Introducing Brewton

[angus_grant]

So have finished installing the cam-locks, stainless elbows, pump is wired up and working properly. Have fitted threaded rod. Pot has been sitting with water in it since Sunday morning and no leaks. I had minor leak through element holes which did not go into element control box which I have fixed and some final thread tape on bottom of threaded rod has resulted in a successful leak test.

Now onto carving up my Big W malt pipe and working on the bottom seal. I am figuring I will just get some short stainless bolts and get a folded food-grade silicon seal for the bottom. A 9" (or 12" if it fits) false bottom for the bottom filter which will be held down by some stainless bolts from the side of the malt pipe and I will be good to start testing the seals and pumping of water up and through the malt pipe. A voile filter for the top plate should hold the grain in. Get a stainless tube cross welded up to hold the filter plate on and I should then be good to start doing some test brews.

I have had to fall back on fermenting a toucan dark ale as I am down to one keg of DSGA left. Will be interesting going back to kit + bits to see what the taste difference will be.

 

[micbrew]

g day angus

reading this thread with huge interest , what size malt pipe are you using and im curious on how you intend to seal malt pipe

I using a 70L Pot and was thinking of using a 21L POT and looking at how to seal and construct :blink:
I scored some fine perforated mesh , but it may be to fine for the job
keep the photos of the build going , their giving me inspiration , which sometimes waines :huh: from time to time

cheers mick

 

[angus_grant]

At this stage I will be using a Big W 19L pot with the bottom cut out for my malt pipe. I need to start making beer so am thinking of using some silicon tubing cut in half to seal the bottom. All the bottom seal will be for is to stop (limit?) water flow out into the main pot so it is forced up through the grain.

I am going to be using a false bottom as my filter plate so that will stop the grain from escaping through the bottom during pump rests.

That's my idea at the moment. Not tested yet so it may not even work. he he Hopefully more work this weekend although I am looking after my little fella all of Saturday so that will limit things.

 

[micbrew]

g day angus

I followed the masses and coughed up for Big W 19L POT ...AWESOME value for the $$ , picking up some skin fittings as well ...I will be using the LBP PUMP hope this will suffice :huh:
I'm using quick connects on the pump for ease ,

now the fun begins with trying to fabricate legs for the malt pipe ... I think I need to raise the pot approx. 60 >>>80 mmm
to clear the elements ( 2 x keg king type )
toying with the idea of all thread being centred (WELDED ) in my malt pipe so that I don't need to drill my 70L pot
and allowing the filters to be held securely

any thoughts on my ideas muchly appreciated

cheers mick

 

[angus_grant]

Lots of guys have simply used long stainless bolts through pot (or to keep bag off elements in BIAB setups) to raise pot off elements. A nut inside the malt pipe, a nut on the bottom of the malt pipe and the bolt heads rests on the floor of your 70L. Make sure they are stainless though as you may get chemical reactions between metal types with any other types of metal bolts.

If you want to avoid drilling holes in your 70L then you are limited to the ball-valve for recirculation and tube outside to feed in top of pot down to inlet in your malt pipe. You could feed this in through side of malt pipe and then silicon tube to false bottom as per normal setups. I don't have enough experience to say that you could simply feed the recirc'd wort straight into the malt pipe and it would then flow evenly through grain and up through your top filter. I would doubt it though.

I toyed with the idea of not having a threaded rod at all but a clamp-type system running from the handles of the main pot and squashing the malt pipe down onto the main pot. Given that you are using tubing to recirculate (and no longer need to clamp the malt pipe to your 70L pot to seal) you might be able to use the clamping idea for your top filter. I got some stainless hatch locks to use for this idea

Something along these lines: https://www.whitworths.com.au/main_itemdetail.asp?item=42120&search123=hatch&intAbsolutePage=1

I'm not sure how the very thin Big W pot would hold up to welding... Not very well I would think.

