Introducing Brewton

[angus_grant]

Hey Kev,

Thanks for the suggestion. I am following a topic where Florian talks about doing an overnight mash but hasn't responded to someone's question about more details. I think I will still need to do a few more brews to make sure my mash programme all works correctly.

That would certainly make a brew day a lot more palatable to my wife than writing off an entire morning.

I ended up waking up at 5:45 anyways and couldn't get back to sleep so went down and watch the temp rise to mash temp anyways.... :blink:

Thanks,
Angus.

 

[angus_grant]

Ooohh, back on the brau-clone pathway.

Toys ordered:

threaded rod, and various nuts and bolts to attach to pot. Am worried how my drill and bits are going to handle getting through the plate on the bottom of the pot.

And the big buy of the system: 230V inline Chugger pump. Has a stainless head and a bracket all included in the original purchase price.

So will be getting some more work done on the brau-clone in the next few weeks. I have 11L of Belgian Triple, a 20L batch of Lord Nelson has almost finished fermenting, and I then have a batch of DSGA to ferment. So I will have 2 & 1/2 kegs to get this system working. he he

 

[grimpanda]

Shaping up nicely Angus.

Did you buy the Chugger pump direct from the manufacturer? If so was it a custom order?
The only 230v pump I can see from them has a centre inlet.

Cheers,
Gabe

 

[angus_grant]

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.

 

[angus_grant]

Well I finally got some solid time to work on my beer system. I purchased a pump about a month ago and hooked up some bits I purchased about a year ago.

So I have to finish off the malt pipe and then about 5 hours of software work and I should be able to crank out some beers.

A shot of the camlocks underneath the pot. The central camlock will be the pathway for the recirculating wort to enter into the system.

The chugger pump with the camlocks hooked up. The outlet of the pump has the ball valve to throttle down the flow rate if necessary.

The chugger pump hooked up to the camlocks. I will shorten the silicon tubing up before using the system to minimise heat loss.

I will also look at insulating the tubing as well to minimise heat loss.

A close-up of the central camlock and the very dodgy pine stand I whacked out in about 30 minutes.

A full shot of the system.

Please disregard the dodgy pine stand. I will be getting a friend to weld up a metal stand and add a touch of professionalism to the system. he he

I have done a leak test with the cam locks joined straight together and the only leaking was from the main ball-valve. I had run out of thread tape but thought I would run the leak test anyway. Off to Bunnings for some thread tape during the week and finalise the plumbing after another leak test.

Some really good progress this week.

Now onto the malt pipe which is going to be the challenge of the entire system. The sealing and also the bottom filter locating are going to be the key challenges for this phase.

 

[djar007]

I love those camlocks. Where did you source those? Been meaning to tidy up my plumbing with some and just starting the search for them now. Purple pig is an option but hoping for something cheaper.

 

[angus_grant]

Got all the plumbing gear from CraftBrewer. I had read some threads about Chinese camlocks not fitting correctly and was a bit wary purchasing over the Internet/eBay/etc..

I had chosen the camlocks at CB and paid for them. I happened to test a couple of them and they were really hard to lock out. Felt like I was going to snap the handles. I could see the marks on the hose tails where the locks didn't quite fit in properly.

I swapped them all around and selected some ones that fitted together nicely. I didn't get an itemised receipt, but seem to remember about $15 for the cam-lock hose tail. Spent about $80 for the 3 camlock sockets and 3 hose tails. I liked getting a female socket which would screw straight onto the pump to reduce number of fittings when I pull it all apart to clean.

 

[djar007]

Great. I will go and have a look now. Thanks. I use four inch cam locks at work and they are usually a bugger to get on. I find putting one arm on a little. Then the other a little. Then I find a rock to bash them on. Love the build so far btw.

 

[angus_grant]

CB only have 2 types of the camlock fittings on their website, even though they have 1/2" female sockets, 1/2" male sockets, caps, tail ends, male and female ends, etc, etc, etc. Basically about 3 metres of shelving with camlock fittings. Don't know why they don't have it all listed on their site.

4" cam lock fittings. :-O That's pretty big stuff...

 

[QldKev]

Get your camlocks from T&S Valves (no affiliation), excellent quality and about half the cost of other retailers

 

[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