Ash's Brewery Progress

[Ash in Perth]

i plugged it in and it pumped ok.

its probably jsut that my idea of a noisy pump is different that yours. im used to aquarium pumps which jsut hummmm.

 

[Batz]

OK
Just a dumb arse fitter here , never was much good at that bitey stuff
I do know a thing or three about pumps but.

Batz

 

[Sparky]

All looks superb Ash

Have been following this thread for sometime as I'm making plans to build a similar setup. Now have a folder full of plans, ideas, pics & drawings.

I'm thinking that I'll start off using hoses until i get the process sussed. I've recently got a PLC controller with 3 Analog inputs & 5 PIDs for controlling temperatures & a LCD interface display. there's 24 digital inputs & 22 outputs. The outputs will control the heating elements & pump and also turn on lamps to indicate the correct valve sequence for each brewing stage

The plan is use it to control the brew process on Brewday & with the flick of a switch & the change of a couple of plugs look after the fermenting fridge & the kegerator.

Tony will understand this madness. It's a Unitronics Vision 230.

A few weeks ago I spent the day with the brewer at Rooster's Brew House here in Hawke's Bay, learning how he goes about making a brew. We made a 1200 litre batch & I learned heaps!!

Very interested in your pump & how you get on. Have been questioning the regional agents for March in Wellington NZ with regard to supply. A complete waste of my time, they dont want to know.

I have an idea however, that I could set up a pump similar to what I use on my lawn weed sprayer. I have a piece of tube, that passes around three rotating studs on the wheel. As long as there is head, the fluid is pumped. Wondering if I can hook this up to an electric motor & recirculate using this method??

apologies & no intention to hijack thread

Good luck for the first run

Cheers

 

[Sparky]

Batz
I do know a thing or three about pumps

Heya Batz any comments on the wheel & tube type arrangement pump and whether it would be effective

Cheers In Advance :beer:

 

[Ash in Perth]

Gave it its first run today. 4.5 hours from waking up to all being cleaned up, faster than any other brew ive done including mini mashes. that inclusing milling 5kg of grain and was with about a 75min boil and a 75min mash. there was ltitle time lost in between.

All up it went really well aside form mashin in a little cool but ill let the beer show how well it went.
heres some Pics

Milling with my modified marga mill and home made hopper.

Mashing in.

tube setup for underletting mash liquor. fed by gravity but if i want to fill it up more i can hook it up to the pump easily like i do for sparging

recirculating through the coil

sparging (still goes through the coil for no reason)

Boiling

Chilling. ended up at about 27DegC which is a little warm for pitching a lager so ill use more ice next time.

Cheers, Ash

 

[big d]

And good to hear the power board has been moved Ash as i would hate to hear of one less west coast brewer to meet.

Cheers
Big D

 

[devo]

Nice work Ash, looks like it running like clock work.


Here is a pic of my revised setup that has so far put out about 3 really nice brews. :super:

View attachment 8519

 

[Ash in Perth]

That looks good mate.

Im guessing fromt he blackened bottom of the HLT and the metal sheets it is heated by a gas burner? if not try insulating that aswell, might speed up heating it.

 

[devo]

That looks good mate.

Im guessing fromt he blackened bottom of the HLT and the metal sheets it is heated by a gas burner? if not try insulating that aswell, might speed up heating it.

It's a dual heating set up using a nasa burner to quickly get the liquor up to temp and an electric element to manitain the correct temp.

And yes the rear is well insulated I did plenty of pre heat testing so nothing is melting.

View attachment 8520

 

[Shunty]

Very interested in your pump & how you get on. Have been questioning the regional agents for March in Wellington NZ with regard to supply. A complete waste of my time, they dont want to know.

I have an idea however, that I could set up a pump similar to what I use on my lawn weed sprayer. I have a piece of tube, that passes around three rotating studs on the wheel. As long as there is head, the fluid is pumped. Wondering if I can hook this up to an electric motor & recirculate using this method??

apologies & no intention to hijack thread

Good luck for the first run

Cheers

Tried them when i was looking for a pump, ended up buying from the states. They don't import the March 809.

The tube/stud arangement is a peristaltic pump - good for low flow rates but probably a bit slow for brewing unless you go to big tube or rev the nuts off the motor (which tends to damage the tube)

 

[Sparky]

Cheers Shunty thanks for the tip.

Ash

Your brew day looks to have been a right whizzer!

