Brewnut Brewing - Electric Brewery Upgrade

[kcurnow]

Well that title is a mouthfull!! but hey its time for a brewery upgrade
Finally the time has come for a brewery upgrade and to consign the Brewnut Brewery to the scrapheap, or at least to where ghetto homebrew systems go to die. My trusty plastic bucket HLT, coleman cooler mashtun and generic stainless steel boil kettle who have served me well through many a brew will be put into the back corner of my shed as they are destined to be replaced by a younger, faster and better looking system.
The dilemma has been do i want simple turn key bling such as a single vessel Speidel Braumeister, or three vessel SABCO Brew Magic system or do i want a more customised solution where i get to design the brewery exactly how i want it. There were also the questions around do i want gas, electric or a hybrid gas/electric fired system and a RIMS or HERMS mashing setup . It has taken a while for me to work out the answer to all of this but i have finally settled on what i want my new system to look like. I will be putting together a semi-customised three vessel all electric HERMS system. I say semi-customised as i will be using the control panel from The Electric Brewery but will be hooking it up to some different vessels than the ones used by Kal and The Electric Brewery.
July – the control panel from The Electric Brewery has now turned up with all it’s wires, buttons and switches just waiting for me to convert it into a functioning panel.



More to come once i upload the photos...

 

[Edak]

Water jet cutting = win! Nice and clean.

What's the budget for this project?

 

[kcurnow]

Well after an almost 12 month hiatus on the brewery upgrade I have finally found the time to post a bit more about whats been going on.
After the Electric Brewery kit turned up in July 2012 I ended up working in South America on a project for a month and then came back from that to FIFO work in SA till Christmas so this combined with seemingly never ending house renovations has slowed down the work on the brewery upgrade. On top of this all my wife and I had our first child in Feb of this year so my spare time for brewery related projects has been very limited. However despite all these interesting challenges and additions to the house and family I have still managed some progress on the upgrade.
Towards the end of last year I got started on the actual control panel work and reading through the Electric Brewery forums found some guys that had ended up cutting all the holes in the panel using water jet cutters. This seemed like the ideal solution to cutting all the holes as I certainly didn’t have a drill press or all the required sized hole saws. The guys on the forum even had a CAD drawing of the control panel with all the holes that required cutting. So grabbing this I sent it off to some water jet cutters in Bayswater and this is what I got back from them.

​

The control panel back from the water jet cutters.

​

Control Panel showing the bottom cutout for power, pumps, heating elements and temp probes.

SWEET!!! all holes nicely cut ready to insert all the fittings. Test fit time.

​

Hmmm, somethings not quite right with this…

Hmmm somethings not quite right here. All of the switches, lights and PIDs fit, the Volt and AMP meters almost fit and most of the receptacles on the base just dont even come close.

Lets just say I wasn’t very pleased with the water jet cutters as it was an effort to convince them to do a one off in the first place. Grrrrr. So I decided to measure the holes and compare them to the CAD drawing I sent them to see how much they had screwed them up by. Well surprise surprise all the holes were exactly the same size as the ones in the CAD files. Turns out the water jet cutters got it right. Their cutting exactly matches the drawing measurements I gave them on the CAD file. It turns out the power cable fittings I have are slightly larger than the ones used for the dimensions in the cutting plan (which thinking about it afterwards makes sense as I have a 240 volt kit compared to what the guys in the states have which is a 120 volt kit and uses different power connectors). Sort of reminds me of an old saying measure twice, cut once. Well now i’m cutting twice. Here I have marked out the extra material that needs to be removed from the control panel so all the power connectors fit.

​

Holes marked up ready to die grind.

And afterwards the newly enlarged receptacles. While not as pretty or neat as the water jet holes they will be hidden in the end. As one of my friends pointed out, at least they needed to be made larger as its much more difficult to make a hole smaller once it cut out.

​

The receptacle holes that have been enlarged with a die grinder.

​

Receptacles that now fit – Yay

 

[kcurnow]

After the issue with plugs that dont fit in holes it was a bit easier after that.
I cut a hole in the top of the control panel for the heat sink.

​

Marking out for the heatsink hole

​

cutting out the heatsink holes with a jigsaw

​

Heatsink cutout


Fitted the bash handles to the control panel.

​

Bash handles top and front

​

Bash handles on the front and bottom of the control panel.


And then fitted the heatsink to the top of the control panel.

​

Heatsink fitted to the top of the control panel.

 

[kcurnow]

Water jet cutting = win! Nice and clean.

What's the budget for this project?

Waterjet is great - if you give them the right measurements in the first place.

I dont want to think about the budget or i might scare myself. I thought homebrewing was supposed to save you money :lol:

 

[kcurnow]

Well the current part of the brewery upgrade and control panel build is almost over. I have got it to the point of wiring up. Here are some of the progress photos so far.

​

Test fit of the safe start interlock

​

Spray painting the back of the enclosure

​

Spray painting the bottom of the enclosure

​

Spray painted enclosure

​

Sealing around volt and amp metres

​

Main components fitted

​

Main components and safe start interlock

 

[kcurnow]

And more

​

Control panel almost finished

​

Bottom panel showing labels

​

Front and top of the control panel including labels

​

Inside – relays, transformers and busbars

​

Inside – everything except for the wiring

 

[Florian]

**** me that is one sexy looking thing!

Keep'em coming!

 

[Grainer]

sweeeeet

 

[kcurnow]

**** me that is one sexy looking thing!

Keep'em coming!

Will do, between raising a mini me, house renos and the brew shed build the next few might be a bit slower.

 

[Yob]

Shizzle B to the Nut... thats gonna be blingin...

Question... why 4 PID's?