So in short,

• stainless bolts as legs to raise malt pipe off heating elements
• Recirc through ball valve and then tubing up into main pot and fitting on side of malt pipe to connect to silicon tubing which runs to false bottom inside malt pipe. You would need the side fitting as your filters will be clamped in place
• Clamping the filters would be easily achieved if you can weld threaded rod to the Big W pot, otherwise you are looking at clamping-type solutions.
• You may not even have to clamp your malt pipe to the main pot given you are using tubing to recirc

Hope this is understandable....

 

[micbrew]

hmmm yeah

with the allthread I could have this welded to s/steel flat bar ...larger than the diameter of the pot ... that will work
drop filter into pot .... grain ..... filter .... flat bar....wing nut hey presto
and yeah will probably adapt and use those s/steel eye bolts ..did these also come from witworths ??

wing nut
I ...allthread
........i........ ........................... filter w/ flat bar
l l l
l l l
l l l
l l l
l l l
l........l...... .l ........................ filter
-l----- l-------l--- flat bar ....only held toegether by pressure fom either end ..ie flat bar ...top & bottom


I will use the skin fittings you have also used in the 70L POT for recirc ..

thx so much for putting up your build in been a great source of info for me

cheers mick

 

[angus_grant]

Well some more time dedicated to Brewton. I ended up using some 1/2" silicon tubing and a short section of 8mm tubing. I tested the seal for about 10 minutes and no leaks through the silicon seal. I must have tweaked the seals on the threaded rod because I ended up getting a leak through the bottom of the threaded rod.

Some photos:

I savagely hacked out the bottom of the malt pipe. It was a bit late to continue using the grinder so I used some tin snips. I will tidy this up this week.

The circle of 1/2" silicon tubing.

You can just see the join in this photo. Quite a neat join together. I have yet to test it under pressure.

You can see the 8mm joining tubing inside the 1/2" silicon tubing. I did try using some 10mm tubing but this left to great a step in the silicon tubing and I got some leaks. The 8mm tube seems to hold the 1/2" tubing together but does not actually cause a step in the tubing.

 

[Simdop]

Bought the chugger from the new Australian distributor: www.chugger.com.au. The website has both the inline and centre inlet. And 230V obviously although I still asked the question. he he

I'm yet to use the pump yet, but it certainly feels like a beast compared to the little brown pumps I have been using.

Hopefully this week and slightly possible this weekend will see a fair bit of work being done to Brewton. The weekend after is free at the moment so I hopefully should have all the parts procured by then and matter of drilling holes and bolting things on. Even the recirculating pump mounted on the bottom will really help out with the ramping speed as I will be able to have the lid sealing the pot completely. Will make things cleaner having the pump plumbed into the pot instead of silicon hose running off the tap and up outside the pot. My little fellow shouldn't be able to reach the silicon pipe but that is 66 degree liquid flowing through there.

This may be an obvious question but why'd you go for the inline pump vs the centre inlet?

 

[angus_grant]

The chugger centre inlet is a 3/4" thread and the inline is all 1/2". So I didn't really fancy the idea of having 1/2" threads through-out the whole system except one spot.

Apparently the centre inlets can be a little prone to air-locks and cavitation problems if not primed corectly.

And I seem to recall (not that this is really that important to my system) that the centre inlet has a slightly lower pumping rate.

 

[grimpanda]

Hey Angus,

Good progress on the project.

How are you finding the 2400w element that you bought? No issues with scorching wort etc I take it?

Do you know what the total length of the element is?

Cheers,
Gabe

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

Hey angus did you stick the tube on with something or do you just place it and let the pressure hold it?

 

[angus_grant]

Hey Angus,

Good progress on the project.

How are you finding the 2400w element that you bought? No issues with scorching wort etc I take it?

Do you know what the total length of the element is?
Cheers,
Gabe

The 2400W element has not scorched any wort yet. I did have to add a domed lid to decrease surface area to get a good rolling boil. Other people have simply floated a pie tin or something on the wort itself. The 2400W element doesn't provide enough grunt for a decent boil by itself in my 40cm diameter pot. However most normal homebrewing pots are narrow and high, where-as mine is fairly square (40cm diameter * 38cm height). Not quite sure on the height.

As a rough guess I reckon the length of the element is about 250cms. I had the element built and pre-bent for me by a place in Springwood, so no idea on the actual length of the element.

