All grain 3V electric system

[TheWiggman]

They're silicone seals, check out the pic above in post #31.

 

[TheWiggman]

I had my brother in law around, so I was inspired to show him the system and for the sake of it pulled apart the ball valve in the boiler because I was convinced this wasn't at fault. Plasticky shit all through it. Gave it a hardcore brewery clean and ran a brew of oats and sugar through the entire system. No plastic taste after a 30 min boil. MERRY CHRISTMAS! I may have actually solved the problem with it. Time to order some more grain to - astonishingly - brew a beer for myself.
I also got a new 2400W element, a stainless HERMS coil ala Gryphon, a 3l Erlenmeyer flask and STC1000 controller for Christmas. Things are looking up, finally.

Merry Christmas to all and happy brewing. Hopefully my next post will be a happier one.

 

[TheWiggman]

I had a bit of 'me time' for the first time this holidays and put together my second temperature controller. I had a PID same as my first one and I also had my new STC-1000 which I want mainly for fridge control. The problems I wanted to address were -

1. When switching to 4V (will be getting a HERMS set up in the coming months with my funky coil) I want something simple to heat the kettle to strike temp. In fact I want that now.
2. A controller for a heat belt
3. A fridge controller that can also handle a heat belt. The temps really swing in Orange

After some deliberation, I bit the bullet and bought another grey ABS box as it suits the PID perfectly. I mounted it in a similar fashion, tore apart another Nokia charger, installed an SSD (2 x 40A on their way) and voila! An all-in-one control box.

PID for precise control.
STC-1000 for fermentation.
2 x 240V sockets on the back for heating or cooling.

The switch at the top switches the heating between the STC or PID. This means that I can have it running on two things in the system at the same time and one will not override the other.

I wired it up and it worked first go. Stoked. I'm going to get a more robust thermistor and get the plug and socket off the old controller to make it a little neater. In the meantime, it works.
I also scored a fermenting fridge for free. I'm told it doesn't get cool so I'm testing it now, but it operates and may be a simple fix. Provided it gets down to 12°C though it'll be good enough. I'm waiting on my order of grain and will be brewing next weekend.

 

[TheWiggman]

GOOD NEWS. Weissbier brewed, zero plastic taste present.

Batch sparged and used the boiler as a kettle (put the mash liquor into a fermenter and transferred it later). I forgot the whirlfloc, but whirlpooled and left for 30 mins at a friend's advice. After transferring, I was amazed at the shit which had collected at the bottom. What made it into the fermenter was as clean as the Fijian ocean.

Pre-boil gravity hit.
OG hit.
Final volume miraculously hit (ended up with 20l and I was all wtf? Looked at my recipe and I'd actually planned that for kegging after modifying the recipe).
Brew house efficiency of around 75%.
Tastes like nectar, fermenting like an absolute mofo in true 3068 style.

My recipe calls for higher temps to get banana flavours in the finished product and aims at 22°C. It was 37°C in the shed and the fridge is only able to get it down to 22°C. I'm not concerned. My problems are solved and my life better for it.

Ladies and gentlemen, the journey starts here.

 

[Tahoose]

Wiggman just gone through this topic and all I can say is I think you have more persistence than I and a very understanding partner.

Hope that you don't hit anymore spanners in the works and sounds like soon you will have your own fully functioning brewery. It will be worth it when your making the nectar of the gods on a regular basis.

Happy brewing

 

[TheWiggman]

Comforting words Tahoose, but unfortunately my luck has taken a turn for the worse. As for my partner, she's at the races today so I've been at home looking after 3 mad kids. Still managed a brew because I'm just that hardcore.

I tasted the weissbier after a few days in the fermenter and noted the plastic taste has returned. Not pronounced, but present. I'm over the system in general so I figure f%^k it - I'm going to drink this one. I got someone else to sample it and they said they couldn't really tell, so that says how obvious it is.
Today I did a XXXX bitter recipe (don't hate on me - I like the beer alright? Gold is another story...) which I batched sparged as I explained above.

Mashed in at 50°C for protein rest for 15 mins
Mash at 66°C (double checked my temps today and found out the thermocouples read badly, so I was right on it). +/-0.5°C for an hour.
Mash out to 78°C for 20 mins, dumped the mash into a fermenter so I can use the boiler as a kettle.

While I was doing this I noticed something odd that I've seen in the other brews but didn't think twice. Bear in mind I've never seen another AG brewer in action before excluding a BIAB. Note the colour around the bubbles -

Can someone tell me if this is normal? In real life there was a bit more colour, like an oil slick. To me that says there is some sort of hydrocarbon in the mash, and I haven't put oil anywhere near the system. I believe it's a plastic residue. I'm certain it's not the grain because this was packaged by Craft Brewer.
In fact I'm pretty bloody confident this isn't normal, I just want reassurance.

