Brew Rig Design

[beerbrewer76543]

Check out my high tech drafting skills above... This is my planned piping layout. All ball valves in a row except the system drain located at the low point

Hopefully this will prove to be easy to prime, drain and with all valves in a row it will be less confusing to operate

 

[leiothrix]

Cheer Rob,

I actually picked up 2 of the IEC 16A male plugs the other week thinking I could mount them on a side wall of the box. Trouble is I then couldn't find the associated female plug. Looking on Jaycar I see they don't sell the female plug but a 2m mains lead instead.

That's what I've got on my pot. I've got the socket on an ali box / terminal cover on the element, and the pre-made lead to connect that to the temp/power controller.

Jaycar I think have a licence to print money, but it worked and was convenient.

Rob.

 

[raven19]

Jaycar sell 15A IEC plugs and sockets. Not sure if they will fit though.

I found a series of holes drilled around the circumference of the void in the aluminium JB, punch out the central piece of metal left, then you just need a metal hand file to smooth out the void. Worked an absolute treat with my keg tap holes also. Or use a Jigsaw with a metal blade and go slow.

 

[leiothrix]

I used a dremel with a fibreglass reinforced cutoff wheel. It's good for cutting, and as long as you're gentle it's good for grinding too.

The stones that they have with the dremel just clog with the ali, so it's either the cutoff disk or a hand file.

Rob.

 

[Franko]

that looks like it's going to be one fun bit of gear to prime not to mention strip down and clean h34r:

exactly what I was thinking :blink:

 

[browndog]

View attachment 39189

Check out my high tech drafting skills above... This is my planned piping layout. All ball valves in a row except the system drain located at the low point

Hopefully this will prove to be easy to prime, drain and with all valves in a row it will be less confusing to operate

Most HERMS rigs I've seen have the pump and the HE opposite to the way you have it so the pump is actually pumping into the HE coil, the way you have it the pump is sucking from the HE, I don't know if that will give you some problems or not. Could have priming issues.

cheers

Browndog

 

[Brad Sofield]

Hey cdbrown-it must be a bunnings thing! Got a 4000 MAP burner $143 for the cost of a replacement canister $29. Makes up for all the other things I have overpayed for over the years. Honestly I didn't realise till I got home and too far to go back.Cheers

 

[beerbrewer76543]

Most HERMS rigs I've seen have the pump and the HE opposite to the way you have it so the pump is actually pumping into the HE coil, the way you have it the pump is sucking from the HE, I don't know if that will give you some problems or not. Could have priming issues.

cheers

Browndog

Browndog, my thinking was to have the pump at the low point of the system so it would gravity prime, then use the valve on the outlet side to restrict flow as required. The drain valve at the bottom should let me collect the remainder of that precious precious wort. Seem ok?

Cheers

L_Bomb

 

[cdbrown]

Hey cdbrown-it must be a bunnings thing! Got a 4000 MAP burner $143 for the cost of a replacement canister $29. Makes up for all the other things I have overpayed for over the years. Honestly I didn't realise till I got home and too far to go back.Cheers

That's because they scan the canister instead of the package barcode. Good deal I reckon.

Last night I mounted the HERMS element in the ali box and pot, cut the small panel for the IEC connector. Tonight will test the seal to make sure of any leaks before making up some short wire runs and will make up the box for the HLT. Dremel cut off disc did the job nicely.

Managed to get roughly 11m of 1/2" coil in the pot and now just figuring the best way to join the copper to the s/s threaded fittings to make a nice bulkhead fitting as there's no way I'm touching that thin wall with a arc welder. I may get another pot and redo the holes but go slightly smaller as a hex nipple cat go right through which isn't what I wanted.

With the pump and valves it's done to allow underletting of the mash tun if I get a stuck sparge. Maybe down the track I'll go the simplified way and end up using hose disconnects and minimal valves, but I might as well give it a crack.

 

[~MikE]

Managed to get roughly 11m of 1/2" coil in the pot and now just figuring the best way to join the copper to the s/s threaded fittings to make a nice bulkhead fitting as there's no way I'm touching that thin wall with a arc welder. I may get another pot and redo the holes but go slightly smaller as a hex nipple cat go right through which isn't what I wanted.

i'm currently building a HE with the exact same pot i think. i've been silver soldering all my sockets, piece of piss and stronger than i thought it would be. was gonna silver solder sockets on it and then connect the coil to hosetails with some silicone tubing, the weight of the coil would be on the base of the pot then and not the socket either.

