My friend and I initially started kit brewing, then did one batch of malt extract brewing, then made the plunge into all grain brewing. After about 22 batches, the 30L yield just wasn't cutting it between 2 of us, so we decided to go a bit bigger. One night at the pub we decided to build something big, but then woke up and actually started designing it. Initially our plans were for 250L, but then we scaled back to 100L, then it kept growing, with the final design at 170L. If we had our time again, we would have had a crack at about 200-250L. Pot 1 is 130L ss, Pot 2 is 120L aluminium, Pot 3 is 170L ss. We bought the al. pot from grain and grape, and the stainless from a Vietnamese restaurant supply shop off Victoria St, Richmond, Melbourne. We decided to use weldless fittings, but didn't realise how difficult it would be to drill through and file stainless steel - a seemingly futile task. In comparison, the aluminium was like butter. We had some problems with drops from the seals for a little while, until we started to use plumbers tape over the valves, which proved very effective. Visually, the stainless is beautiful and most of the visitors are impressed at the site of the shiny vessels. Looking back, we do not regret using aluminium to house the water, while using ss for the vessels that touch the grains and wort. Our false bottom is stainless, cut from a square sheet that we acquired from a welding company. Again, not the easiest task. The false bottom sits on some 5 2 inch little ramukans I had in the kitchen. The stand was made by my Uncle Patch - who did a super job. His workmanship on this is first rate, and I believe the materials cost him about $150. Pot 2 is heated by a 4 ring burner, from rays outdoors, which works well. It heats the 100 litres of sparging water at about 10oC per 10 minutes. Pot 3 is heated by a 32 nozzle 'mongolian' burner from grain and grape, which makes a lot of noise and puts out a lot of heat. It puts out more heat than the other burner, but has to heat a larger volume of liquid - I will try and clock the temp gains next time.After 2 batches, we switched to Hermes, which wasn't very difficult. Without Hermes, it takes a very long time to raise the temperature of p1. The March pump does the job easily and without bother - well worth getting one of these if you can spare the outlay. Silicone hoses with hose clamps from bunnings are used. To connect the silicone hoses to the march pump, we got some bits from bunnings. We didn't use quick disconnects, and haven't regretted the decision. Valves are bronze - we didn't think the ss was worth the extra money. We use a counterflow chiller to chill, which is effective, but a little slow. We bought the pack from grain and grape and then bought the hoses from bunnings - beware that these 'philchill' fittings are in us specs, and don't marry up well to aussie hose sizes (you need to mess around a bit, and hose clamps saved us here). Building this setup has been a lot of fun, with the numerous setbacks along the way only making the first brew day on this setup even more enjoyable. Many of the ideas and inspiration for making our setup have been sourced from the aussiehomebrewer site, which seems to have an answer for any brewing question you may have....as long as you look hard enough. We post this to show others how easy it can be, as we are not technically inclined, but just love making beer. A big thanks to the regular and knowledgeable contributors to this site for their ideas. Total cost was close to $2k, split between 2 of us. Our batch sizes are currently around 130L, and it only took one batch to understand how to use the burners (oxidisation of flames and rates), the pump (air and water pressure can do some interesting things) and the sheer volume - things happen much more slowly, but are actually easier to manage.
