I'm looking for advice on getting a larger distance between the kettle and the fermenter so that I can effectively siphon from my kettle to my fermenter without a pump. I'm also curious about hop pellet buildup in the top of a boil. How do I prevent this? Also, does anyone have any pics of a barley crusher with a modified hopper for larger volumes? I want to build something on the cheap. I'm a 5 galon batch kind of guy. On Thursday I brewed 12 gal of baltic porter in my 15 gal kettle. Lots of little things went wrong when I stepped up. I'm used to grinding my grains into my ale pale. I just grind, dough in, clean the pale, and use it as a fermenter after I chill. 34# of crushed grain will NOT fit into a 6 gal pale. I had to use a trash bag to hold half. When I went to dough in, the cheapo trash bag ripped and I lost about a pound of grain onto the table and floor. I scooped up what I could and moved on. Fortunately I nailed my mash temp of 150F. I brought my 13 gal up close to a boil. I added antifoam. I didn't measure the temp, I just saw simmering and I threw 6 oz of saaz pellets into the wort. The pellets deteriorated and created a layer of sludge on the top of my kettle. I didn't get to a boil for another 10 min, and the boil off was at a standstill because of the hop layer on the top of my wort. I've never seen this before. Is this common? It died down after I got to a rolling boil. At the end of the boil, I got everything cooled off, which took at least twice as long as normal because of the added volume. At this point I generally have a chair next to my fermenter. I pick up my cooled kettle and take a seat with the kettle in my lap. I use my knee as leverage along with my hands and arms to pour from the top of the kettle into fermenter. I did not do this because 12 gal if freakin' heavy! I had to siphon for the first time. The height difference between the kettle and the fermenter should have been greater. I got about 4 gal out of my kettle and gave up. That took about 15 min. I picked the rest up, poured into my second fermenter and added the sludgey stuff to back to my 4 gal. Only a few drops spilled. Overall, it should have been a very frustrating brew day. Lots of running around and problem solving throughout. For some reason I kept my cool and I didn't get too upset with any of the stuff that went wrong. I'll get better at this.
I just went to larger (10 gal) batches also. There is definitely some getting used to the new system. Doesn't sound like you have pumps or ball valve spigots on your kettle...bummer, I'd get one or the other or both : ) Or find a good back specialist.
+1 to adding a valve to your kettle. Can't imagine doing big batches without one. Having said that, I don't see why you should have much trouble siphoning. You must have some place where you can get your kettle well above the fermentor. And yes, a large amount of pellets can create a sort of film at the top of the wort. Nothing to worry about.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47961647@N02/6600292945/ We came up with this setup to solve some of the problems you speak of. Valves and inner screens are a must. I would also use a hop bag. A plate chiller and a pump help too. In the pic we use a 150 qt cooler; for your 12 gallon batches I would use a 100 qt cooler and at least a 20 gallon pot. The pot in the pic is 40 gallons.
I might be wrong, but I think that he might be talking about how when you add hops the wort foams. The foam ends up depositing a lot of hops on the kettle walls. I just take a spoon and push the hops back into the boil. That is if the hops material hasn't dried out.
For crushing grain, get yourself a couple of these guys: http://www.homedepot.com/Paint-Pain...Id=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051#.UHrKmFG5iSo Dirt cheap and they stack, so they don't have up too much room. I have four of these and use them for all sorts of brewing tasks, but primarily, weighing bulk grain into one, crushing into another, and holding warm waste water from the immersion chiller.
You're correct, but there was also quite a bit of hop material floating. It was thick enough to prevent steam from coming out until I got about 10 min into the boil. I use a brew spoon to help melt the hop build up from the sides of the kettle. Another funny thing about this beer was there was only about a spoonful of hot break. I got this about 45 min into the boil. I'm used to seeing more.
Could always use a mesh bag for the hops. Tie the bag to the habdle and add some stainless ball bearings to weigh the bag down. Really helps keep the hops out of the wort when siphoning.
I suspect most of the hot break occured when you added the hops, and combined into the floating hop foam that you saw. This is the reason I have started making sure I get a good hot break before the first hop addition when using significant quantities of hop pellets.
