A British Brewery "how To"

[Muddydisco]

Firstly you need to plan your brew length. If you're planning on 23ltr in you Fv then before the boil you may need 27ltr of wort, due to losses to evaporation and hops etc and have room in it for a nice rolling boil.

I have made my brew house so that I can do 5 gal and 10 gal lengths.

Next is to work out the layout of the equipment I went for a 2 tier system using a pump to move the mash out wort to the boiler back on level 1, You could make this a 3 tier system where the boiler is on the floor or you reuse your HLT as the boiler, using the FV as transport between mash out and boil. Again it's all down to you!

Here is a pic of my planned layout and plumbing Red numbered crosses are taps.

Having decided on all of that now was the time to go shopping. I brought 2 cooler boxes one 44ltr (for 5 gal brews) and one 66ltr (for 10 gal brews), Two food grade plastic Bins (to use as HLT and boiler), a pump (suitable of pumping wort at 70 degrees C), 7 x 15mm compression Ball valve taps, 4 x Compression tank connectors, a selection of plumbing fittings (for pipe work and strainers etc). And 4 x Tesco kettles. These in the UK are 5 each and are easily stripped and elements fitted to the bins, see later.

To start work, Firstly I made my trolley that will hold all of my brewing equipment, I made this out of steel as I work with it most days and can weld. Up to you what you use. The bottom shelf slides out to help with storage when not in use and accessibility when doughing in.
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Once built I gave it a coat of paint, topped the shelves of with some thick flooring wood and gave that a varnish (just in case I have any spills!). Now it made a handy work bench for the rest of the build.



Boiler and HLT are built in the same way. I drilled the 22mm holes to connect the compression tank connectors as close to the bottom of the bins as I could but not forgetting that I will need to fit a hop strainer on one of them. Then using some ptfe tape I fitted the connectors and a Ball valve to each bin. Next I drilled the 38mm holes for the Kettle elements in the positions required, Close enough to the bottom I could boil 5 gal but not to close I couldn't fit the Hop strainer. To fit the Elements is easy, they are a two part construction with a rubber seal inbetween. Simply fit the rubber seal into the hole, then line up the two parts and screw them back together using the 3 screws. (Be sure to re-check the screws after the first boil). I used electrical terminals to fit the wires back onto the elements and fitted heat shrink tubing over each to insulate all the terminals. To shroud each of the element backs, I used some 50mm piping cut length ways, to allow the tube to shrink to fit the back of the elements, siliconed and cable/zip tied each one on. Using another tie at the open end to secure the open end and the wire to the tube.

Hop strainer for the boiler. I will be using whole leaf hops, So a different strainer may be needed for pellets.

This is simply made of 15mm copper piping and solder connections (But not soldered just crimped slighty to allow for disassembly for cleaning). Then the labour intensive job of drilling 150+ holes into it. Once done this will slide into the back of the tank connector and be a snug fit not needing any kind of seal.

Mash Tuns. I was lucky to get two cooler boxes with drain bungs in them, so it was just a case of removing the bungs and fitting the tank connectors. But if yours doesn't have them, It's just a case of drilling your 22mm holes, again as close to the bottom of the cooler box but still allowing you to fit the back nut of the tank connector. Once the tank connector was fitted on went the ball valve also. A strainer was made the same way as the hop strainer for each cooler box.

The sparge arm. I made my arm the same as the strainers. But this time leaving the middle upright long enough to allow it to be used to adjust the height of the arm when in use (as not to drill holes in the grain bed.) You may notice I have soldered the upright to the arm as to hold it vertical this way all the water won't run to one end, but an even spray over the whole bed.

Final fitting and plumbing. I now aligned everything into place and started plumbing the system together. Using a flexi pipe between the HLT tap and sparge arm to allow for the height change of the arm for different grain quantities. And another one one the Mash tun outlet tap just so I haven't got to align the tun perfectly every time. Then onto the pump I have a flow control tap to allow the metering of the output from the pump rather than starving the pump by slowing down the input. The second tap not in use on the left will be for the HERM's system once completed, along with the silver urn in between the HLT and boiler.

Once happy with the plumbing, It was time to calibrate the HLT and check for leaks around the system. Having measured 8ltr of water then measured what came out the tap I was able to calculate that the water left in the HLT was 500ml, I marked this level off as zero then continued to mark off every 2ltr, until I reached the 50ltr mark. I then used this water again to mark off the Boiler zero level and every 2ltr after that. Having checked for leaks throughout the whole system I put all the water back into the HLT and turned on the kettle elements allowed it to get to strike temp and run the water through the system back into the boiler.

