My Brew Gear

John Lovett

Graham suggested that I should send in a few photos and a description of my home made false bottom. I thought that while I was at it, I might as well take a few pics of some of my other brew gear that could be of interest to other brewers out there.

Don't forget that you can click on each photo to zoom in for a closer look.

Grain Mill

My grain mill is a Canadian Valley mill which I have motorised using a motor and pulleys that I managed to scrounge from work. The whole thing is mounted on an old basinet frame on castors that I will certainly no longer have any other use for.

I am very happy with this mill, and although the opening from the hopper onto the rollers is not very wide, it is far enough above them for the grain to spread out so the full width of the rollers is used to crush the grain, as can be seen from the photo. I usually run the grain through twice. Once on the fully open setting, then again on a much finer setting depending on the malt. 7kg of grain only takes a few minutes.

Boiler and Mash Tun

My boiler is made from a Scottish Courage 50L keg with the top cut out and a spigot welded at the bottom to take a 13mm ball valve.

The mash tun is a 10 gallon Igloo cooler. I removed the plastic tap and replaced it with a 13mm brass nipple and ball valve. Inside there is about a 25mm length of 13mm copper pipe attached via a compression fitting to take the plastic hose from the false bottom.

Because I do most of my brewing in my wooden shed, I decided that electric heating would be safer than gas, so I have fitted two 2200W elements.

These bring the wort to the boil reasonably fast; and once it is boiling, I switch one off.

False Bottom

The false bottom is made from the lid of a 25L plastic bucket. I cut and filled the rim back until it was a snug fit inside the Igloo mash tun. I drilled lots of 2mm holes in it, and a larger one in the centre to take a 13mm brass nipple. The nipple is fitted so that one end is flush with the rim of the lid. This sits on the bottom of the mash tun and supports the centre of the false bottom when in use. I cut a large slot in one end of the nipple to allow the free flow of the wort into it.

The top end of the nipple is fitted with a 13mm elbow, compression fitting and 50mm of copper pipe which connects to the mash tun outlet with plastic tube.

On the right is a pic of the whole thing assembled into the mash tun.

Sparging, Chilling and Straining

My sparging set up is pretty basic, using 13mm garden hose and a s/s spray head, all connected to a 25L polypropylene container. I collect the runnings in a bucket, which I then transfer to the boiler. I find this much easier on the back and safer than placing the boiler under it, then subsequently lifting the boiler + 35L of boiling wort up onto the table.

Once again, my immersion chiller is somewhat primitive, consisting of 10m of 13mm copper pipe that was formed around a 4L paint can. This is connected to a garden hose via hose clips. I collect the initial hot water from the discharge for clean up, the rest goes onto the garden.

Finally, I strain the cooled wort through a s/s kitchen sieve. This removes any trub and hops that haven’t settled, and does a pretty good job of aerating the wort.