Reddit reviews Update International (FW-24) 24" French Whip

Get this. I don't even use my long spoon anymore.

Bummer. I can't recommend the comically large whisk enough over a mash paddle. You will never have another dough ball again if you mash in with a whisk. The smaller, 18" version is on sale for $6.47 right now.

Another option for drastically reducing the possibility of dough balls -- or so I hear -- is to underlet your strike water.

Get an absurdly large whisk from Amazon and then you can just dump it all in at once and stir. I haven't had any issues with doughballs since I got my whisk. This is the one I have link.

Is it like this? That's probably exactly the right size for my BIAB urn. So do you just dumb everything straight in and whisk away?

Please help me decide how to spend $250.

I have a $100 gift certificate for my local homebrew store and $150 cash. US Dollars.

Below I explain how I brew and what equipment I have. I'm thinking of upgrading to a better immersion chiller. Or, I'm thinking of buying a stirplate and Erlenmeyer flask. I do step up starters using a jug. I have an general concern a big Erlenmeyer flask will break. I don't have a gas stove so I think I'd boil in a pot and transfer. I mostly do 2 to 3 liter starters.

QUESTION: before I buy a stirplate and flask, or a better chiller, do you think I should buy something else? Critiques are appreciated.

Please take a look at what I have already and help me decide:

How I Brew

All grain. Buy grain at store, they grind for free. Buy hops and yeast from them too. 5.5 gallon (20.8 liter) batches (volume before into fermentor). Ales. Brew in a Northern Californian garage with doors open. Igloo cooler. 60 minute mash. 2x Batch sparge. Single burner. Heat strike water, dough-in, mash. Heat sparge water 20 min before end of mash. Vorlauf. Drain wort into bucket. After first running drained, batch sparge in two phases. Vorlauf into same bucket as first runnings. When last sparge water is mixed in, start heating first two runnings. Add third runnings to boil kettle when done. Boil etc. Immersion chiller on until down to 100F (37.7C), then circulate ice water through chiller with pond pump to pitching temp. Oxygenate with diffusion stone. Pitch yeast. Seal. Rock fermentor. Pour a beer. Clean. Sanitize. Worry.

Equipment:

• 15 gallon aluminum pot with sight glass and three piece ball lock valve.
  
  
• Camp Chef burner - 60,000 BTU
  
  
• 10 gallon (37.8 liter) igloo cooler with 3/8 inch output: Bazooka screen attached to bulkhead to nylon barbed fitting to nylon turncock.
  
  
• Homemade brew rake.
  
  
• 24" Big ass stainless wire whisk.
  
  
• 25 foot, 3/8 inch copper immersion chiller.
  
  
• 25 foot, 3/8 inch copper pre-chiller. Sucky homemade.
  
  
• Pond pump set up for recirculating ice water through chiller.
  
  
• Refractometer.
  
  
• Thermopen.
  
  
• Oxygen / diffuser to oxygenate wort.
  
  
• 5 pound CO2 tank and Regulator.
  
  
• Three 5 gallon ball lock kegs
  
  
• Two 5 gallon pin lock kegs converted to ball lock fittings.
  
  
• 7 cubic foot Holliday brand chest freezer I've converted to a keezer (2x4 collar) with two Perlick 630SS faucets, using a Johnson Controls analog temp controller (cold only).
  
  
• Growler filler that fits into faucets.
  
  
• 7 cubic foot Idylis brand chest freezer; no with collar. STC-1000+ from Brewsbysmith; I feel bad I was too impatient to wait for The Black Box. Read what /u/Brulosopher has to say about it.
  
  
• Fermwrap connected to that STC-1000+.
  
  
• Three 6.5 plastic fermenter buckets (but I ferment in kegs 90% of the time).
  
  
• Thermowell that fits in bung; hole in a bucket lid. I use a ThermoWorks probe thermometer - bent the probe to fit down the thermowell.
  
  
• One 6 gallon glass carboy.
  
  
• One 3 gallon glass carboy.
  
  
• Six 1 gallon glass jugs.
  
  
• Bottling bucket.
  
  
• Red Baron Capper.
  
  
• I make starters in one of the glass jugs. (I use 'intermittent shaking' as I do not have a stir plate.)
  
  
• Vacuum bagger.
  
  
• RV water filter and beverage hose.
  
  
• Digital scales.
  