 

[Cocko]

Shizzle B to the Nut... thats gonna be blingin...

Question... why 4 PID's?

3 PID's and a timer, I presume..



Dear God Brew Nut, that is amazing, PLEASE keep the pix coming and try and trump Jonathon by actually brewing on it!!

Subscribed.

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

3 PID's and a timer, I presume..



Dear God Brew Nut, that is amazing, PLEASE keep the pix coming and try and trump Jonathon by actually brewing on it!!

Subscribed.

You cant brew on it its a control panel.

 

[Cocko]

You cant brew on it its a control panel.

Can so....



Shut up. -_-

 

[breakbeer]

:icon_drool2:
total brew porn!

 

[kcurnow]

3 PID's and a timer, I presume..



Dear God Brew Nut, that is amazing, PLEASE keep the pix coming and try and trump Jonathon by actually brewing on it!!

Subscribed.

Yep last one is a timer, in reality you dont even need three PIDs as boiling is boiling no need to really fiddle with setting temps for that.

 

[Cocko]

Yep last one is a timer, in reality you dont even need three PIDs as boiling is boiling no need to really fiddle with setting temps for that.

Reality is for the weak. Do it just because you can, I say!

:super:

 

[WarmBeer]

Yep last one is a timer, in reality you dont even need three PIDs as boiling is boiling no need to really fiddle with setting temps for that.

Cap and pressurise that sucker! Then boiling ain't just boiling.

 

[kcurnow]

Well we have power. Now all i need are some tanks to hook it up to and a brewery to put it into.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151741673502905

 

[Yob]

You can drop it off with another couple of growlers mate..

Ed: I guess I could manage to swing past to pick it up if I had to..

 

[Cocko]

:icon_drool2:

This is the best build thread since Johno's!!

Keep it coming mate!

Brewnut, we live through you!

God, I am hanging to see the SS that is to follow...

 

[kcurnow]

You can drop it off with another couple of growlers mate..

Ed: I guess I could manage to swing past to pick it up if I had to..

Hahaha very funny, i would but you probably dont have a 32amp socket handy for it. The growlers on the other hand... i might be convinced to part with a couple more from my personal stash.

 

[kcurnow]

Brewery Upgrade Part Four A
Aside from the control panel the rest of the brewery is getting an upgrade as well. In the past I have set up my brew rig on a trestle table outside, which is all well and good on a nice spring day (Picture mid 20 degrees) but not so good on a super hot summers day (35+ degrees) or on a cold and wet Melbourne winters day. This photo shows my current rig set up. Note the awesome stand for my HLT (I have since replaced the saw horses with a small table that the HLT sits on. Much safer.)

So part of the brewery upgrade is also about giving me some space to do some brewing. I have a garage at the back of my block but the driveway past the house is too narrow for modern cars so it has really been used as a very messy storage room, so i have decided to convert the back half of it into my brewery.

This first photo shows the back of the garage once all the mess has been cleared out leaving the dodgy wooden bench and shelves.

Once the wooden shelves were out i had to clean out some flaking concrete and patch holes and cracks in the floor.

This is looking towards the back of the garage that will become my brewery. It has been cleaned out ready for painting.

A number of different painting methods were trialled as the bricks were very uneven and rollers and brushes were almost useless. In this photo i am trying a low pressure spray gun. This was pretty much useless as well. The volume of paint applied by the sprayer was so fine the wall would have needed about 20 coats to hide the brick colour!!!. In the end i used an airless high pressure paint sprayer which covered all the walls in nice thick coats in about 10 minutes flat.

My brother in law was down from Brisbane visiting so i got him to help out with the painting. He is cutting in some of the fiddly ares the paint sprayer would not be able to do very well.

To seperate the brewery from the rest of a garage i built a stud wall to go between the two areas.

Uprights in place. Note my control panel being built in the right hand corner of the photo.

Nogging in place.

Plywood sheeting on the garage side. I am using leftover colourbond wall cladding for the brewery side.

 

[kcurnow]

Brewery Upgrade Part Four B.

Insulation in place prior to the walls being spray painted with the airless sprayer and the colourbond cladding going on.

The walls have now been painted with the airless sprayer, the colourbond cladding and rollor door attached and the range hood installed. The rollor door is only being used to move large items such as fridges and tanks in an out of the brewery as it is behind where the brewing vessels are going.For everyday access there is a side entrance.

This is the motor for the range hood up on the roof.

My Electric Brewery control panel is now bolted to the wall and powered up. confirming it is working.

This is looking towards to front half of the brewery showing the sink, rangehood, table for brewing vessels and control panel.

This is the back half of the brewery where the fermentation vessels and fermentation fridges will go. Note my red grain mill does crush grain faster.

This shot shows the brewing vessels on their table. They have not been plumbed in yet and the pumps are not installed.

My brite tank.

Some fermentes at the back along with the brite tank.

This shot shows a bit more plumbing attached to the brewing vessels. I still need to make a stand for my two pumps to be attached to.

 

[MastersBrewery]

2 pages one word ... EPIC
top work there

 

[bradsbrew]

Obviously too busy building your brewery to answer PM's and emails linked to your website regarding products advertised on your website!!!

 

[kcurnow]

Obviously too busy building your brewery to answer PM's and emails linked to your website regarding products advertised on your website!!!

oops, PM replied to

 

[Edak]

Just showed my wife this build, I think I now have a case to build more stuff. I basically said "this is what all the other brewers do..."

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

BLING My eyes hurt.
Nev

 

[kcurnow]

Just showed my wife this build, I think I now have a case to build more stuff. I basically said "this is what all the other brewers do..."

Haha nice one, I showed my wife and she laughed.