Double Batch Brewery Upgrade

[browndog]

Hi Brewers,
Thanks to a post on the Ebay thread I managed to pick up a nest of big S/S pots for $159, noticing that the largest one (80L) had a couple of scratches in the base, I was given another one, then managed to score the scratched one for $40 yippee.........The pots are chinese and quite thin, but they will do the job and they look good. For the mash tun, I'm going to have a 44L pot inside the larger one with the space invader type foam for insulation. I'm looking forward to building this one after learning the do's and don'ts I'll post more pics as the plumbing comes together.





Cheers

Browndog

 

[winkle]

Browndog, my local camping store has some of them (I think they are the same). I just got back from there after filling up the gas bottle. I checked them out (40,60,80 litre from memory), a 80 litre round esky and a Nasa - before SWMBO twigged and said "No way" <_< .
In the fullness of time, these object will start mysteriously appearing...

Looks great BTW.
Interesting to see how the thin base copes with a nasa.

 

[randyrob]

Hey Browndog,

good to see, the world is your urinal mash tun!

a few of us guys in the west have simular pots. one word of warning about those 'coke can' pots is make sure you thoroughly dry them after use as they can rust on the seams and they ding quite easily so go light handed with the mash paddle or kettle spoon

other than that you'll never look back you've got a dead set bargain and you'll be a happy camper for a long time to come

Rob.

 

[Ross]

a few of us guys in the west have simular pots. one word of warning about those 'coke can' pots is make sure you thoroughly dry them after use as they can rust on the seams and they ding quite easily so go light handed with the mash paddle or kettle spoon

Rob.

Rob - Have you tried passivating the seams? If they turn rusty when allowed to dry naturally I'd be seriously worried about brewing in them :unsure:
Great score though Tony :super:

cheers Ross

 

[mika]

The cheapo 'stainless' pots I bought were actually magnetic :huh: After buying three of those, that are still sitting in a shed slowly going rusty, I came across 3 more suitable vessels and life is good. As with most things, YMMV.

 

[pablo_h]

To the guys in WA, where did you get your large pots from?

I saw the set on ebay, but shipping was $65, and I didn't want to take the risk on the pots being crap with that kind of postage cost.

 

[Sammus]

Whats it matter if they are magnetic? I have a lot of stainless thats magntic...

 

[mika]

My set was from 'Kongs', basically a local asian supermarket. Had some asian scribble on the sticker, but I don't recall what the brand was.

 

[mika]

Whats it matter if they are magnetic? I have a lot of stainless thats magntic...

See if a magnet sticks to your beer kegs. There's a special type of proper stainless that is magnetic, anything else is likely to be not-so-stainless if a magnet can stick to it.

 

[Sammus]

Whats "Proper stainlness"? As far as I know, there are lots of different grades of stainless, all proper depending on your requirements. 50L kegs for instance have different kind of steel for the barrel and the collar. A magnet will stick to the collar, but not to the barrel (where the beer is stored). Also, I read recently that any cookware suitable for use on an induction cooktop is magnetc (well, not magnetic, but a magnet sticks to it), and there is a lot of high quality stainless cookware out there claiming suitability for induction cooktops.

 

[browndog]

Just tried mine with a magnet and it does not stick so I guess it is stainless of some description. Here's a pic of the sticker on them



Had a bit of a go boiling up 50L of water and seems like I have to crank the nasa right up to get a good boil going. I may have to look at an insulating jacker for the kettle.

cheers

Browndog

 

[mika]

Stainless

It's the martensitic stainless steels that are magnetic and as explained in the link above they are less corrosion resistant.
It's been a while since I did my metallurgy courses, but it would seem that the 'high quality stainless' cookware is made out of a tougher/harder stainless to resist wear. But then you're not buying 'high quality stainless' cookware for $10 at your local Bi-Lo

All I can say is that the cheapo pots I bought were magnetic, seemed very flimsy and rusted very easily.

Browndog - One thing I found with these pots on my NASA in initial trials was that they seemed to need some space from the burner. The standard NASA frame had the burner too close and by moving it away by ~25mm the burner was able to run a lot better and heating performance improved.

