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Gday all,

Getting close to my first AG, just need the burner and a thermometer.

I have a 70 litre eski and a 27 litre at my disposal. The 70 has 50 mm thick walls and would hold the mash temp better.

Just concerned that the grain bed will be spread to thin in the 70?

Will be doing single batch say 5 kilo of grain and using a false floor and batch sparge.

any thoughts welcome
thanks mick

G'day Mick,
Am I correct in assuming that the 70L esky is rectangular not cylindrical?

In theory, it shouldn't matter too much as long as you don't brew small batches and make the grainbed too thin. You need to pay close attention to stirring your mash when you add the sparge water to ensure that you collect as much of the sugary wort as you can otherwise you'll lose efficiency by leaving a lot of sugars behind in the mashtun. You may also need to keep a close eye on the mash temp during the mash as a large surface area may result in unexpected temperature drops across the mash as the heat transfers out of the grainbed and into the air between the grainbed surface and the esky lid.

The layout of your false bottom in a large esky may also be a bit of an issue when it comes to collecting the sugars...There are those who debate that it doesn't matter what sort of false bottom you use if you're batch sparging. Water is lazy - it will traverse the easiest route. You cannot expect the water to faithfully flush out all of the sugars that remain in the corners of the esky, far away from the false bottom.

Cheers,
TL

Ok yes it is rectangular.

I have beersmith now so I guess I'l just give it a go and see how efficiant it is. Thats a good point about the head space losing temp, interesting to see how that goes.

Thanks Mick

Hello mate,

I think for Single, say 5kg batches, 70ltr Esky is way to big IMO.. I think you would be better off(for singles) to go with your smaller esky, it will hold temp much better even if the sides are thinner as the Mash will hold temp very well by retaining the heat and not letting it escape into deadspace of a much larger esky..

If you consider doing double batches, go with the big one but I would plan on the smaller one for single batches... I used a 38ltr esky and it did the job very well, it was quite old and busted up but held heat well, maybe only dropping 1 degree over a 90 min mash..

I now have 57ltr Igloo esky and still for singles, it lost 5 degrees over a 90 min mash, so ill now be doing 1.5 batches or maybe doubles as the esky is really big enough for that size and its only 57ltrs.. Singles just seem to get lost in there..... Check out this link for my ESKY: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=33455&hl=

Ok how bout this:

Can i do a double mash and cube half of the wort for a future boil? Problem is only have a 50 litre kettle. as far as I can gather to small for double batch.

or can I mash in the 27 litre for a single batch?

or am I just being to tight not wanting to buy another esky?

I use a 25 litre cooler for my mashtun.
It's just big enough for a 23 litre batch.
I add a mashout to full capacity, vorlauf & drain, fill it again to full capacity, vorlauf & drain.
I look to get 30 to 31 litres into the kettle. I measure what's been collected so far, add the difference to the mash tun, vorlauf & drain.

I use a piece of yoga mat on top of my mash to retain the heat in the mash, basically isolating the deadspace at the top. I lose only 0.5ºC in 90 minutes.

It works for me, but it's tight. I'd be happier with a 35 litre cooler.
My kettle is 40 litres, and it's big enough for single batches. A 50 litre cooler would allow you to do a 30 litre batch, but you won't be able to do double batches.

I have a Willow 55L esky.

The total volume quoted by the manufacturer isnt that accurate, my 55L is actually 48L as the lid takes up space. the volume appears to be calculated minus the lid..... cheeky bastards!

I happily do single batches (20L) in this. I have a piece of thick camping mat that sits on top of the mash reducing the heat loss due to the large volume of air above the mash.

I also wrap the esky in an old sleeping bag at this time of the year.

With this i might lose 2-3C over the 90 mins of the mash.

Bear in mind that the first 20 min is where the majority of conversion takes place. Assuming you don't get more than a 1C loss over that time you will be ok.

Re: double batches - I have a 50L keggle and you are correct in saying that it is too small for 'double' batches. I've tried a few times to sneak out a 40L batch and always fall a litre or 2 short as well as suffer boilovers. I get around that by doing a 40L boil and then adding 10L of boiling water at flameout - beersmith can do the calcs for you. It involves a more concentrated boil, less sparging so you get an efficiency loss and need more hops to compensate for the higher boil gravity. I find this results in a watery beer so have stopped doing it.

Cheers
DrSmurto

Thanks all,

Just trying to get my head around all this AG stuff.

will use a 27 litre tun to start with.

First AG beckens and to quote the late great big kev "I'm excited!"

bigpots wrote:Can i do a double mash and cube half of the wort for a future boil?

You would want to boil it first.

You could do two boils per brew day, maybe employ a partigyle method.
http://www.brewingtechniques.com/librar ... osher.html

drsmurto wrote:I have a Willow 55L esky.
I happily do single batches (20L) in this. I have a piece of thick camping mat that sits on top of the mash reducing the heat loss due to the large volume of air above the mash.
I also wrap the esky in an old sleeping bag at this time of the year.
With this i might lose 2-3C over the 90 mins of the mash.
Cheers
DrSmurto

+1 on the good Doctors advise,

I use a 50L Nylex "Esky" brand rectangular Esky & even in these Winter conditions I can barely see any real Temp, drop over the hour that I mash.
Mind you, I pre-heat the esky with hot water & I use an old blanket on it as well.

Cheers, Mick.