![]() As I brewed more, I learned about the perils of cold-side oxidation and found appealing the options afforded by some of the new stainless fermenters on the market, but I couldn’t justify dropping that kind of cash given my situation at the time.įairly soon after my introduction to brewing, I transitioned from bottling to kegging my beer. Having embraced the importance of fermentation temperature control, I repurposed a mini-fridge as a chamber and brewed smaller batch sizes because I couldn’t fit anything larger than a 3 gallon/11 liter carboy. I started brewing when I was a college student, a time when both space and money were rather limited. While higher end vessels offer myriad features such as the capacity for closed fermentation and pressure transfers to avoid oxidation, they cost upwards of 25 times more than their less expensive counterparts that don’t have all the bells and whistles. Mosaic Of Change IPA by House Of Pendragonįrom cheap plastic buckets to stainless conicals that emulate the pros, the fermentation vessel options available to brewers these days is quite vast and can lead to some difficult decision making.Hopefully if this happens at least some of it will also run down the outside of the kettle so I can see it and know I need to fix it.Īgain, overall I'm quite pleased on first impression and I'm really looking forward to brewing with it! My main goal is to be able to squeeze in brew days without all the planning, set up and cleaning that my current set up requires and I have high hopes it will be perfect for that. I'm concerned any slow leak around the bulkhead will drip down between the walls of the kettle and end up who-knows-where. It looks like there's a bit of a gap in the seam between the two walls of the kettle where the bulkhead passes through. I'm planning to measure my strike water the night before so it's heated and ready to go whenever I want it to be. ![]() However, with the time delay feature I consider this a non-issue. Running at 120 volts it took 86 minutes to heat 8 gallons of water from 59 F to 160 F. Bobby at Brew Hardware was even kind enough to cover the shipping! ![]() I have a pre assembled, warrantied, all in one electric brew kettle for under $400. One vessel (well okay one vessel, a malt tube and an immersion chiller) to clean from strike to keg? Yes please! As soon as I get a chance to brew I'm planning to try fermenting in it too. The 1/2" hole in the lid is the perfect size for an airlock grommet. Double wall vessel should help stabilize mash temperatures and keep the outside slightly cooler to the touch These were spot checks after a semi decent stir with the foundry probe at the bottom of the liquid and the thermapen at the top so the foundry probe may be more accurate than I measured. Temperature measured within a degree of my thermapen. It is clear a lot of planning and consideration has gone into the design and execution. There's even a spare dip tube o ring included. The immersion chiller comes with the vinyl tubing, hose clamps, and even a garden hose adapter. Can adjust power in 1% increments (for some reason I thought it was 10% increments) Mine arrived Friday and I tested it out today heating water for a PBW soak. Obvious cons, additional equipment needed and you lose the simplicity of the all-in-one concept.įeel free to point out anything I left out, or flaws in my logic. That’s what I’ve come up with, it adds complexity, but I feel like it’s a workable solution to brewing bigger beers that would exceed the Foundry’s capacity. This method requires dialing in good flow rate into and out of the foundry. Drain runnings into foundry, batch or fly sparge, drain second runnings into foundry, boil in foundry. Heat sparge water in 3rd vessel with a 2nd heat source (or heat Sparge water in foundry before hand and transfer to an insulated vessel to stay hot until needed). Use foundry to maintain mash temps (or raise it for step mashing). Heat strike water in foundry, transfer and mash in MLT, circulate through foundry by gravity draining into foundry and pumping back into MLT. Recirculate, Optional Step Mash, Batch or Fly Sparge: Pour first runnings into foundry, drain second runnings into foundry, boil in foundry. Drain first runnings into a bucket or kettle, transfer sparge water to MLT. Heat strike water in foundry, transfer and mash in MLT. No Recirculation No Step Mashing Batch Sparge: This assumes that those like myself that are doing all-grain already have an insulated MLT, a cooler mash tun in my case. ![]() Benefits: Being electric, you can brew indoors (in the wonderful air conditioning), and easier step mashing (in theory). I know that kind of defeats the purpose of an all-in-one system. What I’ve come up with requires mashing in a 2nd vessel. I’ve been thinking about how to use this system to brew bigger beers, should one desire to do so.
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