BANG!

[brew]

I can't wait to try this... er.. I mean watch you try it...

[Jake]

what's it like to be livin the dream?  

[JohnQ]

OK, the major upgrade has begun,
Delivered the 20 Gallon MT to fakr at the meeting yesterday, the 30 Gallon will be picked up in 8 days, on my way home from the concert.
I think I've solved the "pushing the problem one kettle over" issue that RB brought up.
I plan on using the 30 gallon BK to heat the strike water from now on, using a 2nd electric cct.
Then as soon as I've done the strike, I can already have 20 gallons of Sparge water in the HLT, ready to recirculate through.

JQ

[fakr]

I'm in Blichmann heaven!!!   I'm now living a third of a dream Jake and it feels goooooood!  

[Chris Craig]

That's a sweet piece of equipment fakr!  Enjoy!

[JohnQ]

Finally, I ran a batch with the 30 gallon Mash Tun.
And to be sure it could handle whatever I wanted to throw at it, I made a 27 Gallon Batch of Vienna LSA (headed for the barrel).
63 lbs of grain, no problem.
Heated the water with the boil kettle, cross connecting it with the HLT using both the pumps to heat up 45 gallons of water at once...that took some time, definitely will be putting both of the elements on electric at once when I move the brewery to the garage.
When ready to move strike water, I balanced the correct amount plus 1/2 gallon into the Boil Kettle, shut off pumps, reconnected boil kettle pump to MT and transferred until it lost siphon. Used a towel to soak up what was in the bottom of the kettle.
The HLT was then connected to the electric to keep it's temp stable and the MT connected to the heat exchanger.
At the end of the mash, I elevated the MT temp setting to 168 and 15 mins later the mash was there, then did a 3 step sparge that was a combo batch and fly...drained the MT completely, started the first 10 gallon sparge, and as soon as the grain was fully covered began a fly sparge until the full 10 gallons had transferred. Stopped waited for a few mins, Full drain of the MT and repeated the process for the second 10 gallon Sparge.
27 gallons is still a bit much to handle in the 30 gallon kettle, even doing a fakr and transferring more as the evap happened, I took 2 gallons to the stovetop, boiled it there and then transferred it back during the whirlpool.
Ended up with 27 gallons of 1.073 and 86% efficiency, could still be better, as the Gravity of the sweet wort left over in the MT was still 1.040.
In future, I'll stick to 25 gallon maximum I think, then go to 4.25 gallons per corny for spunding, instead of 4.5 gallons.

JQ

[DandyMason]

86% is pretty damn good! Im jealous

[JohnQ]

So this is what a full mash looks like in a 30 gallon Blichmann...
74.25 pounds of grain.
23.5 gallons of strike water.

22 gallon batch with an og of 1.095

JQ

[JohnQ]

SS Sink and Counter
Just paid for it at Zellers Closeout at Brookside, will be needing some help moving it though!!!

JQ

[DandyMason]

That is amazing!

[brew]

Sweet!

[Chris Craig]

Where the hell are you going to put that?  The garage?

[Jake]

you are my hero

[pliny]

Your wife is a Saint.

[jeffsmith]

Your wife is a Saint.

Agreed. I'd be shot if that much stainless showed up at my house at one time.