Me New Brewin Rig

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sim

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Well, these things dont build themselves... thought i might share the journey in photos. I'd been dickin around with tables and lifting bits, using a pump here or there, and a pallet and sheet of metal to avoid melting the lino. The brew frame was beckoning...

bits

looked a lot at the brutus build before deciding i didnt want to plumb the gas, and that i wanted the horizontal parts of the frame to sit on top of the legs, not joined beside them (hope that makes sense).

the plan (upside down)

i'd never welded before, but set myself the challenge. Arc welding. Felt like a complete nong head for the first few efforts. More reading, more practise, more reading, more practise, and a few grinding discs later and i was feeling like i was totally on top of it! Joining, and making shapes with metal is a totally awesome and eye opening experience. I recommend it!

taking shape
 
Love your work Sim! Where did you source the metal from?
 
So got everything in welded up and solid, re did some terrible ones, and made sure i was happy with it all. Then spent an afternoon getting neurotic with the grinder. Nice flat top and no lump bits.

cold gal coat

Gave it a few coats of Pot Belly Black in the heat sensitive areas, and worked a bit of a sooty kettle theme in there.

Drilled in a few holes to mound the pumps, and included 4 or 5 extra washers for each top set of holes so that the pumps tilt forward and drain (somewhat). I couldn't find U-Bolts big enough in stainless to fit the ring burners id been using already, so the local steel fab shop zipped up some little sheets with a hole here and there. They're nice and stable.

Brewstand
 
Love your work Sim! Where did you source the metal from?

Russ All on Pickering st, Enoggera. Have been really well looked after by Terry. He has been very encouraging, and tolerant dealing wit the public (pesky brewer with a few daft ideas no less). Fairly cheap steel from what i can gather (first time buyer) if you pay with hard.
 
Good stuff Sim! What size vessels you planning on using ? When are you breaking it in ?
Keep the pictures coming, I'm also keen on hearing more about the final setup. Certainly looking good.
 
Its a fine looking stand.
But I do think youre asking for trouble orienting your March Pumps that way, you really want the outlet to be the highest part of the pump so as it fills it gets all the air out of the pump, you could have some priming problems with you configuration.
Mark
 
Post some more pics up Sim, I know the vessels are already there.

Looking at your brewery makes me want to build one myself. You can never have enough breweries, right?
 
WOW!
and i thought mine was cool. :unsure:
IMG_7945.jpg
 
So, it had taken waay to long up untill this point, i had to ban myself from brewing till it was all done as motivation. Things progressed quickly enough once i did that, with a few painstaking hiccups as i neared the maiden voyage, namely: i thought i'd cured the Pot Belly Black heat paint well enough, but it fumed up so bad i thought i was going to die! So, i spent another afternoon just burning gas to make sure. There really should be more of a warning on the can.

the setup 75litre Kettle, 48litre Mash-tun, 80litre HLT. 40 litre batches

Up until now i'd never had an "active" HLT, id always just transfered my sparge water to a cut open rogue keg (failed mash-tun idea) to free up the Kettle. This old habit is still holding on; Theres an immersion chiller which doubles quite reasonably as a herms, and at the moment he lives in the kettle and doesnt move all brew day. I dont mind it that way, the hot coil stays put, in Kettle for the whole boil, but it means i still end up pumping sparge water from Kettle to HLT.

coil in boil

I'd been keen on this idea for ages now, and was encouraged seeing DonBurke doing it. Herms wise i still need to get some thermometer control on the Mash-tun exit, inlet and Kettle, but its fine enough running blind for ramping after the initial sac rest.

ins and outs

brewin. So i've brewed maybe 4 times on the new set up, and loving it.

A few things are a bit dinky and i'll amend - like the compression fittings on the coil, and the holes in the lid - might make the holes into cut out strips. Also the bands holding the coil together could be less wide - i suspect its frigging the whirlpool up a bit.

Now im scraping the barrel for beer to drink whoa, but soon to tuck into a Black IPA and a 1469 Amber. Running down the stocks of beer can be good in a way, i hate having tired old beer sitting around taking up space. :icon_cheers:
 
It's a fine looking stand.
But I do think you're asking for trouble orienting your March Pumps that way, you really want the outlet to be the highest part of the pump so as it fills it gets all the air out of the pump, you could have some priming problems with you configuration.
Mark

I bleed them into a jug before turning them on, its been working alright so far. Maybe i could put them upside down from how they are now. Thanks Mark.
 
Sim, get that power board off the floor as well, wort and power boards "your gonna have a bad time"

looks great
 
Sim, get that power board off the floor as well, wort and power boards "your gonna have a bad time"

looks great

Thanks, good point. Thought i might zip-tie it verticaly to the front right leg.
 