I now made a Imersion chiller to fit into the boiler for cooling the boiled wort. I made this from 10mm copper piping brought in 25m roll and used two different sized cyclinders to roll the coils around. I then soldered the two end together and the two coils together to make it more rigid and less of a hand full to move.

I now have a working AG brewery! Oh and a bar at the back of it!

 

[Muddydisco]

See here for a better displayed copy of this thread, I can't get the pictures up too many! http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopi...f=30&t=3104

 

[warra48]

To import photos from Photobucket, you'll notice 4 lines of code underneath each photo.
Select the 4th line of code IMG Code, highlight it, and copy.
Then go back to your AHB post, and right click and paste.
The image should upload into your post as you add your reply, like this:

 

[Muddydisco]

I did Warra But the forum has blocked them saying theres to many! I know how to use photobucket. Just can't get them all up on here. as you'll see all the code is there but no uplaod!

 

[Greg Lawrence]

you might have to do it over 2 or more posts. I believe that there is a limit for uploads on a single posts.

 

[Bribie G]

Yup probably split 1 2 3. Looking forward to seeing the finished result. Hey muddy how's spring progressing over there? I'm currently enjoying a couple of batches of Camerons Strongarm tribute brewed out of GW's book and about to bottle a Hobbiton Ale tomorrow.
Cheers
Bribie

 

[manticle]

However the photo session goes I'd just like to say cheers as I believe this guide will be very helpful in getting me closer to all grain brewing before 2010.

 

[manticle]

PS: Perhaps a moderator would be kind enough to edit it so the photos come out?

 

[InCider]

Great to see Craftbrewer banner on the pommy brew http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopi...f=30&t=3104site!

 

[PostModern]

PS: Perhaps a moderator would be kind enough to edit it so the photos come out?

Too many images. I went thru the post and edited all the [url ] tags out of the image lines only to find there are more than the allowable number of images for one post.

Not going in there again, sorry

 

[brettprevans]

or write it all up in a word doc then pdf it and add the pdf as an attachment. like I did with my chestfreezer convertion doc here

 

[manticle]

Too many images. I went thru the post and edited all the [url ] tags out of the image lines only to find there are more than the allowable number of images for one post.

Not going in there again, sorry

Cheers for trying.

 

[atkinsonr]

A very neat job on the brewery there!

I'm interested in the last photo, your 'bar'.

What are those vessels, and what are they for?

Are they some kind of ale cask?

 

[Muddydisco]

A very neat job on the brewery there!

I'm interested in the last photo, your 'bar'.

What are those vessels, and what are they for?

Are they some kind of ale cask?

Yep they are Top tap barrels the beer is pressurized by Co2, and pulled off out of a floating tube as not to pick up Yeast and sediment. Each one is 25ltr

 

[Bribie G]

Yep they are Top tap barrels the beer is pressurized by Co2, and pulled off out of a floating tube as not to pick up Yeast and sediment. Each one is 25ltr

Yes I'd give my remaining back teeth and a left leg or so to get a couple of those in Australia. When I did AG in Cardiff when Maggie Thatcher was still a lass I had a bruheat boiler, a couple of fermenters and two pressure barrels (the bottom serving variety) and made brilliant beers with only five vessels (in a bedsit on Newport Road :lol . Apart from sugar priming, what do you pressurise them with? I remember little green Sodastream bulbs but Sodastream seems to have gone onto bigger cylinders nowadays.

 

[Muddydisco]

Yes I'd give my remaining back teeth and a left leg or so to get a couple of those in Australia. When I did AG in Cardiff when Maggie Thatcher was still a lass I had a bruheat boiler, a couple of fermenters and two pressure barrels (the bottom serving variety) and made brilliant beers with only five vessels (in a bedsit on Newport Road :lol: ) . Apart from sugar priming, what do you pressurise them with? I remember little green Sodastream bulbs but Sodastream seems to have gone onto bigger cylinders nowadays.

We have s30 co2 bottles containing 240grm or little bulbs each containing 8grm. I'm looking into making an adaptor to fit a Industial co2 bottle then won't need fill ups so much

 

[THBF Wez]

Muddy - I have a Widget World system that I may be able to part with - PM me on THBF if you want it you can pop & pick it up - Matchless do the refils.