Hey angus did you stick the tube on with something or do you just place it and let the pressure hold it?

The internal 8mm joining tube is an interference fit.

If you are referring to the silicon tubing at the moment it is just clamping pressure from the malt pipe. I was thinking about bolting the tube through the malt pipe to the bottom filter to hold everything in place. I am now thinking about cutting very small slots in the bottom of a Big W pot as the bottom filter. One less thing to try and anchor and seal against grain. I think QldKev has done similar with his one vessel system.

 

[angus_grant]

sheesh, this build is taking ages.

I booked out a day from my Xmas holidays to do man-stuff and have now got the malt pipe clamping down to the main boil pot. So I will have to finish cutting out the bottom to my malt pipe as the bit I cut out with tin snips has now rusted. he he.

I also hooked up the pump and the bottom seal idea works well. No water leaked through into the main pot whilst the flow control ball valve on the pump was shut off. Water recirculates when the pump is switched on so I think I have finished this part as well.

I have also dug out some stainless mesh I bought off someone at some point. It is the perfect size to seal the bottom of the malt pipe so I will need to work out how to clamp this to the bottom of the malt pipe.

I have attached a video of the system in progress. I am hoping that the stainless mesh down the bottom will distribute the liquid a little more evenly as it seems to just jet straight upwards from the skin fitting to the top.

Progress is again being made. I am hoping to get this finished in the next couple of weeks and knock out a batch of beer.

Cheers,
Angus.

View attachment IMG_2511.MOV

 

[angus_grant]

So time for a 2 monthly update. I drilled a crap load of holes in a spare Big W pot and I'll do my first test run through this as my malt pipe. Seems like a simple solution but will have to run a couple of brews through and see how things go. Efficiency wise and flow rates, etc.

Will do a LRG cascading out of this galaxy APA. I have done this beer twice as a BIAB so have a basic expectation.

jpg]

 

[angus_grant]

I still have the other Big W pot I cut the bottom out of and at some point will build the mounting system for the stainless mesh to test out that design as well. Or I may do it earlier because the drilled holes design is a failure. No-one else building brau-clones has done it this way that I know of, so perhaps there is a reason.

Here's to hoping no grist falls out the holes during pump rests. **fingers crossed**

Don't think I'll get to doing a test this weekend but perhaps a quick mash test and throw out the liquid next week some time. Maybe a brew day in 2 Sunday's time........ :blink:

Better do some research on sparging. Haven't done it yet as have been doing full mash BIABs up until now.

 

[angus_grant]

Some more progress on the malt pipe. I have got the seal for the bottom working well although this now requires a major re-think. As does the bottom filtering of the grains. The holes I drilled are letting through a bit too much of the smaller crushed grains.

So I have some re-thinking to do:

• top filter is working well so I think I can tick that off the list
• bottom filter is not working too well. It is letting through a bit too much crushed grain and husk for my liking. There is a possibility of extracting off-flavours from grain husks during the boil
• Another major problem is with the clamping system. The seal is not fixed to the bottom of the malt pipe so it is not possible to mash in properly. The seal will float off from the spot I need whilst mashing and stirring up the grain to avoid "dough-balls" (grain clumping together due to liquid).

So it looks like I am back to the bottom filter and seal system which I had thought at first. I have some stainless mesh which I will fix to the bottom of the malt pipe with some small stainless bolts. I will also cut the silicon tube in half and fix this with the same bolts running up through the tube, through the malt pipe, an then through the mesh and then fixing into a ring of stainless steel. This should provide a nice sealing and filtering system.
Kath has sewn up a filter cloth for the top filter plate which is working brilliantly.

Pump turned on and pushing liquid up through the small amount of grain

A shot of the water after the malt pipe has been pulled out. Mental note: add the eye-bolts to the new inner pot)

A shot of the bottom of the main pot after liquid has been drained. Probably a little too much grain and husks in the bottom which would remain in th epot for the full boil period. I think I need to re-think the bottom filter system

 

[Dan Pratt]

Can you put viola screen over the base filter aswell?