  
• Hop spider
  
  
• Books: Water. Hops. Yeast. Malt. Designing Great Beers. Brewing Classic Styles. Experimental Brewing. Brew Like A Monk.
  
  
• Beersmith.
  
  
• pH meter (edit: forgot to list this earlier)
  
  Comments / Concerns
  
  
• I don't have an interest in fly sparging.
  
  
• Spouse won't tolerate elevating a burner above waist level.
  
  
• Not sure if pump cleaning is worth it.
  
  
• Spouse won't tolerate a noisy stir plate in the house. I guess if I got one I could put in the fermentation freezer.
  
  
• No room on freezer to buy bulk hops.
  
  
• Don't bank yeast in fridge because no room and I fear infection.
  
  
• Don't grind at home as no room for grain storage and past problem with mice.
  
  tl;dr I have $250 to spend, given what I already have, how should I spend it?
  
  
  

You're efficiency will likely improve, especially if you double-crush your grains or set your mill to a finer setting, and squeeze your bag.

One trick I've started doing is when my mash is done I heat it up to 170 while stirring before taking the bag out. I seem to get a bit more of the sugars out this way. (I have a thick bottom pot so I don't have to worry about scorching the bag).

Also, buy one of these giant whisks. I used mine for the first time on my last brew and it made stirring the mash so much easier! Much better than a spoon or paddle.

This 24" whisk? or this one?

http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B002AGX3BK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Here you go.

your process looks pretty good, i have the 15gal ss brewtech and i would get it without the thermo. you are just going to cause problems with the bag. another thing i would get is a giant whisk for mashing and creating whirlpools/oxegenating

also i use this giant colander on top of my 15 gal brewtech kettle to rest the bag in and squeeze with some silicone gloves. the gloves are a must with BIAB.

i used to use a hop bag but ever since going away from it i have found my beers have gained some hop character they were lacking before.

also make sure you are treating your water for chlorine with campden tablets before brewing, and if you want to go one step further you can build your water up from scratch. i fill up 2 6 gallon containers at the windmill express for .25c a gal and add gypsum, cacl, epsom etc from there.

I think this would be way better.

I used one of those before upgrading to a paint mixer hooked up to a cordless drill which absolutely destroys dough balls & mixes the mash very quickly with little effort. Not sure how a paint mixer would work with biab though.

• Comically Large Whisk
  
• Stainless Racking filter
  
• electric brewing (specifically with hotrod heatstick from brewhardware)

For temp control, use a cooler. This is the cooler I use. It is perfect to hold any fermenter I've seen. Fill with 65f water. Put your fermenter in the cooler. Add frozen 16-oz soda bottles to keep water temps at around 65f. Monitor your fermenter temps (using the stick-on fermometer ... just be sure the fermometer isn't under water!). I've found adding 1 frozen bottle in the morning and 1 in the evening keeps temps exactly where I need them..

If your fermenter has a spigot in the bottom - place the fermenter inside a contractor trash bag (the super thick durable kind) before placing in the water. You don't want to risk infection by having the spigot exposed to the water.

For BIAB and All-Grain ... #1 - BIAB is all-grain. It is just easier. The ingredients are the same. The end result is the same (Beer!). The complexity, cost, and time are different. So, I'll just list out a 2-vessel BIAB-in-a-cooler hybrid system.

• 10-Gallon Aluminum pot with lid - $55
  
• Bayou Classic SP10 burner - $50
  
• Link to pot ... scroll down to the frequently bought together section - it has pot, lid, and the burner ... $103
  
• Cooler for your mash tun ... $30 ... This cooler is the perfect size for 5.5 gallon batches. Any bigger and you'd have too much "dead space" in the cooler which would make heat retention an issue.
  
• To convert the cooler for use as a mash tun - watch this video ...
  
• EXCEPT - don't build the manifold inside like he shows - use a BIAB liner from brewinabag.com - they cost $30. Trust me on this - the $30 is well worth it.
  
• Wort Chiller ... $50 ... this is 100% necessary if you want to save time. If not - you can look in to "no-chill homebrew method". I recommend just getting the chiller.
  
• 24" wire whisk for stirring the crap out of the mash and wort - $12
  
• A double-mesh fine strainer - $17 ... for pouring the cooled wort thru into your fermenter. Serves two purposes - 1 - filters out hops and break material. 2 - aerates your wort as you fill the fermenter.
  
