Ash's Brewery Progress

[Ash in Perth]

Ok ive finally got some time to start building. Went and got all the SS bits today. Only thing missing in this photo is the 6m 3/8" SS tube for the CFC. Going to put it all together over the next couple of weeks. cutting, welding, etc. Ill keep updating the thread as i do more work. Dont expect a masterpeice like tony's though.

 

[lou]

Ooooh

love those sexy 3 piece stainless ball valves :wub:

lou

 

[Tony]

very nice mate.

love the sign........ GOOD BEER HERE

hehe

cheers

 

[mika]

Where the valves come from Ash ? and if you don't mind...How much ??

 

[ausdb]

Ok ive finally got some time to start building. Went and got all the SS bits today. Only thing missing in this photo is the 6m 3/8" SS tube for the CFC. Going to put it all together over the next couple of weeks. cutting, welding, etc. Ill keep updating the thread as i do more work. Dont expect a masterpeice like tony's though.

Whats you brew size going to be Ash, with a 50L mash tun you may find yourself upping your batch size sooner rather than later and it looks like you might be running out of space in your kettle. Also be interested to know where you get the 3 piece valves from too.

 

[devo]

mmm beer porn

 

[spog]

ash ip,i see you have the 3 ring type burner in your rig.i have a 3 ring burner on my hlt and 2 ring burners on mash tun and kettle.after doing( watching) an all grain with dicko recently with his nasa burners,they seem to be the ducks nuts.but but but i have since been told that with an adjustable regulator i should get much better performance from my burners than in say, standard mode (regulator) not nasa quality :angry: lack of research on my behalf. any body else had/have this system going.am i wrong?..cheers..spog..

 

[devo]

ash ip,i see you have the 3 ring type burner in your rig.i have a 3 ring burner on my hlt and 2 ring burners on mash tun and kettle.after doing( watching) an all grain with dicko recently with his nasa burners,they seem to be the ducks nuts.but but but i have since been told that with an adjustable regulator i should get much better performance from my burners than in say, standard mode (regulator) not nasa quality :angry: lack of research on my behalf. any body else had/have this system going.am i wrong?..cheers..spog..

I still use a 3 ring on my kettle which has been going great guns but the nasa on the HLT is as you put it, "the ducks nuts". :super:

 

[Tony]

i used a 3 ring under 30 loter boils and it worked great.

HAd to ubgrade to the mongolian for the 60 liter boils but i thing if i had of got a hightr flow low pressure reg for the 3 ring and mounted it better it probably would have worked ok.

thats the only explination for the burner arguments. everyone has them mounteddifferent and the perform differently because of this.

2 options.

get a high pressure burner to keep your kids awake or play with your setup to masimise airflow potential and heat utalisation and see how you go,

cheers

 

[spog]

cheers , sorry for the slight hijack not intended,cheers ...spog...

 

[Ash in Perth]

Ill only be doing 20-30L batches because i prefer having lots of different beers in my firdge rather than lots of the same. The 3 ring burner should be enoguh for this.

Ill be using an electric element and thermostat for the HLT. Mash is going to be heat exchange.

Ball valves were from sterlings steel in perth, cost a bit less than $20 for 1/2" 3 piece. All bits are cheap there.

 

[mika]

Champ ! Sounds like the kinda valves I need. Got a part number at all ??

 

[Ash in Perth]

Not with me but they have a 'shop front' where there will be some one to sort you out.

Get a quote first because i think most of their prices are done that way.

http://www.stirlingsaustralia.com.au/contact.php

 

[razz]

G'day Ash. I think you may need to rethink your kettle and mashtun. I did the same thing and ended up swaping them around. The cut down keg will be oodles for a tun but could be to small for a kettle, even with the volumes you mentioned. The 50lt kettle I kept entire but for a 28 cm diametre cut out in the top. Also means you can do double batches if you please.

 

[Ash in Perth]

Thanks for the tip. I will be cutting the HLT and mash tun down aswell. the kettle is going to be the kettle becasue teh base has already been inverted but i will see what i can do. it is 40L to the top so it should handle a 25-30L boild with no issues i hope.

 

[Juddy]

Ash
My current system is similar to yours. Never had the slightest problem with single batches and follow your theory on large batches (i.e rather have many small batches, than few large batches available). HLT electric element. And boiler combination of electric and double ring conventional burner. Efficent, reliable and easy!

 

[ntboozer]

Thanks for the tip. I will be cutting the HLT and mash tun down aswell. the kettle is going to be the kettle becasue teh base has already been inverted but i will see what i can do. it is 40L to the top so it should handle a 25-30L boild with no issues i hope.

Ash,
I'm also setting up a kettle similar to yours - what do you mean by "the base has already been inverted"?
My kettle, apart from the top cut out, is still as it left the factory, concave base when viewed through cutout. Are you saying your base is convex? If so, does this have an added advantage for heating etc?
Might be time to get out the mallet.......

Cheers
nt
:beer:

 

[Ash in Perth]

I made the base pointing upwards for a couple of reasons. firstly, it makes the outside the lowest point (where the tap will be) so there is less wort left in there. secondly, it gives a point for the wort to 'boil' from and may trap heat better underneath. not sure if this is the best way to do it but I reckon itll be good.

Cheers, Ash

 

[Ash in Perth]

Coiled my CFC tube this morning. Just held one end up to the keg and rolled it slowly along the ground leving a strait bit on the end. nice wide circle to make it easy for the hose to go around it and i just stepped on one end while pulling the other to seperate the coils. The smaller of my 2 assistant brewers is smelling the coil for faults in the second photo.

 

[Ash in Perth]

Ok im about to cut the HLT coil down to a more suitable length. It is currently about 8m long. How long do you think it should be?

i was thinking about 4-5m long so it gets good heat exchange but isnt long enoguh to worry about too much volume in their and being harder to clean.

Its about 8m long 3/8" tube and has a coil diameter of about 210mm


100th post!