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Home Photo Galleries Equipment Galleries Jens P. Maudal • Konnerud, Norway

My brewing equipment has developed from a simple saucepan and cooling bag to what it is today. But while a good system makes the brew day more simple, I have found that advanced brewing systems are no guarantee for good beer — they still depend on a good brewer.


Setup
I must say it was a big disappointment when I first changed from the old immersion chiller to the counter flow chiller (CFC). I thought my beers lacked the hop aroma that I was used to with the old chiller and a test arranged by the Norwegian Home Brew Society confirmed my fears. Cooling with the simple immersion coil just after adding the aroma hops gives the best result.

Hopback Interior
This led me to construct my own hop back or “hop percolator,” with which I could pump the hot wort directly from the kettle through the aroma hops, then cool the wort immediately in the CFC. My brews improved immensely with the new system and I now experience hop aromas like never before.

Hopback Exterior
I am also pleased with my RIMS setup. It works like a charm and gives me total control over the mash temperature as long as I don’t crush my grains too fine. If that happens, the circulation slows and produces too little flow to perform the heating process. As long as the crush is kept fairly coarse, I have no problems with flow, even with wheat beers.

RIMS
Cleaning is tedious and boring, so I use the pump to help me out. A 2% caustic and water solution at 180 ºF (80 ºC) is pumped around the system using the kettle as the heat source. The solution is pumped from the kettle, through the RIMS heater to the mash tun, back to the kettle and finally through the CFC into the drains. At the end I rinse with clean, cold water in the same manner. To see more visit my Website at www.home.c2i.net/ bottomsup/enter.htm.

Counterflow Chiller


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