Brew Rig Options

[Jono_w]

That is sweet tubing Pumpy, where do you get that from?

 

[Pumpy]

That is sweet tubing Pumpy, where do you get that from?

I saw the same set up at the lord Nelson brew Pub in the rocks ,go for a brewery tour and see

It is called Solar absorber from Zane


http://www.zane.com.au/html/home.htm

You need a couple of manifolds and the absorber, dead easy to fit to your tanks


Pumpy

 

[Jono_w]

I saw the same set up at the lord Nelson brew Pub in the rocks ,go for a brewery tour and see

Might have to plan that into a holiday, few thousand k's away..
Looks good though i could even have some on the roof to preheat my brew water.
cheers.

 

[Justin]

I'll just throw in a note to second Tony's comments about the whirlpool. There is no way you'll get a decent enough flow rate to generate any sort of whirlpool in your kettle with a March, it's borderline in 40L- well actually not borderline, it's underpowered in 40L but it can at least get some movement but it's very critical on outlet placement and direction. I mainly use it for movement over my immersion chiller so I dont have to keep stirring. I wouldn't count on it creating a proper whirlpool and I always give it a helping hand with a stainless spoon. In your case, definitely not.

Sounds like you have probably already spotted that the march pumps will probably under perform in your brewery. I'm not sure you will get sufficient flow rates to make quick transfers but maybe it will be enough. Maybe you should up the capabilities of you peristaltic pump by bolting a number of heads together and running them in parallel with a grunty motor. Otherwise source some bigger pumps. Dairies would be a good source.

Anyway good luck with it. It's looking great.

 

[chappo1970]

Jonno your lucky mate I was about to start nagging!!!

BTW :icon_drool2: Nice... looking really nice!

You need to set a date to fire this baby up mate! I would be keen to make the effort to see the maiden voyage.

Cheers

Chappo

 

[T.D.]

the idea is to have a fully automated brew, no manual intervention at all

I don't want to sound like a party pooper here, but if this is what you are going for why don't you just go and buy craftbrew from the local bottlo?

For me, I enjoy the brewing bit probably more than the drinking.

Cool experiment all the same, it does look fancy and you have done a great job, but I must say this kind of thing is not for me...

 

[gibbocore]

I don't want to sound like a party pooper here

Then don't.

but I must say

Nahhh, you don't really have to.

 

[Zizzle]

I don't want to sound like a party pooper here, but if this is what you are going for why don't you just go and buy craftbrew from the local bottlo?

Come off it.

Price per beer is not even in the same ball park.

The challenge/fun/experimentation/art/anticipation of crafting one's own recipes is not diminished.

The range of beer styles is not comparable.

Some off us prefer to and actually enjoy putting our brains and hands to work on coming up on a solution to work smarter not harder. Jeez where would humanity be without that.

Let's face it, most of brewing is absolute monkey work after the first couple of brews. We aim for consistency, not random results. Take the boring tedious human factor out of it: win win.

Some of us actually would prefer to be shagging our missus than constantly dipping our thermometer into a big bucket of warm barley porridge (visual imagery pun fully intended).

Bloody good on you Jonathan for pushing the limits and raising the bar rather than being some dumb-shit monkey thermometer-dipper. It's inspirational.

If you fully enjoy doing it the manual way and have nothing better to do, then good on you, each to their own. Just don't pretend you're special or have the right to tell us it's the only way. You probably have nothing new or interesting to show us, please don't stop those that do.

 

[T.D.]

Some of us actually would prefer to be shagging our missus

I'm sure you could get some kind of automated contraption for that too if you wanted to. Precisely my point, the fun is in the doing!

I can understand automation if its a commercial brewery, but just seems a little counter-intuitive when its your hobby! So when people ask you "what is your hobby?" you answer "brewing" and they say "oh, so how does that work?" and you say "well, I press the green button and come back in 4 hours". Ok fine if that's your idea of a hobby, but for me I would rather do some of those torturous tasks of stirring and opening and shutting valves - I actually enjoy it!

And I am not having a go at Jonathon - if you read my post you could see that.

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

:icon_offtopic: TD better get your flame suit on the"mob" is angry.Funny how ones opinion sparks civil unrest?
Im a manual brewer as well, actually computer controlled heating and monitoring.The rest by hand, I love it.
GB

 

[T.D.]

