New 60l Setup

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hughman666

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So I've been mucking around for a while, Braumeister or not, that's been the question.

I dicked around with an urn but the concealed element killed any chance of a good rolling boil, plus 40L was just a bit too small if I wanted to occasionally do a double batch.

So I put together a shopping list and it came in at pretty much $500, give or take.

This is what I put together. Basically the pump draws wort from the bottom and returns it to the top of the mash. With a single batch the mash pot sits above the wort line so it's basically fly sparing the whole time.

A double batch will raise the wort line up to around halfway up the mash pot...

I need to mount the pump and thermostat...

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The control box. Thermostat with switch on the side for the pump.
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Inside without the malt pipe, you can see the false bottom (to keep hops etc out of the final dump into the fermenter(s)), element and thermowell.
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I've just mashed in and it's re-circing, although very slowly.

Time constraints (i.e. work) meant that I couldn't get a 2nd false bottom for the mash pot so I just drilled holes for now.

Next weekend I'll cut the bottom of the mash pot out, leaving approx 1 inch rim to sit the false on, should be the goods after that.

In the meantime though, very pleased with how it's going.

That brown pump is fantastic!! You can barely hear it and it moves a LOT of liquid for its size...

Also, I'll be back in a few weeks, I'll bring a growler along...

You have been busy, does it work?
Are you drinking any beer from it ?
Come back we miss you ;)
Nev
 
That looks like a nice 1v setup, Im in the process of something similar.

The brown pump? What amperage 12v power adapter are you powering that with? And how many litres per minute would you say its pumping at?

:D
 
That is a nice setup.
Exactly the way I had pondered doing it, so I will be interested to hear the thoughts after a few brews.

Is there any reason that BM pumps from the bottom to the top, it seems to be more logical to do it your way.
 
I'm sure there's a reason the BM pumps from the bottom up but I had investigated doing it that way and there was just more plumbing involved.

My way is simpler I guess but it means you have a bit more visible hosing etc.

That is a nice setup.
Exactly the way I had pondered doing it, so I will be interested to hear the thoughts after a few brews.

Is there any reason that BM pumps from the bottom to the top, it seems to be more logical to do it your way.
 
That's a really nice tidy setup. So that's a 60L pot there? And will do double batches (i.e. 40L) of standard gravity?

Sorry, disregard the question. I just re-read your post... :rolleyes:
 
It's boiling away now, not a full-on rolling boil though, so I will be investing in a 2nd element shortly.

It's good enough, just not as furious as I like...

I had a couple of PMs asking for the shopping list I used. I got everything apart from the brown pump (thanks Nev!) and copper piping (Reece Plumbing) from Keg King in Springvale VIC. No affiliation etc.

Here it is:

1 x 66L SS Pot
1 x 20L SS Pot
1 x Ball valve
1 x 5cm SS 1/2" BSP threaded pipe
1 x Thermostat (16 amp)
1 x False Bottom (12")
1 x Element
1 x Thermowell
2M silicon hose
3 x female SS 1/2" BSP disconnects (1 x for the kettle ball valve and 2 x for the brown pump)
3 x male SS 1/2" BSP barbed disconnects
6 x SS hose clamps
1 x Brown Pump
1M soft copper piping

All up it came to approx $500.
 
Mate, I'm just using an old 6A laptop power supply. Cut the end off, stripped the wires etc, all good.

That looks like a nice 1v setup, Im in the process of something similar.

The brown pump? What amperage 12v power adapter are you powering that with? And how many litres per minute would you say its pumping at?

:D
 
Is there any reason that BM pumps from the bottom to the top, it seems to be more logical to do it your way.

I was trying to figure this out also.

I was worried that having the water drain through the gain could create "tunnels" for the liquid to run through, meaning the grain wouldn't be evenly exposed to the liquid. An example of this is a potted plant, after a few waters the water makes a tunnel through the dirt making it easy for the water to escape without be absorbed by the dirt.

If this does occur, the only way this can be ovoid is to submerge the grain entirely into the liquid.