At this stage it tastes really good, can't tell that there's something in there that shouldn't be. After doing the rest of the brew (got everything spot on with an extra 1.5l in the fermenter) I tasted it half way through the boil and I reckon the plastic taste has returned. It's now chilling in the fridge and I'll be splitting the yeast so if it does turn out badly, I'll have some fresh stuff on-hand.

I was surprisingly relaxed as I suppose this isn't a new thing for me. I bit the bullet and pulled the entire system apart. What I found was that there was a lot of plastic stinkiness in both the mash tun and keg/RIMS unit on all the stainless fittings. Here's all of it, and if you look at the threads you'll see what I'm talking about. What's visible is not the worst of it. And yes, there's some rust on the compression fittings thanks to the copper tube which was horribly corroded -

The culprit? Because I didn't have any thread tape in the shed when I built the system, I used this -

Before everyone rants - yes I know how silly I am - it does say it's rated for water and gas up to 135°C, well above temps I exposed it to. It's obviously not acidic-mash tolerant though, and the mash liquor must have slowly chewed away at it during the brew cycle and wrecked all my brews. I had a chew on one of the threads in the mash tun and it tasted horrible. My original dramas with the boiler though were a different issue, this is just another thing to add to this mess.
I spent all afternoon cleaning every little bit of plastic out and giving it a solid PBW soak. There is not a hint of the smell any more. I reassembled everything with blue thread tape this time and I assume that's fine to use in contact with mash liquor. I pulled the keg apart and will purchase the gear to make a HERMS system out of my HERMS coil in the near future. It'll be a while until the next brew so I'll find out then if I've solved it.

I'm pretty confident I have. Here's a list of where I failed -

• Used a liquid sealant on threads
• Used a sealant on a leak
• Installed a sight glass unnecessarily
• Purchased an undersized pump
• Cleaned copper with bleach
• Used a keg as RIMS system when I should have settled on something simpler

Many lessons for the new brewer. DON'T USE LIQUID SEALANT UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE PISSED OFF AT THE WORLD CONSTANTLY. I still love this hobby though.

 

[TheWiggman]

I figured... why not build a HERMS?

A trip down to the big green shed and smaller blue one later, I was here (complete with cleaned and refitted fittings):

About 2-3 hours later, we have this:

Not a leak to be found. For reference, 12mm olives / cutting rings will fit in a 12.7mm compression fittings for this pressure application. So now, my brewery looks like this (excluding boiler) -

Simpler, neater, ramps up faster, less risk of dodgy flavours or error. Stoked.

 

[Tahoose]

Haha you can't help your self hey mate? Looks good though,

The idea of rigging up a kettle element and a ball valve tap thingy to my big w pot is daunting enough for me. Thinking of adding in a stc-1000 so it will control it as a HLT, and then post mash and lautering I can use the same pot as my brew kettle.

 

[TheWiggman]

Haha you can't help your self hey mate? Looks good though,

The idea of rigging up a kettle element and a ball valve tap thingy to my big w pot is daunting enough for me. Thinking of adding in a stc-1000 so it will control it as a HLT, and then post mash and lautering I can use the same pot as my brew kettle.

I've been punished enough by this system. I'll sleep well the day I taste a beer not impinged by my own failings.

You'll be right with the pot. If you stuff up at least it'll only cost you a few bucks. Just make sure if you're using hole saws you keep the lube up to it and go slowly. Definitely go the STC-1000 with a thermowell for the sensor, you won't regret it.

 

[maxim0200]

Just read through the thread,
What a saga indeed!
Well done getting it sorted, look forward to seeing some nice brews in your future keezer.... (if you dont have one already

Also where do you get your grain? im not such a fan of the local CountryBrewer.

 

[TheWiggman]

I use Craft Brewer for all my grain and yeast. They give you the option to have it milled and will pack a whole recipe into one bag.

 

[TheWiggman]

Well I did my Australia Day brew yesterday (Coopers Sparkling clone by AndrewQLD) and again - bad news.

As per post #46 above, the bubbles during the transfer had a coloured character about them in the sunlight. While sweet, the mash liquor had a very faint 'tang' that I was dodgy about. During the boil, about 15 mins in, you could taste a very bitter flavour that's best described as tart.
In the fermenter now, and it tastes really tart. It lingers on the tip of the tongue for about a minute. Maybe this is how it should be, but I was of the impression that the taste into the fermenter is a good indicator of the final product. I'm going to carry on with it because I have nothing to lose.

The next step is to swap out the silicone hose. They're discoloured and PBW won't get rid of the thin film. I'm guessing this is where some crap is residing that is contaminating the brew. It can't really be anything else except the grains or the pump, and the hose has a funny smell about it.

