Beer Forum

Here is a video of my B3 1000 gravity brew sculpture with analog smart mash recirculation. It was very effective at controlling and raising the mash temperature in the NH winter weather.

http://morebeer.ning.com/video/b3-1000-with-analog-smart

Eric

nice, I'm not the only one that brews in the snow..

winter-brewing FTW!!

Ryan at MoreBeer helped me set up the thermometer on the heat exchanger - very slick! I have found the temps vary widely in the mash tun, so the recirculation through the heat exchanger helps to stabilize the temps and the thermometer on the out side of the heat exchanger prevents overheating the mash. It is more hands on than mashing in a cooler, but less complicated than using a digital controller to turn on burners and pumps.

winter-brewing FTW!!

I had to look up FTW in the urban dictionary and I got For The Win, Fuck The World and What The Fuck backwards. I assume you meant For The Win! I don't mind winter brewing, as long as it is above 20 f. It really sucks when your chilling hoses or water spigot are frozen!

Love the Dawg brewing tunes!

i prefer to brew in the winter. Much easier to control a lager ferment temp at 50 or ale at 68. Just stick it in an un-heated area of your home and it's g2g.

Summer is more tricky, though. That's when I stick to nasty-ass belgians that can ferment at up to 85.

I ferment in a cool basement in the summer and have a temp controlled freezer, so I am able to manage fermentation temps year around. Right now its - 3 f outside at my house, so there's no way I am brewing today! I love my B3 sculpture and the smart recirculation makes it easier to control the mash temps in winter. Cheers!

No one uses FTW as "For The Win!" Its "Fuck The World" which is almost never used in a negative. It's kinda like saying fuck yeah!

So I just got my B3 1000 10 gallon and brewed my first beer 2 days ago on it. It will take me a few try's to get it down. My last system was ghetto but i had my system down.

You say that the temps vary a lot in the mash tun? Are we talking like 5º swings? if that is the case what would you recommend doing to keep it consistant? For my first brew I pulled off a coulpe of quarts and kind did a manual recirculation. I did this about every 25 min for 90 min. I also gave it a stir 2 times. I lost 2º in doing this but I wasn't worried beings the sugar profile should have been set in the first 10 min or so.