So this is just a teaser...but I am currently working on 2 projects that will make my brewday MUCH easier. I will update with pics tomorrow when everything is finished.

A robot brewssistant!?

A hot blonde robot brewssistant with large mashtuns?

twins?

Redhead twins?

boy do I wish!! I have a thing for redheads

Me too! You should get on that, Cards

Now, anything less will be a disappointment!

Mmmm.... redheads ;-)

Sing along....the sun will come out tomorrow....

you and every other man in the world lol

Ok, on to the first project. I won't get the other project done until tomorrow, I don't feel like going to Home Depot to get what I need.

Necessity is the mother of invention. In my case, burned hands and laziness is the mother of invention. When I boil my wort, I use a drawstring hop bag and pull it out and open it to add more hops. It burns my hands and is just retarded. I was browsing another homebrew site and found something called a hop spider. I modified it to be what you see below.





It's just a 4" aluminum duct, 1 gal paint strainer bag, 4" worm clamp and 2 stainless steel S hooks. Cost me about $10. Sits on the edge of the pot during the boil and I just dump the hops in as needed. My next brew is just a Mr. Beer batch but I'll update after I actually use this thing. Other people seem to love it, I think I will too!!

Next project to come tomorrow.

Where are the hot redheaded robots!? We were promised robots!

nice! and jon, i'd rather see redheads than robots...

I plan on boiling this for 30 mins or so with no hops just to make sure it works and nothing leaches anything into the water. Everything on there should be brew safe.

Dude, there are better uses for hot redheads than boiling them!

Don't mind him; he's just jealous It's a cool setup!

I agree. Good idea :-).

But we want to see red headed twins with BIG jugs !!!

Nice project... I've make a couple of hop spiders for my 5 gallon AG batches. This one looks great for a Mr Beer size batch.

and now project #2. I do BiaB and mash in my brew kettle. I have been wrapping a towel around the kettle and using a chip clip to hold it closed but I thought there had to be a better way. Looked around and found some bubble insulation people have used with good results. I wanted it to be removable so I bought a tool belt and use that to hold it on. 4 layers on the pot, 2 on the lid. Most people report losing 1 degree or so over an hour. Looking forward to my next AG brew so I can use this and my hop spider!!

Looks good! Dang man, how do you keep your stove so clean?

And where are the robots!?

Nice. Redheads would be more fun to look at, though ;-)

seriously though...i'll update everyone as to how well this works once I brew this weekend.

Oooh yum a Hannigan!

ahhh gingers! run away!

hahah but seriously, man... looks nice! seat belt brew pot lol. well played, CF. well played.

just did some more trimming on this, looks better and shouldn't burn.

I plan to glue all the layers together and glue the belt on and cut it in half under the buckle. that way it will just buckle on and off very easily. Wound up being 3 layers thick. I have enough to make another 2 layers if needed but this should work just fine.

and your stove looks way better than jon's old stove... so there's that, too.

it's not that hard to clean the stove guys!! plus I only boil 3 gallons in a 5 gallon pot...I don't think i've ever had a real boilover.

It looks better than the NEW stove, too!

(Actually it looks better than the new stove did before he arrived... there were some stains I couldn't get out. Maybe the person who lived here before was a brewer too?? )

Looks good. what did it run you, and where did you get the bubble stuff?

Cost was $15, $10 for the insulation and $5 for the belt. Got it all at Home Depot (also available at Lowe's). The stuff is called Reflectix.

Looks good. I was going to do something similar when I was planning on mashing in my kettle. But I decided on a cooler instead. May go that route if I ever hat a pump. Let us know how it works out.

cards fan, you inspired me. i'd been tinkering with the thought of a hop spider, but seeing you with your made me go through with mine. well played, sir. went with a little different design, though... it'll straddle across the brew pot.

yay!! looks great! Really looking forward to my next brew day so I can try out both of these

I just go commando with my hops, and whirlpool with my chiller for 5 or 6 minutes when I start cooling.

I then let it sit and let the break settle out while it continues to cool, and just draw off the spigot on my kettle.

It works pretty well, leaving me with minimal sediment in the fermentor.

Of course, if you don't have a ball valve on your kettle, you could always just use an autosiphon--should work out pretty similarly, leaving most of the break behind.

Now, if you don't even have an immersion chiller...you should still be able to whirlpool with an ice bath and autosiphon with similar results.

this has more to do with getting the hops out of the wort before putting it in the ice bath so they stop isomerizing... took me about 15 mins to get below 140&deg F in my sink ice bath, so that played havoc with my hop schedule. now, i'm hoping, my hop timing will be locked in by just pulling out the spider and hops at flameout.

for me it's because I can't get a whirlpool to work and my autosiphon picks up whatever it wants. I just feel better pulling the hops out myself.

Or, you know...you could just adjust your hop schedule. Just sayin'

A hop spider will do better for you than most bags, but you'll still probably get reduced utilization, so just keep that in mind.

A little update on the kettle cover. I hot glued all the layers together last night and glued the belt to the outer layer and cut it down the middle. Slips on and off with no issues. Really looking forward to using this on Sunday. For $15, how can you go wrong?