Great it has all worked out so well, makes it all worth while

Cheers

 

[Ash in Perth]

After my first few shifts at a well known WA micro I have decided i have a few things i am going to change with my brewery. I will be building a bigger and better kettle (I was wrong, you were right!) and i will make a screw-in hop back which then connects directly to my chiller by screwing it into the tap which will be horizontal rather than angled down. The flow can still be regulated through the kettle tap because the hop back will not be a sealed unit.

My biggest problem right now is that i am underletting with water at 78 DegC and its only getting to about 50-55 in the mash by the time it fills up. I think from now on ill pre-heat the water and mash tun to 69 and chuck the grains into that slowly while re-circulating.

I have also made another mash return that works much better.

 

[Ash in Perth]

Any suggestions for good kettle ideas?

I was thinking about one of those top quality SS pots. Kegs are good but i want to clean it up a little and maybe get more efficient heat usage.

 

[Justin]

Any suggestions for good kettle ideas?

I was thinking about one of those top quality SS pots. Kegs are good but i want to clean it up a little and maybe get more efficient heat usage.

:blink: Umm, lets see. A keg or a pot, gee that's about it. :blink:

Just don't buy a 60L pot and cut it down to 30L h34r:

You really cut the nuts off your brewery by cutting your kegs down to such a small size.

Sorry mate, I couldn't resist. It's a bugger you've got to change things but you were asking for it with a question like that and I couldn't resist having a dig in the good Aussie fashion. You already know the answer to your question anyway.

Hope you find something to sort it out though. Sorry.

 

[razz]

After my first few shifts at a well known WA micro I have decided i have a few things i am going to change with my brewery. I will be building a bigger and better kettle (I was wrong, you were right!) and i will make a screw-in hop back which then connects directly to my chiller by screwing it into the tap which will be horizontal rather than angled down. The flow can still be regulated through the kettle tap because the hop back will not be a sealed unit.

My biggest problem right now is that i am underletting with water at 78 DegC and its only getting to about 50-55 in the mash by the time it fills up. I think from now on ill pre-heat the water and mash tun to 69 and chuck the grains into that slowly while re-circulating.

I have also made another mash return that works much better.
View attachment 8790

G'day Ash, obviously the problem there is the tun absorbing too much heat. I don't know how keen you are on underletting but I don't bother with it. I flood the tun and allow it to absorb as much heat as it will and then I dough in, yeah I know I have to stir the mash but at most it takes 5 minutes to dough in and stir. Always hit my required mash temps.

 

[Ash in Perth]

Justin, the size of the kettle is not the problem really, and using a thick heavy duty keg the top half or more is just going to loose heat (aswell as all the messy bits). The main thing is that for the hopback im building, i need a horizontal tap rather than the angled tap. with a keg, for it to be horizontal it would need to be too far up the side and there would be too much left in the bottom. A large pot would be good but i thought before i spend $200 or so on a good one i should hunt around for something else.


Razz, that is what i did in my little SS pot for mini-mashes and it was perfect. I tihnk i will have to go back to that method. I was underletting with the new setup because i can, and it saves the stirring.. thats the only benifit i found. Cheers

 

[Justin]

No worries mate, it's clear you know what your doing and what your after. I was just stirring you up a bit. It's Friday afternoon and I'm going out of my mind :wacko: . Got to go home, via the pub.

I see your predicament though. Would it work better if you maybe made a sealed hop back unit that you could screw straight onto the tap perhaps? The the angle of the tap might not be as much of an issue then.

Otherwise you could possibly use a compression fitting or two and a small curved piece of copper pipe coming off the tap and into your hopback to adjust your angles?

What was the exact design of the hopback you were going to use.

Edit-Added pic: This was the sort of pipe arrangement I was trying to describe above. It will certainly take the angle issues out of the equation. Please excuse my dodgey ass photoshop attempt.

 

[warrenlw63]

Justin

Which is the end you light and which is the end you inhale?

POETS day rolls on. :lol:

Warren -

 

[bugwan]

After my first few shifts at a well known WA micro I..........

............. i will make a screw-in hop back which then connects directly to my chiller by screwing it into the tap which will be horizontal rather than angled down.

Sounds like your shifts have been at Little Creatures... They're big hop back users aren't they

Mate, good luck with the decision on the pots. I guess it comes down to $$$s. If I could afford it, I'd go a nice SS 70 litre pot in my brewery, but I will make do with a converted keg until the dollars roll my way (or I can justify it to SWMBO).

 

[Justin]

Exactly mate. Load her up with cascade buds, invert a nasa burner in the top and toke away.

The hop pipe. Patent is in as we speak.

I'm going home damn it.