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Angus what if you got a piece of silicone sheet and cut out your own seal with a good overlap on the inside and outside of the malt pipe, as for the filter at the bottom just get some stainless mesh cut it to size and punch a hole in the centre.Would that work for you?

 

[Yob]

what an epic train ride reading this thread this morning, kept me well entertained.

:beerbang:

 

[angus_grant]

The current model of malt pipe has about 35,000 little drill holes so not really possible to put a voile filter over it.

I can't really use a silicon sheet as I have two skinless fittings for pump inlet and outlet which protrude into the main pot. They are about 8mm high so too high for a silicon sheet seal. I will cut some small holes in the current tubing seal (which is working well) so I can feed a stainless bolt through and up into the malt pipe.

I have two circles of stainless mesh that I bought off an AHB user way back. My next attempt will be to do exactly what legless has suggested. Punch a hole in the middle of the mesh and bolt the mesh to the malt pipe. I'll have to get a circle of stainless steel to hold the mesh down at all points.

Yob, I wonder if I have the record for longest AHB build to never actually produce beer yet. 1st July 2012 was my first post, although I was able to do 5 or 6 BIABs whilst doing some software work. Although there was that guy who was going to 3D print his system though. Whatever happened to that??? he he

 

[angus_grant]

I have also wondered about the gap on my grain mill as it was set for BIAB and perhaps too fine a crush. I got fairly good efficiency (75%) without really trying too hard for numbers with BIAB so would like to keep the gap the same.

I think that will be a last resort.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

I could see the inlet outlet of the vessel, you could cut out the silicone to suit, alternatively check out eBay for silicone pressure cooker seals they are cheap and may have a size that will suit keeping in mind that they will stretch a bit.

 

[angus_grant]

Well I finally knuckled down and got some solid work done on the malt pipe. I think I have a very good solution to the bottom filter and the bottom seal. I will be doing a grain test later this week to see if I have solved the problem of grain blowback during pump rests or withdrawing the malt pipe.
Read on for the photos and descriptions of the assembly.

Feeding the mounting bolts through the silicon tube which is the bottom seal.

Edit: thought I might have to explain this more. So I have drilled some holes in the tubing. I then put the bolt and washer in the tube and used left over 12mm threaded rod to force the bolt through to near the hole. I then "bent" the tubing over so the bolt was forced to pop out of the drilled hole. Straighten it up and voila: only 6 holes in the tubing and with the internal washer should provide a good seal to the malt pipe.

I drilled 6 holes through the silicon tube for the bolts to feed through up through the Big W pot and then through the mesh. The whole assembly then bolts together as the seal and bottom filter assembly
All the bolts fed trough the silicon tubing and sticking out ready for feeding through the Big W pot.

Bottom of the Big W pot with the holes drilled for the mounting bolts plus the thousands of little holes for recirculating water flow. I am hoping between the holes in the malt pipe and the fairly tight weave of the stainless mesh, it should force the liquid in a fairly even flow through the malt pipe and not just channel straight up from the skin fitting.

Bolts fed through the Big W pot and through the stainless mesh filter. Hopefully I won't need to manufacture a stainless metal ring to clamp down on the mesh to seal it.

As long as the mesh is strong enough to withstand the flow upwards during mashing it should be good.

Nuts on the mounting bolts. Once I have done a grain test I will cut these bolts down to be a lot shorter and not protrude so much

Bottom seal mounted to the malt pipe. I have already tested sealing of this tube setup so am confident of how it is going to perform.

Stainless hanging points for lifting the malt pipe out when finished mashing.

I am still yet to work out how to hang the malt pipe above the main pot to drain mash liquid out and also drain the sparge water.

So now that the malt pipe is coming to a conclusion (hopefully) I can start working on the extended malt pipe tube for higher gravity beers. I think I'll have a max grain bill of about 6kgs and that would be pushing the system. It might be time to save up a bit of money and get a malt pipe custom-built for the higher gravity beers. I do enjoy big Imperial stouts, IPAs, Belgians, etc. And I think it is too close to system limitations with min water levels, etc to brew smaller batches with the higher grain bills required.