I believe the reason the BM pumps the water up through the malt pipe is to avoid this exact problem. Gravity works against the liquid to ensure no "tunnels" are created within the grain. Essentially turning it into one big compression chamber with gravity pulling the gain down whilst the pump is pushing the water through it.

But.....I could be wrong.

BlackRat.
 
Looks good! I made a pretty similar setup. The only problem with the design is depending on grain bed thickness and grain type the pump will sometimes empty the outer pot of liquid faster than it can drain out of the mash pot, so the pump eventually runs dry unless you are there to throttle it back all the time or unless the inner pot overflows, which defeats the purpose. The reason traditional herms/BM etc don't work this way is by either sucking or pushing wort through the grain bed they aren't relying on gravity at any point, the speed wort moves through the grain dictates how fast the pump goes.
 
That brown pump is fantastic!! You can barely hear it and it moves a LOT of liquid for its size...

Do you think the brown pump has enough oomph to push wort up through the grain bed? (ie. the reverse of what you currently are doing).
I like your set up - straight forward and sensible. Hope it works out for you.
 
I've found that throttling back the ball valve allowed me to achieve a consistent 2 inches of water on top of the mash.

This means that the entire mash is submerged and should avoid any channeling.

I've since cut the bottom of the mash pot out and have fitted a false bottom. This will let the mash pot drain quicker allowing the ball valve to open up a bit more.

I'm not really bothered with pumping wort through the mash too quickly, as long as the mash temp is kept constant, thats my main aim.
 
Couple of brews ago i broke a part of my system that pumps wort up through the malt pipe on the second rest of a multistep mash. Couldnt fix it at the time so raced into the shed and bent a copper pipe and drilled some holes in it and set it up basically the same as your setup.
Had to dick around with the valve to get the flowrate correct but it worked fine in the end. I have since changed the rig a bit to pump up again as basically once doughed in the pid takes over and it needs no supervision which is the major benefit of pumping up versus the gravity down system.
Cheers
sean
 
You're right, it does take a bit of adjustment but once you know the flow rate it's pretty straightforward. Of course the required flow rate will change based on density of the grist etc.

The mash pot cost me $35 so I'm open to the idea of buying another one and pumping up at a later stage. It will basically need 2 holes to be drilled in the base of the pot and a 15cm SS pipe.

Couple of brews ago i broke a part of my system that pumps wort up through the malt pipe on the second rest of a multistep mash. Couldnt fix it at the time so raced into the shed and bent a copper pipe and drilled some holes in it and set it up basically the same as your setup.
Had to dick around with the valve to get the flowrate correct but it worked fine in the end. I have since changed the rig a bit to pump up again as basically once doughed in the pid takes over and it needs no supervision which is the major benefit of pumping up versus the gravity down system.
Cheers
sean
 
They didnt have any at my local :-(

Good old Asian grocery store came to the rescue. It's actually a bit thicker which I guess is good because the bolts drilled into the sides hold the weight of the mash and accompanying liquid...

Big W 19l stockpot $20. Nice and thin too so easy to drill/cut.
 
Not wanting to hijack the thread but I thought i'd show you how I've been doing it and it works. Same principal as draining through bottom of pot, but I run it through a false bottom and a pickup so it comes out the side, beer is good. Big W pot for mash with false bottom, just match up the outflow to the flow into the mash and I can walk away.

As for the BM pushing up from the bottom I'd say it is to get better efficiency, as there is no compacting or channeling, grains can float around happily its like a constant stirring action. Mine does suffer avaerage efficiency, only a dollar or two in extra grain


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Mash in and recirculating to clear it up a little first

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Mashing, out of the pot, into the keg (with element) and out the bottom again through pump and into the mash

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Mash

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Boiling away.
 
Not wanting to hijack the thread but I thought i'd show you how I've been doing it and it works. Same principal as draining through bottom of pot, but I run it through a false bottom and a pickup so it comes out the side, beer is good.


You wouldnt have a pic of the mash pot setup, I think I understand what you mean but a picture would make it clearer, oh and what element setup you using?

edit spelling
 

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