New Brewing System Strategy, Hypothetically

Make a batch and have low expectations.

Keep detailed notes throughout.

 

Well first would be a complete cleaning and sterilizing of all new equiptment. Manufacturing processes sometimes use oil,grease,graphite or other substances to fashion new metal parts and I'd want it off.
All connections,hoses or piping and gaskets would be checked cause sometimes parts come damaged or a gasket was not supplied or installed properly.
I would not brew a big beer because of any unknown quirk in the mash tun ,sparging or the boil. Probably just a simple pale ale constantly monitoring temp and efficiency.

 

I would jump in and learn on the fly!

 

I currently am dealing with this obstacle. I should be done wiring my electrical panel this weekend and will do a full water test run before I run a batch through it. I think that for my first beer, I'm going to make something like a pale ale to gear up for the summer and to try and work the kinks out.

 

No idea, I still have some equipment that is 16 years old.

 

agree with the fellow VTer and go with an imaginary brew run of cleaning solution like oxyclean…that's what I did the first time testing out my brew system.
Unfortunately subsequently when I did do a first brew, I still hadn't fully figured out my RIMS tube PID controller and had it turned off and was just running it on manual. I ended up blowing up some silicon tubing as I had my RIMS tube turned on without my pump running and the liquid in the RIMS tube started boiling. A loud boom of silicon tubing popping...

 

I would pick a tried and true recipe, ideally something simple. Here you know the expected efficiency and should have some tasting notes to fall back on. I would not mess with water or yeast or ferm temps from previous iterations. The goal would be to standardize the brew with the only variable being the new "whatever".

And if you don't have exploding silicon tubing you will have surpassed @telejunkie .

 

I do a water run first to figure out my dead spaces, then I would do one of my standard brews that I know how it should turn out already.

 

First recipe would be a simple low gravity saison, why spend lots on malt or hops when a little yeast will give a ton of flavor. 2nd brew would also be a simple saison for the same reason, but I really like saisons in the 1045 range

 

I was thinking the same thing. But if you are testing out a new kettle, you also want to know how it handles a large mass of hops. I would go low OG Saison, then maybe a hoppy APA.

 

After further review, my second beer would be a hoppy saison in 1045-50 range so I could see what happened with a metric buttload of FO hops

 

I went through this exercise a couple of years ago going from an infusion-heated cooler to a direct-heated HERMS system. Good feedback above; I would add the following:

1) To determine the new system parameters, super accurate measurements to for the first few batches are important. I did full volume no-sparges (mostly still do) because measuring sparge water with a sight glass isn't measuring at all. Also measured pre-boil volume, post-boil volume, and leftover wort in MLT, kettle and chiller. Computed grain/hop absorption and found the defaults I used for years were wrong.
2) If you're building a HERMS system, add some food coloring to the first wet test to ensure no seepage of wort into the HLT.

 

When I first wanted to try all grain, or high gravity, or anything "experimental", I just started with 1-gallon batches. Its for the cost, really - I hated the idea of having to dump a messed up 5-gallon batch of Russian Imperial Stout in case I messed up, that would be a small fortune. Plus, my boil pot has no problem handling the grain for making a 1-gallon BIAB - and now I know that until I upgrade, that's about all I can do