Black Dog Brewhouse Rig

[kieran]

Thanks for the compliments.

Insulation is 10 mm closed cell foam from clark rubber. Not cheap stuff but I had some left over from boat projects.

Cut a piece to make a jacket, get a nice butt joint. Cut another bit to full height of jacket @100 mm wide. Glue this with 3 m spray high bond contact ( from clarks ) to one side of the jacket. Then glue velcro to jacket and strip. Cut out for handles etc.

I leave mine on for boil then remove at whirlpool.

Just make sure urn is dry and avoid wort spills as can stick a bit if wet, cleans up easy though.

Thanks - think I got it.. see attached pic - is that what you mean? Use the strip as a bonding bit to hold both ends of the jacket together.. via velcro on both ends of jacket and on strip?

I'm using keggles, but will work the same way.. except I have a lot of ports for whirlpool, sight guage, etc.etc.

 

[seamad]

Could do it that way , i glued the strip to the jacket, that way only need one strip of velcro, just my tightarse scots heritage coming through
Cheers
Sean

 

[kieran]

Could do it that way , i glued the strip to the jacket, that way only need one strip of velcro, just my tightarse scots heritage coming through
Cheers
Sean

Well I'm lost then.. :unsure: My pickled scottish ancestral brain cannot compute.
I dont understand what gluing the 10cm strip directly to the jacket achieves.. or how that helps sticking the ends together?

 

[seamad]

Sorry not so clear, just glue 50 mm of the strip to the jacket, leaving 50 mm wide flap. One side of velcro on that and other part of velcro on jacket. Wish i new how to make a diagram like yours would make it much clearer.
Ill take a photo and post
Cheers

 

[argon]

like this... glue half, velcro half

 

[kieran]

Ahah!

I think I now have it.. (I've redone the illustration for everyone else's benefit).


cheers!

 

[kieran]

View attachment 51145

like this... glue half, velcro half

ahh yes. beat me.. . except apply the other velcro bit to the jacket too.
Velcro doesn't stick to closed cell EVA.

 

[argon]

of course

 

[seamad]

Thanks fellas, spot on

 

[seamad]

Last brewday got to dough in temp turned on pump to even out temp before adding grain, nothing happened. Previous brewday my 3 yp daughter pulled the whole rig off the bench whilst it was drying after cleaning, dented urn on a handle and on one of the ball valves, bit of panel beating and thought fixed.
Noticed when the pump wouldnt turn on that the back plate was askew. Pulled it apart and fixed it, still not working. Repeated to no avail. The shaft has @10 mm play in/ out in line with shaft axis. Spins ok but with power it binds and wont spin. Have sent an email to tesco for advice but does anyone have a clue as to whats busted?
Lucky i have a 12 VDC march pump as well so used that on brewday, actually like it better,hardly makes a sound, could hear the wort overflowing the malt pipe easily.
Any advice appreciated
Cheers
Sean

 

[seamad]

Received email from tesco already, pump stuffed. Seems play is normal but any damage to back plate will cause misalignment and consequent seizing.
Will probably continue to use the 12 V pump as very quiet. May fiddle a bit more with the ac motor and see if i can get it working.

Dont drop your pumps.

 

[matho]

Received email from tesco already, pump stuffed. Seems play is normal but any damage to back plate will cause misalignment and consequent seizing.
Will probably continue to use the 12 V pump as very quiet. May fiddle a bit more with the ac motor and see if i can get it working.

Dont drop your pumps.

thats a bugger, maybe you could work out a way to mount a 12V motor on the back of it instead

oatley electronics have cheap but powerful motor's

 

[matho]

I was just doing some research and it looks like the march pump has a 1/4 inch shaft and those motors have a 8mm shaft so an adapter would need to be made and a mounting plate.
I would like to make my march pump quiet as that is the one thing that pisses me off about the braumiser, if i get some time i might look into it

cheers steve

 

[seamad]

Steve,

Would be fairly easy to mount a 12 V motor to the march pump. I swapped over my pumps as the 240 AC powered one was a centre outlet with a different diam inlet and didnt have a fitting for the one already on the 12 v motor.

