Monday, December 14, 2015

Temperature Testing

Thanks to Craigslist and the abundance of local homebrewers here in Minnesota, I've been able to procure a few new pieces of equipment. Today I am testing them to see how well they hold temperature.

Cool Brewing Fermentation Bag

The folks at Cool Brewing came up with an insulated bag design big enough for carboys and fermenters that can keep the fermenting wort cool by the use of frozen water bottles. It's big enough to fit a 6 gal carboy and the airlock and fit plenty of frozen water bottles. I filled up a 6 gallon carboy with 5 gallons of water, and took advantage of the chilly MN weather to cool it rapidly to 70 (room temp). Then I put the carboy into the Cool Brewing Fermentation Bag with one 12 oz bottle and one 32 oz frozen water bottle, as that's all I had frozen at the time I decided to do this experiment.




After 16 hours, I checked on the temp and it had come down to 64, and the ice bottles had melted. If I were to swap out the bottles, I'm confident I could keep it at that temp for as long as I needed to. Seems well made and water tight. This will be getting some use with my next batch.


48 Liter Picnic Cooler ~ Mash Tun

Also a Craigslist find. The original owner created a spout using a 3D printer (pretty cool!) and installed a stainless braided hose which will help stop the grain from flowing into my boil kettle. After getting some heat resistant tubing and ball valve from a local plumbing supply store, my new mash tun is fully operational.

I heated up 4 gallons of water to 170 and poured it into the mash tun. After giving the water a brief stir, I was down to 164. This will help me to understand and calculate how much heat loss I will get when transferring strike/sparge water. I closed the lid and let it sit for 60 mins, after which I was down to 155...a 9 deg drop. Too much. 



So I drained the water, which took 5 minutes (I timed it). When draining, I took note of how much water would drain on it's own. The drain is pretty near the bottom, but not all the way on the bottom. I rolled up a towel to put under the end of the cooler opposite the drain, and I was able to get all but a quart of water out. I was happy with this and now know to add 1 quart of water to my strike water calculation to account for what's left under the water level of the drain. I reheated it on the stove back up to 170. Then poured back into the mash tun to get a 2nd reading. This time I put a thick quilt over the top of the cooler to see how much heat I can retain with the added insulation layer. After 60 mins, still a 9 deg drop. A friend gave me an idea to use a piece of aluminum foil over the eventual grain bed during the mash to help with heat loss. I'll have to try that. All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the cooler.


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