Looks like a fun project - nice photos. I'd be curious to know how it would compare to the old 'Michelin Man' down coat I use.

well, someone over on the other forum did this and before the insulation lost 10* per hour and after lost 2* in 90 mins. These tests were just water so grain would up the thermal mass and make the loss even smaller.

I just want to use a calculator to get strike temps, mash in and let it go for an hour without messing with it. Free fall is great but I would like to keep temps up as best I can.

Sorry, I forgot if you do a full boil volume mash, which is what I do, but I haven't used a calculator for quite some time. I now just target my strike temp a couple/few degrees above my mash temp. I then either stir an extra minute or two if too high, or add a little heat if too low. If you're not mashing the full boil volume, yes, a calculator is a probably more important.

I mash the full boil volume BiaB style. I'm sure I don't need a calculator but I feel better using one.

I think I know what you mean. Doing the math/science thing and seeing the numbers come out can be reassuring. Somewhat related, I bought iodine to test my 1st couple mashes for conversion. It was good to know I was on the right track.

Aren't you worried about the hot glue melting from the heat? What kind of temps can it handle?

hadn't thought about that jon. i saw others do it with hot glue. if it doesnt work ill pull it apart and use gorilla glue.

I should make something like that when we reconstruct our terra cotta smoker... We made an ungainly aluminum foil tent last time.

Hey CF,
Nice job on the refletix.
I have my Boil Kettle wrapped in it...but then again, I use 2 heat sticks, so I don't have any meltting issue.

Wanted to update that both of these worked very well. Lost 1* of temp on my mash in 60 mins and I was able to leave it on during the boil as well. No issues.

Hop spider worked well also. Used a rubber band to hold the arms in place on the handle of the pot. Had a recipe with 2 full oz of hops and 4 different additions, no problems and no hops in the kettle once the boil was done.

Excellent! When I get to the hops addition point, I'll probably rig something like that spider. And when we get our terra cotta smoker put together again, I'll definitely be looking for that insulation!

Your gonna have to elaborate on this smoker please.

Get a few bricks, small terracotta pots, or something else heat resistant as a base. Get a large terracotta pot (traditional pot shape) and set it on the bricks. Stick a hot plate in the bottom of the pot, running the cord out of the hole in the bottom. Put a metal pie tin full of wood chips on the hot plate. Put a round grill grid in the top of the pot (meat will go on here). Put a bowl-shaped terracotta pot of the same diameter of the other pot on top as a lid. You can stick a grill thermometer through the drain hole on top to monitor the temp in there. It does a nice job and is pretty cheap to set up. Just use a really heavy duty extension cord, since hot plates suck a lot of juice.

We used various types of meat that had been brined overnight then dry rubbed before smoking. It worked wonderfully.

I like the idea of something with the controls for the heating element on the outside of the rig, and will probably try to manage that when I make us one again.

Episode transcript: http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/season7/q/qtrans.htm

Google "alton brown terracotta smoker" and you'll get lots of people who've made them, or variations on them. You can probably find it on YouTube, but I'm at work and can't go poke around there.

Pretty sweet. I may have to try that this summer.

Very Nice I may have to try that this year.

However, Don't listen to Alton Brown on how to make beer !
He butchered the process and gave out bad info.

I watched the beer episode the other night. He boiled the grains, called it "sparging" when he was using a filter and straining the hops and grains out and got a few other things wrong. It was hard to watch cause I like him and it makes me wonder how correct his other episodes are

the terracotta thing seems kind of complicated... i got a brinkmann barrel smoker at wally world for $30... it's perfect. regular old smoker... no pie tins or hot plates necessary. and it looks like R2D2. beep boop beep bip boop beep.

Thanks Jacy...looks cool. As does R2D2.

Hey, at $30 I might look at that option. Electric, propane, or charcoal?

charcoal.

See, there's the problem. I'd rather have electric or propane.

any particular reason?

just a guess, but easier to regulate?

Yes, easier to regulate. Also, easier to turn OFF. I have kids, pets, and an atrocious memory.

Edited to add: the atrocious memory is only in part due to the kids ;-)

Huh? What? where am I????????

I turn off my smoker by dumping the charcoal into a galvenized bucket and waiting three days. Works great lol

wait..what?

when i'm done smoking, i put on my leather gloves... grab the charcoal bowl... dump the hot coals into a galvenized bucket... and let them sit out for three days until they go out. don't have to wait to clean up the smoker... i can put it away the same day... and then just wait for the coals to go out and dump 'em in a trash bag. works great.

Depending on which smoker I'm using I just close up all tha dampers on the smoker and let the coals go out. I do keep an eye on it untill I am sure every thing is out. Then I wait a day and clean it out. Sshes and water are bad for steel, and can premote rusting, so a clean smoker is a happy smoker.

Call me a party pooper but I use a electric smoker that looks like a dorm fridge. When it's time is up it turns itself off. Oh, and then my wife and I do scissor, paper, rock to see who cleans it.

Hey I'aint going to knock you, I just picked one up and used this weekend......I may never fire up my wood burners again

I don't have the time to mess with the "old school" smokers, bought a traeger, catch hell from traditionalists and make good food.