Goodmorning All!
This past weekend, we had the pleasure and opportunity to brew with some friends who are leaps and bounds ahead of us in the homebrewing world. While we tend to rely on gravity, manpower and other free but effective methods, these guys have taken the next step to brewing more like the breweries do it! When someone comes to brew with us, they expect to sweat a little! With these guys, it’s short bursts of watching them plug in a pump, or flip a switch, while Josh and I do our best to drain their kegs! It’s my kind of brewing!!
Well, we started at Jack’s on Saturday, and having never used a pump in person for brewing, I was still a little on the gravity side of the fence, if only because that’s all I had to work with and I didn’t want to burst my own bubble. Let me tell you how much greener the grass is on the other side! I don’t know what I’ve been fighting, but it just takes all the heavy lifting out, and is nowhere near as complicated as I thought to make adjustments for equipment losses and system changes. The whole thing was very simple. They ran some hot water (about 190 F) through the pump and into the mash tun to pre-heat the mash tun and loosen up anything that might still be in the equipment. That done, the mash water is heated to strike temp, transferred to the pump and on with the day!
The other thing I really liked about Jack’s system was the sparge. They do a batch sparge with the pump, and it’s brilliant. First, it’s a recirculation with the pump, and, mixed with Jack’s absolutely ingenious “false bottom”, it runs clear real fast! As cool as running the wort into a pitcher and pouring it on top is, I think the pump makes a WAY better job of it. From there, the wort is ran into the boil kettle, then the sparge water is ran into the mash tun and allowed about ten minutes to soak up. From there, the whole process (minus the re-circ) is repeated one more time, and it’s all done! Nice, quick, concise, and ridiculously effective- like 85% on average effective! Considering the BrewChatter Brewery’s 70ish percent average, I think that’s pretty fun!
The rest of the game is pretty normal from the boil, and filling the fermenter (which is a beautiful, stainless steel 14 gallon conical) is done with gravity. All in all, Jack’s system is great. Super efficient, easy to use and no back pain at all! I like it!
Now Shawn’s system is INSANE! Shawn and Jack designed and built it from the ground up, and it is beautiful. Complete with a control panel, mounted pumps and digital thermometer displays for each vessel, you’d think that one would get lost and confused trying to use it, but that’s not the case! Everything is designed for maximum efficiency and maximum common sense.
The overall concept of the brew day is very similar. They run hot water through the system, eliminating equipment losses, pre-heating the mash tun and flushing out any chance sugars that may have been left in the system. The sparge is also the same, although Shawn’s system has a traditional false bottom, which also works great. As I said, the real difference between their sparge and ours is the pump, and therefore the time and overall efficiency!
What I really like about Shawn’s system is the control panel they designed for it. With the flick of a switch, you could control water flow via two pumps, and it even had a power outlet for “future development”, like if you needed to plug in a laptop, etc. All his clamps were tri-clover clamps, which I’d never see before, but were killer. Very sanitary, and super easy to use, with minimal contact with the wort. Very cool upgrade!
His control panel also boasts digital timers, to go along with the three digital thermometer read outs, one timing the mash, the other the entire brew day. All in all, the dream system.
So, brewing at Shawn’s involves a bit more drooling, and lots of, “So where did you get this from?” and “Do you have a copy of your plans?”. The whole thing is just ridiculously cool.
Well friends, check out our ‘Gravity VS Technology’ post for some pics of Shawn’s system, as well as our Homebrewers Gallery for both Shawn and Jack’s systems. Submit your recipes for your favorite beers in our new RECIPES section at the top of the page, and don’t forget to friend us on Facebook and follow on Twitter!
