LoDO setup.

[Cobrac]

Hi,

I’m from Sweden (new member) and I mainly make meads. Wanted to try beer, so I have done some reading about beer brewing. I have made 10 brewing batches. They have turned out pretty well, but I now have decided to minimize my oxygen exposure when brewing to gain that little extra crisp and freshness. I read some LoDO techniques, but it will demand some skills. And equipment. I have also read around this forum and you guys here are really passionate and skilled so I hope I don’t make a fool out of myself now. I have made a principle layout (the idea had to be drawn quickly so I didn’t forget it, I draw like a 5-year old kid).

The idea is to use a 5gallon keg connected to a thermo kettle (highly insulated). And place the keg underneath the kettle to avoid any air in the keg. Recirculating wort thru the mash and back to the kettle. In the kettle I place a food grade silicone cap which floats on the wort surface. The benefits to have a closed mash tun is that the crushed malt can be purged and ventilated with co2 or nitrogen before boiled and treated water is added.

To control temperature within the mash the electric heater is connected to a probe that is placed in the keg (or in the kettle of you don’t want to drill in your keg).

When mashing is complete just purge the keg with co2 or nitrogen and switch the keg valve to gain the last wort by pushing it up through the pipe that is going all the way down to the bottom. If you want to sparge just add more pre-heated water into the gas connection and push it through the mash bed with gas again. The sparge speed could be controlled by mounting a ball valve before wort is going back to the kettle.

Because the mash tun and boil kettle is two different vessels the boil heating can start during sparging. The one thing I need to solve is some sort stirring device so it is possible to mash in properly without opening the keg. Is this a good practice?