 

[browndog]

Been a long time since I posted on my progress as there has not been any, but that will change soon. I've been slowly purchasing all the bits needed to build this rig and seeing all the great new rigs being built has me inspired. I've decided to build a whole new rig from scratch and currently I'm looking into hard plumbing it in stainless. Here is the plumbing schematic I've come up with, if anyone can point out any possible problems with it, I'd appreciate it.



cheers

Browndog

 

[Sammus]

So to chill would you be recircularting it through your chiller back into the kettle? I think you would want to just drain it through the chiller to the fermentor.

Apart from that, it looks OK, but you won't be able to fly sparge without adding a teir or a second pump

 

[jagerbrau]

i have to similar pots, both non magnetic, beerbelly welded sockets for me and said were more painfull to weld than most stainless. Hmmm not quality im guessing. Im only going to use as HLT and Mash tun and get Beerbelly Kettle. I have used one of these 50L pots (that only hold 45L) as kettle and did get some scorching on bottom if had on italian spiral up to high. But as said only got till save up for the 70L kettle...



No affiliation etc etc....

 

[browndog]

So to chill would you be recircularting it through your chiller back into the kettle? I think you would want to just drain it through the chiller to the fermentor.

Apart from that, it looks OK, but you won't be able to fly sparge without adding a teir or a second pump

Yep, my idea is to chill back into the kettle, then whirlpool and drain to the fermenter eliminating some of the cold break. I'm a out and out batch sparger so fly sparging is not an issue for me Sammus

Jagerbrau, I tried my nasa on one of the pots when I first got them, they are just too thin to use with a gas burner IMHO.

cheers

Browndog

 

[Bribie G]

For the mash tun, seeing as you are using a double pot setup, have you considered taking a leaf out of the old Yorkshire Stone Square system (I know that's a fermenter, but this is going somewhere.... ) and actually fill the space between the inner and outer with mash temperature water, or even better water a couple of degrees warmer? With a temp probe if the water jacket falls below a certain point then drain some out of the bottom (you would need to drill a tap for the outer pot) and refill from top.

I used a water bath method when I did mini mashes and it worked well. In fact if you additionally lag the outer pot I would bet you wouldn't need more than one top up for a one hour mash and would give a far more stable temp in the inner pot than just lagging the gap between the two pots. It would also give you a good temperature-maintenance system for doing 90 minute or even 2 hour mashes.

The gap would be easily obtained with plastic spacers in the base and if accurately placed, the 'side' gap would take care of itself.

 

[TidalPete]

Been a long time since I posted on my progress as there has not been any, but that will change soon. I've been slowly purchasing all the bits needed to build this rig and seeing all the great new rigs being built has me inspired. I've decided to build a whole new rig from scratch and currently I'm looking into hard plumbing it in stainless. Here is the plumbing schematic I've come up with, if anyone can point out any possible problems with it, I'd appreciate it.

View attachment 26269

cheers

Browndog

Tony,

All that talk about hard plumbing in stainless is turning me as green as grass. :icon_cheers:
This will be a great setup once you get it finished & hope I can make it to the inaugural brewday?
My only criticism (If you could call it that?) is that your HE seems to be a little on the small side. I find mine a little big at 10 litres so I reckon 7 litres would be good? I take it that it will be custom made?

TP

 

[browndog]

Hi Pete,
I'm making the HE out of a 5kg fire extinguisher with an element sticking up though the bottom. The coils will be no more than an inch or so away from the element for its full length, should make for fairly rapid increase in temperature. The plumging should look the ducks nuts when it is done. I'm just pricing a 1/2" BSPF parallel thread button die to tap the pipes for fittings. My biggest hurdle is that the Boss is expecting me to do some extensive rennos to the front of the house, I'm trying to figure how I can do both the new rig and renno simultaneously In any case I can't see it being completed till the end of the year, no rush as I already have a fairly decent system.

Bribie,
I originally considered a jacketed tun and discussed this with Chappo, in another thread of his, I've given my reasons for sticking to an insulated tun.

cheers

Browndog

 

[winkle]

The only problem that I can see will be ya missus whinging about the cost of the stainless (and everything else that sparkles) .
Sayes me, currently tip toeing around an upgrade to a gravity fed double batch system B) .