But first things first: I need to start knocking out some AG beers. The kits just aren't doing it for me. The saison I have been making is quite nice but there is just a depth of flavour or something missing. I suppose I could always rewire what will be my HLT and do some extract brews if I have to fix some more major problems with the malt pipe.

 

[angus_grant]

I just remembered I still have about 4 hours software work to do. Better nail that out this week if I am to do a test run this Sunday.

'er indoors permitting of course...

oh, and do some research on sparging. I have only done full-volume BIAB so far.

 

[lukiferj]

Looks good man. Let us know how you go on the weekend. Keen to see this bad boy in action.

 

[angus_grant]

You and me both!!!

I don't actually need to get the software done by this weekend. Just means the process will be a little more automated (pump breaks, etc) and I can pretty up the interface a little (my glaring weakness is UI design)

 

[angus_grant]

Well the weekend has come and gone and I didn't do the maiden brew. Spent Saturday morning grabbing my 2 KK stainless growlers which are freaking awesome.... :icon_drool2:
Sunday was spent tidying up the shed and getting things organised.

Did manage to get the grain test done Saturday night and things look a lot better. Bit of flour in the bottom and a few bits of grain. The hole I poked in my voile filter for the threaded rod is expanding so I need to get it hemmed. Looks like things are ready for a test brew. Am toying with the idea of a "school night" APA, but will probably wait until Friday night and do a normal brew. Will set it all up in the morning and set my timer to automatically start heating up to mash temps at 5PM so it is ready to go when I get home. Mash in, get the boy bathed and fed and into bed. Then onto mash-out and the boil. Hopefully finish up around 9:30 or so. If that is achievable, then I could get away with week day brewing.

A shot of the bottom of the main pot once I pulled out the inner pot. I'll run with the mill gap I have currently although it is set for BIAB. Hopefully won't get a stuck sparge or too much crud left in the main pot after mash is complete.

I can always increase the gap a bit for the next run.

 

[angus_grant]

Well planning on a maiden brew this Friday night. Will set auto-timer to start heating water at 5:30, so hopefully mash in at 6:15. This should see mash out at 7:20 or so when boy has gone to bed and we are on adult time. I'm hoping to have cubed and washed up by 9:30.

Done some reading on sparging, but still a bit hazy on it. Oh well, dive in!! I think I'll have 25L strike water and 12L sparge water at 94 degrees. Or that's what I've come up with tweaking numbers in the BrewMate brew day form.

Doing a "Smash the Cascade": a recipe I developed myself but am absolutely positive it is no way a unique recipe. Need to check the AA% of my pound of cascade at home, and adjust the g/L ratio to get me at around 35IBU. Am thinking about toasting some malt to add a bit more flavour, but then I am not sure if it still qualifies as a smash.

Smash the Cascade(American Pale Ale)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.053 (°P): 13.1
Final Gravity (FG): 1.013 (°P): 3.3
Alcohol (ABV): 5.21 %
Colour (SRM): 5.1 (EBC): 10.0
Bitterness (IBU): 34.2 (Average - No Chill Adjusted)

100% 5.5kg BB Pilsener (pale malt)

1.1 g/L Cascade (7.8% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.4 g/L Cascade (7.8% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil)
0.5 g/L Cascade (7.8% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil)


Single step Infusion at 66°C for 60 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes

Fermented at 20°C with Safale US-05


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

 

[angus_grant]

Well I ended up doing a CItra smash tonight.

Citra Smash (American Pale Ale)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.053 (°P): 13.1
Final Gravity (FG): 1.013 (°P): 3.3
Alcohol (ABV): 5.21 %
Colour (SRM): 5.1 (EBC): 10.0
Bitterness (IBU): 40.6 (Average - No Chill Adjusted)

100% Pale Ale Malt

0.7 g/L Citra (13.5% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.4 g/L Citra (13.5% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil)
0.4 g/L Citra (13.5% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil)


Single step Infusion at 66°C for 60 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes

Fermented at 20°C with Safale US-05


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

 

[angus_grant]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xos2MnVxe-c