 

[cdbrown]

i'm currently building a HE with the exact same pot i think. i've been silver soldering all my sockets, piece of piss and stronger than i thought it would be. was gonna silver solder sockets on it and then connect the coil to hosetails with some silicone tubing, the weight of the coil would be on the base of the pot then and not the socket either.

Is that the same solder used on the copper fittings? I had thought about soldering them, I hope the hex nuts are large enough to cover the hole so that I can get a good solder around the edge, otherwise I'll definitely be forced to buy another pot and try again (would mean I could cut up the old pot and make washers out of it). What do you reckon about silver soldering the fittings to the keg as well?

 

[browndog]

Browndog, my thinking was to have the pump at the low point of the system so it would gravity prime, then use the valve on the outlet side to restrict flow as required. The drain valve at the bottom should let me collect the remainder of that precious precious wort. Seem ok?

Cheers

L_Bomb

Well, it certainly is the simplest way to plumb it, it is just that many people have priming issues without even having a HE coil in the equation. It may work, or it may give you a heap of head aches. Bear in mind that the wort will be trying to push all the air out of 6-9M of coil in your HE. It would be interesting to see what others think. Good luck with it anyhow.

cheers

Browndog

 

[~MikE]

Is that the same solder used on the copper fittings? I had thought about soldering them, I hope the hex nuts are large enough to cover the hole so that I can get a good solder around the edge, otherwise I'll definitely be forced to buy another pot and try again (would mean I could cut up the old pot and make washers out of it). What do you reckon about silver soldering the fittings to the keg as well?

same silver solder, it'll go on pretty much anything except aluminium i believe - not even using an oxy torch or anything - just the handheld (butane i think) burner. i have sockets silver soldered to kegs and one of the 19L bigW pots (same wall thickness i believe). i recently removed a 1" socket from the keg to replace it with a bulkhead fitted element - had to melt it off as i couldn't knock it off with the hammer so it's certainly strong enough.

the sockets themselves are only a couple dollars, so if the hex nut doesn't go on by itself it's not the end of the world...

 

[raven19]

...otherwise I'll definitely be forced to buy another pot and try again...

If you do buy a second pot, you could use part of the first pot as a shiny shield for your March Pump fella.

 

[cdbrown]

Any particular flux for soldering to stainless? I need to check whether the solder I'm using is silver solder - all I know is it's lead free and it came in a pack with flux, emery cloth and a small brush.

 

[~MikE]

I've just been using the benzomatic stuff - This Flux with This solder

EDIT: and a propane torch as it turns out...

 

[cdbrown]

Excellent - exactly the same as what I've been using on the copper pipe as they came in this kit
"

I have this burner

 

[cdbrown]

Made a little bit of progress last night and managed to take some happy snaps (new paddle!). Tested the herms pot for any leaks and thankfully there were none. Even got it boiling without any signs of a leak which is good. By the way - mashmaster thermo showed 98.5C in boiling water. Made up the electric box to house the HLT element so now all I need is some decent gauge wire to hook the herms element to the plug, two female plugs to suit and some 3mm x 10mm nuts and bolts to secure the male plugs to the enclosure. I figured I should clean up the shed after doing the enclosure as I was tripping over stuff and there wasn' any clear area to work for the soldering of fittings. More tonight I hope!

 

[unrealeous]

That's a great idea using a housing around the bottom of your kettle element. Mine is currently blowing in the breeze, and I've been wondering what I can do to stop it looking so dangerous. Keep those photo's coming.

Edit - and where did you get your mash paddle from?

 

[cdbrown]

The housing are aluminium cases from jaycar and are real easy to cut holes in. The thickness of the ali and bottom of the pot is just a little thicker than the kettle so when the screws are tight makes a great seal. They are different sized cases to suite the elements.

The paddle I grabbed from TWOC when I went and picked up some fittings the other week. Saw it on the counter and couldn't resist. They aren't on the website for some reason.