Anyone got some feedback about the colourful bubbles?

 

[TheWiggman]

*Sigh*...

 

[MastersBrewery]

after you found the liquid sealant was the problem, I see that you went through the whole kit and cleaned it. Did you do a full run through with out grain just water to test if that stuff had permeated the hoses/ pump. As you would know from cooking with a microwave plastics can absorb flavours. I'm really hoping I'm wrong! Note the discolouring of your hoses is normal. I'm not too sure what you mean by colourful bubbles, do you mean like motor oil on water?

ED just saw your pic if that is as clean as they were after pbw ditch em though I'd still be worried if there was any residue in the pump. Not an expert by any means but my hoses have never had build up like that

 

[TheWiggman]

Colour on the bubbles like oil, yeah. When it made it to the fermenter there was a very thin film of something on about 30% of the surface.

I've split the pump and there's nothing in there like the hoses. Soaked the wet end in Starsan, gave it a scour for the hell of it, then recirculated Starsan solution for about 2 hours. I'm replacing all the hoses because I'm not risking it again. Thankfully I have spares.

 

[mr_wibble]

Anyone got some feedback about the colourful bubbles?

I sometimes get this a bit. I figured it was just oils out of the grains (barley malt is about 2% oil).
(or i didn't rinse the cleaners out properly :blink

 

[Cocko]

Soaked the wet end in Starsan, gave it a scour for the hell of it, then recirculated Starsan solution for about 2 hours. I'm replacing all the hoses because I'm not risking it again. Thankfully I have spares.

I hope you mean PBW at this stage? I am not doubting your knowledge here but you know Starsan is purely a sanatiser, not a cleaner?

You should be soaking or recirculating with PBW - then rinsing with Starsan - again sorry TLTR but a quick flick through the thread proves you know this... but just making sure you hoses are getting it.

On brew day, once finished with the hoses I, Rinse them out with the hose, inside and out and throw them in an old fermenter of PBW mix and let them soak for a day or 2, time allowing - then rinse the BaJeebus out of them with water and THEN - rinse in starsan, from my understanding it just needs to touch the surfaces, not soak or recirculate - I may be wrong?


****, I hope you sort this out mate, such a nice looking rig and such an effort to get this far - I wanna hear about your first AMAZING beer as much as the next man!

God speed.

10 [Metric] cents.

 

[TheWiggman]

That post was uplifting, much appreciated.

Yes I meant Starsan and I completely understand it's a santiser. The reason I didn't PBW is because I had already done that for a few hours at 70°C beforehand. I figure throwing Starsan at it wouldn't hurt. Plus, seeing the results of it soaking in copper and my boiler, it seems to do more than just sanitise. It's dead-set left a silver ring in the boiler where I left it soaking for a day.

Your advice is in line with my thoughts. I typically only PBW when required and don't soak my lines. Other that that I do everything else you've said. Might start soaking the lines but I normally use bleach in the fermenter, so not sure if it's good to use with silicone.

I tasted the brew today and thought "son of a... that tastes like Sparkling Ale". Tartness is almost absent and it's starting to taste like beer. Definitely will be seeing this one through, this could be the one I've been waiting for.

 

[MastersBrewery]

sounds like good news, on another note

10 [Metric] cents.

You used to be cheap!!!.... capitalism sux

 

[TheWiggman]

:huh: - A BEER. Wiessbier.

This is the infamous first pour of my own beer on the system. It had a distinct 'plastic' taste and smell, but it doesn't linger and may be in the style. The head is very fine and runs all the way to the bottom of the glass. For some reason it attenuated down to 1.005, ending up at 5.9% (5% target). It doesn't leave you feeling full and friday night showed me it's certainly stronger than your average pub lager.
Others tried it and thought it tasted alright. Someone actually noted it was nice. Definitely doesn't have the traditional home brew character, and is a step in the right direction.

I checked the CSA after 5 days in the fementer and after dropping to 1.011 quickly, it seemed to stall. Knowing that I under-pitched, I opened the vessel last night, and gave it a rouse (never done it before). There was activity when I opened it it but figured it's already open - might as well give it a stir. Tasted it this morning. It had a really unusual citrus flavour and scent that wasn't offensive, but was not CSA. To my nose it wasn't an infection. This evening I took another test and taste and it's dropped to 1.007 and tastes distinctly like a CSA. Chalk and cheese since this morning. Brewing is a funny animal and patience is a virtue. I'll keg next weekend.

Oh and while I was there, I put in my new shelves and moved my other project - the MAME cabinet. I got into the R-Type, Defender, Bubble Bobble and Golden Axe and after a few schooners of the weissbier there was a party going on even though nobody was invited. Behold.