/12
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