A thought for Homebrewers with Sous Vide

Griffin

So I was brewing a batch of beer yesterday, just mashed in and was monitoring my temps when a thought came to me, and I do not have a sous vide or know how they work, but could you put a sous vide in your mash tun and have it keep a consistent temp of say 152F for you? I use a 5 gallon mash tun (5 gallon Igloo beverage cooler), so would it hold 3 gallons or so of water plus the grain bill if the water was already preheated? And would the grain clog up the sous vide? Got me to wondering. What say you fellow home brewers?

A BTW it was a cream ale. Got a nut brown, a Citra Pale Ale and chocolate stout fermenting as well right now and a batch of Bavarian Hefeweizen bottle conditioning. Getting the pipeline primed again after it being dry for so long.

nolaegghead

@nolabrew uses an Anova

nolabrew

I actually bought the anova specifically for making beer and have only recently started using it to make food.  I only use it to heat up my strike water and to keep the water in my hot liquor tank at the right temp.  I do let any grain touch it, even though I have talked to other brewers who do.  I will never go back to brewing without one.  When I got it I was in the process of designing a HERM system, which would have cost me over 2k.  The anova solved 90% of the problem I was having that made me want to build that system for less than 10% of the cost.

If you decide to get one, be sure to open it up and clean it out really well.  Mine had some oils and whatnot on it that I didn't want in my beer. 

stompbox

Interesting, do you still use a cooler mashtun or just circulate in an open pot?

Jeepster47

It's been 30 years since I made beer, so don't know what today's equipment is like ... please forgive any obvious ignorance. 

Would it be possible (inexpensive) to come up with a double boiler arrangement where the Anova maintains a clear-water outer bath?  Probably have to raise the temp a few extra degrees because of heat loss through the top of the inner tank ... but ...

Griffin

nolabrew said:

I actually bought the anova specifically for making beer and have only recently started using it to make food.  I only use it to heat up my strike water and to keep the water in my hot liquor tank at the right temp.  I do let any grain touch it, even though I have talked to other brewers who do.  I will never go back to brewing without one.  When I got it I was in the process of designing a HERM system, which would have cost me over 2k.  The anova solved 90% of the problem I was having that made me want to build that system for less than 10% of the cost.

If you decide to get one, be sure to open it up and clean it out really well.  Mine had some oils and whatnot on it that I didn't want in my beer. 

Interesting. I had a feeling somebody out there was using one for beer. Currently, I've got an old turkey fryer burner and just got a Blichmann burner. The last couple of batches I've been heating water on both. One to raise the temp on my mashtun to 168 after the mash is done and then drain from my mash tun, and the other to heat up a second batch of water to sparge all the grain. I don't know if that's a "good" way to do it, I've never really brewed with any experts, just taking bit and pieces here and there from the internet and coming up with my own process. I have been nailing my OGs though.

I still need to learn more about efficiency. I've looked into it, but its confused the hell outta me.

nolabrew

stompbox said:

Interesting, do you still use a cooler mashtun or just circulate in an open pot?

I heat up the strike water for mashing in my brew kettle and just pour it in to my mash tun (cooler with a false bottom).  I typically mash over night and I often end up pouring the mash back in to a brew kettle to mash out before I sparge.  For sparging I use a 5 gallon water cooler with a hole cut in the top for the anova.  The anova runs until about 2.3 gallons is left in the hot liquor tank and which point the insulation keeps at about the right temp.  It's not perfect but it's good enough for me.

nolabrew

Griffin said:

Interesting. I had a feeling somebody out there was using one for beer. Currently, I've got an old turkey fryer burner and just got a Blichmann burner. The last couple of batches I've been heating water on both. One to raise the temp on my mashtun to 168 after the mash is done and then drain from my mash tun, and the other to heat up a second batch of water to sparge all the grain. I don't know if that's a "good" way to do it, I've never really brewed with any experts, just taking bit and pieces here and there from the internet and coming up with my own process. I have been nailing my OGs though.

I still need to learn more about efficiency. I've looked into it, but its confused the hell outta me.

Water don't care how you heat it up. 

Here's a link to a bunch of articles on efficiency that my homebrew mentor wrote:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kkcknyo8utgk24k/AACKOPJ7gow7OyzK_KnBfE2Ca?dl=0

In particular, read the Calculating Brew House Efficiency, Improving Efficiency, Mash Rests and Overnight Mashing articles.  The real keys to improving efficiency are recording data so you can understand your brewing system and knowing (and adjusting) your water profile.  If you're already nailing your OGs then you are probably already well on your way. 

Here's a link to my brew sheet:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pw32k53prbtjx6a/Gose 2.xls?dl=0

This has a place for pretty much everything that you might want to record and will calculate your efficiency and SRM.  Also, there's a good Gose recipe there if you're in to that sort of thing.

RRP

nolabrew said:

 

If you decide to get one, be sure to open it up and clean it out really well.  Mine had some oils and whatnot on it that I didn't want in my beer. 

Thank you for confirming what I also found and tried to forewarn people. Mine was nice and shiny outside, but a mess inside.

stompbox

 

nolabrew said:

stompbox said:

Interesting, do you still use a cooler mashtun or just circulate in an open pot?

I heat up the strike water for mashing in my brew kettle and just pour it in to my mash tun (cooler with a false bottom).  I typically mash over night and I often end up pouring the mash back in to a brew kettle to mash out before I sparge.  For sparging I use a 5 gallon water cooler with a hole cut in the top for the anova.  The anova runs until about 2.3 gallons is left in the hot liquor tank and which point the insulation keeps at about the right temp.  It's not perfect but it's good enough for me.