The 12V motor besides being super quiet is also small, @100 mm long and @70 mm diam. From memory was a bit over $200 from tesco so more expensive than the ac pump.

Specs for the pump are:

12 vdc, 3.5amps , 3650 rpm and rated continuous duty.

If I can find a 12 v pump with these specs will get one and do away with tye 240 .

Might do a brew today , thinking of getting rid of the fine mesh ss filter as it got pretty clogged up last brew. Will report back

Cheers
Sean

 

[kieran]

Last brewday got to dough in temp turned on pump to even out temp before adding grain, nothing happened. Previous brewday my 3 yp daughter pulled the whole rig off the bench whilst it was drying after cleaning, dented urn on a handle and on one of the ball valves, bit of panel beating and thought fixed.
Noticed when the pump wouldnt turn on that the back plate was askew. Pulled it apart and fixed it, still not working. Repeated to no avail. The shaft has @10 mm play in/ out in line with shaft axis. Spins ok but with power it binds and wont spin. Have sent an email to tesco for advice but does anyone have a clue as to whats busted?
Lucky i have a 12 VDC march pump as well so used that on brewday, actually like it better,hardly makes a sound, could hear the wort overflowing the malt pipe easily.
Any advice appreciated
Cheers
Sean

Has power to one of the coils been cut/dented/sheared or something? If one of the electromagnets isn't firing, that could be a reason (if the shaft is still freely spinning). Do you hear that electrical "hum" when you power it up?

Kiiiiids! I have a very inquisitive 4 year old that I watch like a hawk. I've bolted everything down now so lets hope there are no issues (touch wood) with little people.

 

[seamad]

Kieran, certainly gets that hum, will turn very slowly for a revolution or two with a kick start sometimes.

Bloody kids alright, 5yo boy and 3yo girl, don't know how many times I've said not to touch Daddy's beer machine. She got a pretty good fright from pulling it over so maybe (haha) she won't touch it again.

 

[matho]

Sean,
I just pulled apart my march pump to have a look, the end play in my motor is about 2mm, I would take the back cover off by removing those clips and pull the armature out to have a proper look, you can't do anymore damage.

 

[claypot]

Hey Sean,

Sweet build mate, I have got a lot of ideas and inspiration from your thread.
I have read in a few post's that some people have been un happy with the output of the element on the enclosed style crown urns( not been able to get a good boil).
Also if they have disconnected the thermal protection the element has S..t it self.
What is your opinion?
I like the idea of having the element in the middle for heat distribution, and it dosn't effect the whirlpool. For me this element is the perfect solution, and I prefer a slow rolling boil anyway. I will heavily insulate the pot also.
I am still un decided on building a single or double batch unit and think it would be difficult to build a unit that does both well.
If I try to build somthing that can do both I could use the crown in the middle, and a custom element around the out side for the double batch's. This should leave enough wort over the crown element on the single batch's.
Any way starting to think out aloud now, thanks again.

Cheers Clayton.

 

[seamad]

Thanks Clayton,
I generally do a one hour boil and get@10% reduction which is ok with me.
I did bypass the thermal cut out after speaking to the crown techy, and ptomptly burnt out my element!
The reason it cuts out is crud build up on the element, in one of the photos you can see my scrubber, long bit of ally tube with scrubbing brush on the end to clean the element preboil and with really sticky wwort ( wheats, rye some blacks) another scrub during the boil if the cut out kicks in. The cut out gives good ptotection , would leave it there.
Would be difficult to get a double batch in an urn, did a black saison on friday, rough figures for that:
30 l strike water and extra 3 for sparge at end, roughly 4.8 kg grain and 83% effeciency FG 1051. At end of boil after removing the malt pipe stand turn on the pump for ten minutes for whirlpool, get a nice trub cone. To drain just undo camlock and also know that all tubing sterile ( botulism aside)
Get a full cube of clean wort. First bit of wot into a pot then cube then all leftovers, trub and all into pot. I then run the pot contents through voile to get a good 3+ l for flavour/ aroma miniboil. Also sparge the grain again to get @2 l to use for a starter.
Usually end up with a keg and 5 bottles for my dad.
Cheers
Sean

 

[wakkatoo]

here I was thinking you might have been from NE victoria

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