Basic Brewing Equipment
Hot Liquor Tun (Pre Conversion)
This is the 50ltr stainless steel Nordic Optical stockpot that is to be converted into my Hot Liquor Tun. Hot Liquor is the term given to the water that is used to mash the malted barley and consists of nothing more that tap water with a little treatment to get rid of chlorine and to soften the hard water that is supplied to Bridlington.
An electrical element, temperature sensor probe and drain tap will be fitted shortly.
Completed HLT
Here is the now completed Hot Liquor Tun showing the Mashmaster Temperature guage, lever arm ball valve in the centre. To the lower left is the PT100 temperature probe that sends information to the PID controller, to the right is an acrylic tube sight glass to keep an eye on water levels.
The electrical element is shown in the pictures below.
Further pictures showing closer detail of components below.
Click on each image to enlarge and show text detail
Insulated Mash Tun (Pre Conversion)
This is my double walled, foam insulated container to be converted into a mash tun. This will be used to steep the malt to flush out the fermentable sugars from the grain prior to boiling. This too will have a drain tap and false bottom fitted, the false bottom is a strainer to allow the wort to be drawn off leaving the spent malt grains behind.
Further pictures showing closer details of components below
Click on each image to enlarge and show text detail
Wort Boiler (Pre Conversion)
Here is an identical 50ltr stockpot that will be converted into my wort boiler. Wort is the term for the sweet liquid that has been drawn off the mash tun after it has steeped the malt to extract the sugars from the grain.
Electrical elements, temperature sensor probe and drain tap will be fitted shortly.
Hop Filter
This is the hop filter made up of over a metre of stainless steel braiding, connected at both ends to a tee piece and plugged into the drain off valve of the kettle. It's purpose is to filter out the hops and hold them back as the kettle is drained and the wort transferred into the fermenter.
It achieves this through lots of small holes along it's length being the nature of braiding.
It achieves this through lots of small holes along it's length being the nature of braiding.
Basic Wort Chiller
In order to bring the boiled wort down to a temperature where the yeast can be added (without killing it) it must be cooled as quickly as possible after the boil and that is achieved with a wort chiller. This example is a basic design that is lowered into the boil kettle, cold water is pumped through the coil via the overhanging pipe connections until the wort temperature has been lowered to approx 20 degrees C to accept the yeast when transfered to the fermenter. More elaborate, efficient and smaller "plate chillers" are available to the more technical brewer.
Plastic Fermenter.
Once the wort has been boiled and the hops added it is then cooled to approx 20 deg C and transfered into this container where the yeast is added, an airlock placed in the lid and it is left to ferment for about a week where the yeast is allowed to feed on the sugars and turn them into alcohol.
The by-product of fermentation is carbon dioxide gas which is given off in the process and vented to atmosphere through the airlock.
Aditional Brewing Equipment
Hydrometer
The hydrometer is a valuable piece of test equipment for both checking when the fermentation has finished and for calculating the alcohol content or ABV of the finished brew.
Refractometer
The refractometer is used to measure the amount of sugar present in a small sample of wort placed on the blue glass test area.
Light is refracted as it passes through the sample and results in a reading on the scale when looked at through the eyepiece. Knowing a given sugar level from various tests can tell you when you have sparged all the sugar from your mash and to give a starting or original gravity reading when converted from "Brix" to SG units.
Light is refracted as it passes through the sample and results in a reading on the scale when looked at through the eyepiece. Knowing a given sugar level from various tests can tell you when you have sparged all the sugar from your mash and to give a starting or original gravity reading when converted from "Brix" to SG units.
Ancilliary Equipment
Various other equipment is available and usefull to the homebrewer, some of it can be found in the home kitchen, other is available from plenty of suppliers and comprise of plastic bins, bottle cappers, bottle brushes, funnels, sanitising chemicals, etc, etc.