Wow, that is a good way to make sour beer, also get tannins if using any darker malts.

ChokeOnSmoke

nolabrew said:

Griffin said:

Interesting. I had a feeling somebody out there was using one for beer. Currently, I've got an old turkey fryer burner and just got a Blichmann burner. The last couple of batches I've been heating water on both. One to raise the temp on my mashtun to 168 after the mash is done and then drain from my mash tun, and the other to heat up a second batch of water to sparge all the grain. I don't know if that's a "good" way to do it, I've never really brewed with any experts, just taking bit and pieces here and there from the internet and coming up with my own process. I have been nailing my OGs though.

I still need to learn more about efficiency. I've looked into it, but its confused the hell outta me.

Water don't care how you heat it up. 

Here's a link to a bunch of articles on efficiency that my homebrew mentor wrote:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kkcknyo8utgk24k/AACKOPJ7gow7OyzK_KnBfE2Ca?dl=0

In particular, read the Calculating Brew House Efficiency, Improving Efficiency, Mash Rests and Overnight Mashing articles.  The real keys to improving efficiency are recording data so you can understand your brewing system and knowing (and adjusting) your water profile.  If you're already nailing your OGs then you are probably already well on your way. 

Here's a link to my brew sheet:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pw32k53prbtjx6a/Gose 2.xls?dl=0

This has a place for pretty much everything that you might want to record and will calculate your efficiency and SRM.  Also, there's a good Gose recipe there if you're in to that sort of thing.

Thanks for sharing!  I just completed my 3rd all-grain recipe (Left Hand Milk Stout clone) after converting from extract brewing.  I haven't figured out the whole efficiency thing either but have been pretty good at hitting my marks as far as mash and strike temperatures and gravity numbers so my beers have been turning out decent at least.  Always looking to learn more though as my goal isn't to make lots of beer, but rather, great beer.

nolabrew

stompbox said:

 

nolabrew said:

stompbox said:

Interesting, do you still use a cooler mashtun or just circulate in an open pot?

I heat up the strike water for mashing in my brew kettle and just pour it in to my mash tun (cooler with a false bottom).  I typically mash over night and I often end up pouring the mash back in to a brew kettle to mash out before I sparge.  For sparging I use a 5 gallon water cooler with a hole cut in the top for the anova.  The anova runs until about 2.3 gallons is left in the hot liquor tank and which point the insulation keeps at about the right temp.  It's not perfect but it's good enough for me.

Wow, that is a good way to make sour beer, also get tannins if using any darker malts.

I have mashed overnight literally more than 100 times and not had a single problem with sour beers or polyphenols.  Sour mash is low and slow, where as my mash stays above 140°F which is too hot for most infections to flourish.  Tannin extraction is only a problem when the mash is hotter than 170°F and pH is around 5.8 or higher, neither of which happen during my overnight mash. 

Even though I'm not worried about tannins, I never mash roasted grains anyways; there's no point, it throws off my pH calculations and most importantly I think it tastes much better in the final product.  I am a big proponent of steeping them and adding the steeped wort during the sparge. I've recently started adding freshly steeped wort from roasted grains at kegging as well, which has really produced some nice results.

nolaegghead

@Stompbox You're not going to get any microbial activity above 130F. 

@nolabrew - I'll be at the homebrewer's meeting tonight.  Bringing a new member - Dylan - our Brisket Camp lawyer. 

nolaegghead

FYI - this is the club we're in:

http://www.crescentcityhomebrewers.org/

stompbox

nolabrew said:

stompbox said:

 

nolabrew said:

stompbox said:

Interesting, do you still use a cooler mashtun or just circulate in an open pot?

I heat up the strike water for mashing in my brew kettle and just pour it in to my mash tun (cooler with a false bottom).  I typically mash over night and I often end up pouring the mash back in to a brew kettle to mash out before I sparge.  For sparging I use a 5 gallon water cooler with a hole cut in the top for the anova.  The anova runs until about 2.3 gallons is left in the hot liquor tank and which point the insulation keeps at about the right temp.  It's not perfect but it's good enough for me.

Wow, that is a good way to make sour beer, also get tannins if using any darker malts.

I have mashed overnight literally more than 100 times and not had a single problem with sour beers or polyphenols.  Sour mash is low and slow, where as my mash stays above 140°F which is too hot for most infections to flourish.  Tannin extraction is only a problem when the mash is hotter than 170°F and pH is around 5.8 or higher, neither of which happen during my overnight mash. 

Even though I'm not worried about tannins, I never mash roasted grains anyways; there's no point, it throws off my pH calculations and most importantly I think it tastes much better in the final product.  I am a big proponent of steeping them and adding the steeped wort during the sparge. I've recently started adding freshly steeped wort from roasted grains at kegging as well, which has really produced some nice results.

Fully agree with steeping them!  You get rid of the astringent flavors.

nolaegghead

I was thinking about making a double boiler style thing for the mash tun where the SV heater sits in the outer "ring".   Probably makes more sense to just use an insulated cooler and put a heating plate or exchanger in there.  WuddaIknow.

nolabrew

nolaegghead said:

I was thinking about making a double boiler style thing for the mash tun where the SV heater sits in the outer "ring".   Probably makes more sense to just use an insulated cooler and put a heating plate or exchanger in there.  WuddaIknow.

I know people who just sous vide the grain and claim it works great.  I'm skeptical, but like you, wuddaiknow?