:icon_offtopic: TD better get your flame suit on the"mob" is angry.Funny how ones opinion sparks civil unrest?
Im a manual brewer as well, actually computer controlled heating and monitoring.The rest by hand, I love it.
GB

:lol: Yeah I think you may be right there! Think I might have struck a nerve!

I'm not saying people who want to automate their brewery are stupid, just that personally I don't see the point. To me the enjoyment of home brewing IS the opening and closing valves, measuring temps, lighting burners and stirring mashes on a brewday. If I got up on a brewday and thought "ahh bugger, I have to brew a batch of beer today" and wished I had a fully automated brewery, I think it'd be time to give the game away! But that's just me, each to their own!

 

[FNQ Bunyip]

I see the automation of a brewers brewery as a continuation of there hobby , These guys like playing with more than one hobby / skill at the same time ... I don't think Rob just hooked up all his bits and went off to work and hoped his brewery would be ok too brew by phone , I'm sure he has spent untold hours getting it right... I know Zizz got heaps of personal enjoyment out of building the brewbot , hours wrighting code , building his own actuators ect ect ,, its just thaking it too the next level...

Keep up the home built auto work , Ilove reading these posts , even if alot of the tech stuff gos right over my head ...

cheers

 

[Polar Beer]

Some of us actually would prefer to be shagging our missus than constantly dipping our thermometer into a big bucket of warm barley porridge (visual imagery pun fully intended).

I concur Zizzle. But surely this magnificent brewry and a shagable missus are mutually exlcusive? Johnathan, please confirm. If you have managed to build this and keep a wife happy, then I also assume you are welding the joints with lasers from your eyes.

 

[LethalCorpse]

Bunyip's right, TD, for some of us, brewing is only one of our many hobbies. If you're electrically/mechanically inclined, it's far too big a temptation to resist applying those skills to brewing. At the end of the day, you're still heavily involved in the brewing process - even if it's mostly just watching the machines go ping, longneck in hand.

 

[chappo1970]

...I'm not saying people who want to automate their brewery are stupid, just that personally I don't see the point. To me the enjoyment of home brewing IS the opening and closing valves, measuring temps, lighting burners and stirring mashes on a brewday. If I got up on a brewday and thought "ahh bugger, I have to brew a batch of beer today" and wished I had a fully automated brewery, I think it'd be time to give the game away! But that's just me, each to their own!

Pffft! No use in backing down now TD! :lol: I can hear the pitch forks being sharpened in the back ground...

 

[muckey]

Pffft! No use in backing down now TD! :lol: I can hear the pitch forks being sharpened in the back ground...

c'mon leave him alone IGOR chappo :lol:

 

[technocat]

Bunyip's right, TD, for some of us, brewing is only one of our many hobbies. If you're electrically/mechanically inclined, it's far too big a temptation to resist applying those skills to brewing. At the end of the day, you're still heavily involved in the brewing process - even if it's mostly just watching the machines go ping, longneck in hand.

I agree LC if you have worked most of your life in one thing or another it is only natural you apply the science you have learned along the way to a hobby no matter what it is as a compliment to improve it. Being in an Electrical or Electronic trade makes automation a lot easier as the understanding of it just takes your hobby to another level.

 

[chappo1970]

:lol:

 

[benno1973]

I'm not saying people who want to automate their brewery are stupid, just that personally I don't see the point. To me the enjoyment of home brewing IS the opening and closing valves, measuring temps, lighting burners and stirring mashes on a brewday. If I got up on a brewday and thought "ahh bugger, I have to brew a batch of beer today" and wished I had a fully automated brewery, I think it'd be time to give the game away! But that's just me, each to their own!

Yeh, I see your point, but I think that (as others have said) the fun part of the hobby *can* be automating it (for people that like to do that sort of stuff). I love brewing, but if I had enough nous to be able to automate a brewery, you can guarantee that that would be taking up all my precious brewing time. The aim would be to be able to produce beer with reproducable results every time, although once I finished the brewery I'd probably realise that all the fun was in setting it up!

Lucky I don't have enough nous!

 

[T.D.]

Why am I not surprised at this reaction???

Seems you can only voice an opinion on this forum these days if its the right one... :wacko: