Dicko's Brewery

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

dicko

Boston Bay Brewery
Joined
11/1/04
Messages
3,393
Reaction score
577
Pics as requested by Jayse,

This one is inside my mash tun lid and it is a length of plastic clear pipe fitted in a circle by copper saddles and it has small holes drilled at different angles so as to be able to sparge the mash. The black thing is a "T" piece like you use on an irrigation system and it is fitted through a hole in the lid and connects with a tube to the HLT
I know a lot of you do batch sparging but my system drops up to 10 points if I batch sparge over fly sparging and this sparge ring seems to work really well and it is SIMPLE.

INSIDE_TUN_LID.jpg
 
This is a pic of the plumbing on the boil kettle

KETTLE_AGAIN.jpg
 
On the boil kettle one tap or valve lets hot wort flow from the kettle to th pump and through the CFWC and the other tap lets boiling water from the HLT flow to the pump and on to the CFWC for the purpose of sanitising the system.
 
This is the March pump.
The valve on the right comes from the mash tun outlet and the tube on the right is from the boil kettle and of course as per the last pic the HLT as well.
One of the valves on the left is to allow the wort to be recirculated from the mash tun through the herms coil in the HLT and back into the mash and the other valve is to cause the flow of the wort from the boil kettle through the CFWC and into the fermenter.

PUMP_TAPS.jpg
 
This is a pic of the outlet pipe of the CFWC and if you zoom in and have a close look at it you will see some small holes that I have drilled down the tube to createw aeration of the cooled wort.
I did this by centrepunching the pipe and then drilled small holes in each centre punch dent on the outlet side or the bottom of each dent. This causes the wort to draw air as it runs passed each hole.

CFWC_OUTLET.jpg
 
Dicko

I like the sparge ring but how do you monitor the flow of the fly sparge so that the water stays above the grain bed...

Ken...
 
Here is a pic of the dip stick that I fitted permanently to the boil kettle.
It is a piece of flat aluminium and it is marked with cuts across at 5 litre intervals.
It gives a very good indication of the quantity in the kettle and one day I will mark it in one litre increments from thirty to fourty litres as this is the volume of most worts pre boil on my system.

KETTLE_MEASURE.jpg
 
These are the inlet and outlet pipes of the HERMS in the HLT.
I dont have pics of the hlt and all it tricks and bits but I will take some and post it here when I can

HERMS_INLET___OUTLET.jpg
 
Great dicko
You should post them in the gallery and build on as you get new pics

Mine will be there soon as the wife lets me delete some pics of the diggy
 
Hi Ken,
Your up late tonite!
What I do to get the correct flow is that when you start the first runnings into the kettle get a one litre jug and set the valve on the outlet of the mash tun to deliver 400mls per 30 seconds or no more than 1 litre per minute.
You have got plenty of time to do this because at this stage you should have about twenty litres of water or wort in the mash tun (15 litres for dough in and 5 litres for mash out).
Once you have set that flow you then lift the lid on the mash tun and slowly adjust the valve on the HLT to create the same flow or in other words to maintain the level in the mash tun. This is usually achieved in the first two or three minor adjustments and once achieved just put the lid back on and let it run until you have delivered the correct amount of sparge water to the mash tun.
When all the sparge water is delivered just turn the valve from the HLT to off and let the mash tun drain completely into the kettle.
The whole operation reminds me of what the Bishop said to the altar boy - " It is all in the feeling"
And once you get the feeling for your own system then you will gain confidence and each brew becomes easier than the last.
Good luck with your brew on the weekend Ken and I am sure that you will gain more confidence as you use and get used to your own system.

Cheers
 
wow, somebody is getting serious!!! nice stuff.
joe
 
Top work dicko. :)
The hoses' you have there are they very rigid when hot and work well?

Also when you tried batch sparging did you mix it up very very well?

Thanx for some pics. Keep them coming.
Cheers Jayse
 
Hi Jayse,
Those hoses are food grade and heat resistant ( can handle boiling temps no probs ) but unfortunately VERY expensive.
Unfortunately when you live in the country you cant see what you are getting until it arrives so if I did it again I would just use barbs and ordinary hose and save some money.
Yes Jayse I allways gave the mash a good stir on the second sparge and I cant work out where my points of efficiency went.
I have taken Batz's advice and put some photos and descriptions in the AHB Gallery for all to view. I have not finished the album yet but I will go and take some more pics and finish it off.
I hope the pics and the album are of some interest to any contemplating building a brewing system.
Cheers
 
dicko, love the CFC (exchanger)! Did you bend that copper up by hand and what did you bend it around? How hard was it to do (any special tools)? :unsure:

If I get my march pump I think I will copy this but extend it by putting a electric element in it so it will be my heater when I am circulating the mash .... that way I dont have to heat the whole HLT to move the temp just the smaller volume in the pipe. Thats looking like the current plan anyway.
 
Hi Jason Y,
I bent or more to the point, rolled, the copper pipe around a piece of 100mm PVC pipe to form the coil that will then fit inside the 150mm PVC pipe casing.
It was not hard at all and the only tools you will need are a drill to drill the holes for the bulkhead fittings that go through the outer casing and spanners ( shifters) to tighten it all up.
I used some silastic that is used on fish aquariums to seal the fittings through the 150mm pipe.
The pipe that is the HERMS coil was rolled around an 18 litre soda keg.
Hope this helps and let us know if you need any other info,
Cheers
 
Back
Top