• 1/2" stainless steel siphon ... $8 - used for transferring the cooled wort from the kettle to the fermenter. Get the 1/2" not the 3/8" ... trust me, it saves time. This siphon will also be used for transfering wort to your bottling bucket.
  
• video on using a siphon
  
  Total - $255 shipped to your door.
  
  This setup will be a setup that you can use for all types of Ales. You can even do low-temp ales that ferment at 50-55f by adding more ice/colder water to the cooler. Don't think it would be efficient enough for lagering.
  
  Process:
  
  
• heat 2-gallons of water on your home stove to 180f.
  
• dump this water in your mash tun to pre-heat it. Keep lid closed
  
• heat mash water on your home stove to save propane. (about 5-gallons - use mash calculators to determine water needs ... like the brew365 mash calculator)
  
• Drain the 2-gallons of water from your mash tun. Drain some thru the hose to clean it and just dump the rest out.
  
• Put your BIAB liner in the mash tun (make sure it is clean)
  
• Dump your mash water in
  
• Add your grains stirring like a mad man with the whisk.
  
• Stir for 2-4 minutes. Check temps... you probably want around 151f
  
• close lid and cover lid with a thick blanket (helps conserve heat as the lid is the least insulated part of this cooler)
  
• Begin heating about 4 gallons of sparge water on your stove. You need this to be about 200f.
  
• Wait 30 mins the open and stir again. Check temps. They should be within a degree or two of your starting temp. If the temp has fallen TOO low -like 146 or 147, add 1/2gallon of boiling water.
  
• Close lid and wait 30 more mins.
  
• Open lid - stir 2-4 minutes.
  
• Drain into kettle. I measure volume by draining into a gallon pitcher. Expect 3.5-4 gallons of "first runnings"
  
• if the drain is going SLOW - lift up on the BIAB liner a bit... it can get sucked into the cooler outlet. There are a few solutions for this. Use whatever is handy to act as a screen between the liner and the cooler outlet. An alternative is using the 1/2" siphon to drain the cooler!
  
• Light burner and turn up
  
• Add your 200f sparge water to the mash tun. This will raise grain temps to 170f. This is called mashing out. Stir like a mad man for about 4 minutes.
  
• Let the sparge rest another 5 minutes
  
• Drain into kettle
  
• Stir kettle and take a gravity sample (COOL gravity sample to about 70f in order to get a more accurate reading!)
  
• Bring kettle to a boil (watch out for boil over)
  
• Once a boil is achieved, start timer
  
• I boil 75 minutes because my setup and boil-off rate dictate that time.
  
• Add hops at scheduled times.
  
• At 10mins left in boil, drop in your wort chiller. Careful with the plastic hoses - they melt if too close to flame.
  
• CHECK wort chiller connections for leaks BEFORE putting in kettle!!!
  
• After boil, turn on chiller and begin cooling.
  
• I stir my pot while cooling (with the lid off). Some put the lid on and stir the pot by moving the chiller around. This is KEY to quick cooling.
  
• Transfer cooled wort into fermenter using siphon and strainer
  
• Take a gravity sample - hopefully you hit target goal.
  
• Aerate a bit more IF YOU WANT, by shaking the holy crap out of the fermenter.
  
• Pitch yeast.
  
• Put fermenter in your cooler in a dark and quiet place (bug free!!).
  
• Cleanup and done. (I actually clean as I go).
  
  EDIT - you will need an extra 5-gallon pot to heat sparge water.. forgot that. They can be found anywhere for about $20. As always - check craigslist to save even more $$$$. This is the cheapest and most efficient setup I've been able to put together. If you really want to get fancy - then you can add a stainless steel fermenter from Chapman Brewing Equipment for an extra $99. The fermenter is well worth it!
  
  EDIT 2: As always SANITIZE everything at all stages. Also - with all-grain, you'll eventually want to get into water chemistry. Read up on that. AND a good kitchen scale is needed for measuring out hop additions (and later water chemistry adjustments). Kitchen scales can be had cheap. You'll want one that is accurate and can be calibrated.

LME - Stainless steel mash paddle
DME - Giant whisk
Adding DME to cold water helps ALOT with dissolving. Wooden utensils look nice by stainless is shiny and oh so much easier to clean. IMO its never worth the cost savings to buy aluminum utensils.

Converted an old wine fridge from craigslist into a brewpi controlled fermentation chamber

I use this as a mash paddle

$14 on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Update-International-FW-24-French-Whip/dp/B002AGX3BK