10 Gallon All-Grain Brew System

6/6/2015 - SOLD to a fellow brewer since I no longer needed the capacity.  Kept the mash tun and extra burner for when I do partigyle batches though.  Hopefully he will brew a lot more beer though this system.

Extra shelf added for storage	Recirculation	Pump & Chiller	Boil Kettle	Bazooka-T in Boil Kettle
Pickup Tube in HLT	Ball Valve w/ Disconnect	Quick-Disconnect	HLT	Hop Strainer Bag
Burner	Mash-Tun Braid	Cooler Mash Tun Ball-Valve	Filling the Mash Tun	Draining into the Kettle
Almost had a boilover!	Boiling with hop strainer	Adding Hops

 

Parts List

Keggles & Burners 2 x Stainless Steel Kegs w/ holes cut in top Friend's Garage 2 x Weldless spiggots for Keggles  HomeBrewStuff 1/2" Stainless Steel Valve Weldless Bulkhead For Home Brew Kettle Weldless Sight Guage with Thermometer  16" Weldless Sight Gauge, 1/8" MPT Thread, High Temp Food Grade Silicone Washers and Tubing, Homebrewing; Shipping from Seattle via USPS Bazooka T* Midwest Supplies - Link 2 x 1/2" Threaded copper connector Hardware Store 1/2" Copper tubing (varies) Hardware Store 2 1/2 Inch Male Quick Disconnects (MPT) MoreBeer - Link 2 x SQ-14 Burners  16 In Square Patio Stove Heavy Duty Steel *switched this out for a pickup tube against the side of the kettle   Stand, Pump, and Chiller Chugger Pump  Chugger SS Inline Pump Copper Counterflow Wort Chiller  Eagle WC90 Wort Chiller, Counterflow 4 1/2 Inch Male Quick Disconnects (MPT) MoreBeer - Link 6 1/2 Inch Female Quick Disconnects (barb) MoreBeer - Link 1/2" Silicone Tubing  PRECUT 1/2" ID Silicone Tubing - 10 ft 2 x 1/2" Brass Ball Valves Hardware Store 1 x 1/2" Brass T Hardware Store 1 x 1/2" Brass 90 degree elbow Hardware Store 2"x6" Boards for Stand Hardware Store 1"x4" Pine for shelves Hardware Store 4 x Castors for cart Hardware Store Screws, Nails, ect. Hardware Store   Cooler Mash Tun Coleman Extreme 70 qt Cooler  Coleman 70 Quart Xtreme Cooler Weldless Cooler Kit w/ 1/2" Ball Valve  HomeBrewStuff 1/2" Stainless Steel Valve Weldless Bulkhead For Home Brew Kettle Bazooka Tube* MoreBeer - Link *Switched this out for a stainless toilet-supply braid after getting my Monster Mill. I was crushing much finer and the Bazooka Tube was getting clogged and causing drainage issues.

 

10 Gallon Brewing Process

I start with hot water from the sink, add ½ a campden tablet to the mash water to remove chlorine and chloramines, and then turn on my burner. While the mash water is heating up, I weigh and crush my grains. Once my grain is crushed, I pump the mash water from the hot liquor tank (HLT) up to my cooler mash tun. When all the water is pumped from the HLT, I get a small step stool/ladder out and get up on that to pour the grain into the water while stirring the mash. Let the mash sit for 30-60 minutes When the mash has about 20 minutes left, I’ll measure out my sparge water, add the other ½ of the campden tablet, and then start heating that in the HLT. Once my sparge water is around 185 degrees, I add enough of it to the mash to give me roughly half my pre-boil volume I usually don’t pump it at this point.  I just use a pitcher to add a gallon or so to the mash and stir it in. After stirring my mash, I open the valve on my mash tun about ½ way and pull off a couple quarts until there are no chunks of grain coming through. I then start draining into my boil kettle and pour the couple quarts of runoff back into the mash tun Once there is about a gallon or so of wort in the boil kettle, I’ll turn on the burner to start heating it up Once all the wort is drained from the first runnings, I pump the remainder of the sparge water into the mash tun and stir I then follow the same process as Step 8 While I’m waiting for the wort to come to a boil, I dump my mash tun and clean it out When the wort comes to a boil, I put the hop strainer bag contraption into the kettle and add my hops I use this because I don’t want my pellet hops to clog the Bazooka T in the bottom of my boil kettle.  I’ve never had a problem pumping from my kettle using this method.  I can’t even imagine how pissed off I would be if I had 11 gallons of boiled wort that I couldn’t pump through my chiller. When there’s about 15 minutes left in the boil, I start pumping the boiling wort from the boil kettle through the counterflow chiller (without the water running) to sanitize it and then back into the boil kettle.  I also add Irish moss at this point.  I find it necessary to turn up the burner to maintain a boil after you start recirculating through the chiller. Once I’m finished with my 60 minute boil, I turn on the water to the chiller and keep recirculating into the kettle for a few minutes while I sanitize my fermenters. When the fermenters are sanitized, I move the hose that’s recirculating back into the boil kettle to the fermenters and start filling. I control the out flow on the pump to allow for enough contact time with the counterflow chiller to get me to the right temperature.  I find I need to slow this down more in the summer when the ground water is a bit warmer. After I’ve filled both fermenters and pitched my yeast, I clean the boil kettle, and then run hot water through the pump and chiller to clean them up a bit.