Sim - that's a work of f***** art!

That's pretty much exactly what I plan to build. I was thinking using 25x50 box section instead of square with the hope that it would be cheaper...

Are you going to put casters on it?
 
Your build looks great. How much was the steel for the frame?

Also, I was trying to track where the plumbing goes and I got lost. I dunno if that's me or what, can you explain how you've routed it? And finally, how do you chill if you're using the chiller as a herms?

Cheers
 
Thanks Parks. I think box frame looks nice. Its absolutely overkill in this instance - 50x50x3mm, the thing weighs a ton. Wouldnt mind castors, but it doesnt need to move much so meh, i like the solid look.

paid a little over a hundred for steel. Next time i'd do it in stainless me thinks.

Hando, the plumbing moves around somewhat, but losely speaking the right pump is for malt liquor (mash recirc, whirlpool, and final transfer to carbouys) the left pump is for water (moving sparge water, chiller water). The "brewin" pic below is sparging and transfer to Kettle. The sparge water goes through the herms coil then into the Mash-Tun to flush, and normally the line out of the right pump would go straight into the Kettle ball valve. oh and from left to right: HLT, Mash-tun, Kettle.

Chilling with this 6mm s/s coil is slower than when i had 10mm copper chiller. But so far it goes:
25litres room temp water, slow whirlpool (20mins)
25litres 2c water, fast whirlpool (20mins)
25litres 2c water, no whirlpool (20 mins)
Down to 22c. Would be quicker if i blasted mains pressure tap water first, and this with using an ice slurry for the last 25litres and it can go to 14c, though ive only brewed one lager on it so far.

Im not too concerned about an hour to chill, this suits me at that time of the day (having a beer, getting fermentors into gear, cleaning up).
 
Thanks Parks. I think box frame looks nice. Its absolutely overkill in this instance - 50x50x3mm, the thing weighs a ton. Wouldnt mind castors, but it doesnt need to move much so meh, i like the solid look.

paid a little over a hundred for steel. Next time i'd do it in stainless me thinks.

Hando, the plumbing moves around somewhat, but losely speaking the right pump is for malt liquor (mash recirc, whirlpool, and final transfer to carbouys) the left pump is for water (moving sparge water, chiller water). The "brewin" pic below is sparging and transfer to Kettle. The sparge water goes through the herms coil then into the Mash-Tun to flush, and normally the line out of the right pump would go straight into the Kettle ball valve. oh and from left to right: HLT, Mash-tun, Kettle.

Chilling with this 6mm s/s coil is slower than when i had 10mm copper chiller. But so far it goes:
25litres room temp water, slow whirlpool (20mins)
25litres 2c water, fast whirlpool (20mins)
25litres 2c water, no whirlpool (20 mins)
Down to 22c. Would be quicker if i blasted mains pressure tap water first, and this with using an ice slurry for the last 25litres and it can go to 14c, though ive only brewed one lager on it so far.

Im not too concerned about an hour to chill, this suits me at that time of the day (having a beer, getting fermentors into gear, cleaning up).

nice work sim,

any reason you stop whirlpooling the for the last batch of cooling water ? i would have thought that you would benefit from moving the wort around for the full duration of the chilling

also, i believe the coil aids in the whirlpool, having the trub settle inside the coil where it is less prone to disturbance

is it 16m of coil you have in there ? are you using the march pump to pump all your cooling water through ? if so, what flow rate are you getting ?

what about the flow rate of wort through the coil when recirculating ? are you getting good ramp temps ?
 
I stop the whirlpool to allow it to settle nicely. I agree i could get full potential heat exchange by providing some motion for the whole time but at this point its pretty cool, and im starting to look at the clock.

Yeah, 16metres by 6mm dia, same as you've got if im not wrong. Pump for all chill water, and from memory my march pump is giving 1.5litres/min flow rate.

Havent measured the flow rate when using it in herms mode, but certainly not that fast, a steady stream more than a trickle is where i run it. I have all my 50 odd litres sparge water in the herms Kettle, liquid level comes just above the height of the coil, and i start recirc/hermsing when the water is maybe 5 ish degrees above the sac temp, after 30mins main sac, with some water recircing in the Kettle to aid the heat exchange effectiveness.

Like i said, i dont have any temp probes in relevant spots, so no hard data on effectivness. But i take the lid off the Mash-tun and plop a themo in and its usually within 2 degrees cooler than the Kettle/herms water. I usually spend about 60mins from 66c to 78c. I reckon i could definatley go quicker, but this is being slow and simple without thermo control. At the very least it means i dont have to have insulation on the Mash-tun, hooray!
 
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