New Brewery

[Kai]

Hi boys and girls,

Having moved to an apartment a 4-ring burner and 60L pot were no longer particularly viable options, so I've had a new, smaller, electric brewery in planning for few months now. Right now I'm testing my new kettle with a 30L tapwater boil. 36L insulated Robinox pot with temperature probe, hop screen and pickup and 2400W element. All custom made by Beerbelly.

Purchased a 37L Coleman beverage cooler today for my mash tun and installed part of an old termimesh tube manifold. Simple, crude and effective. And very, very ugly compared to the kettle. This mash tun is only temporary though, I have further plans for a new one.

Photos, excuse the camera-phone quality. Mash tun:

Manifold:

Kettle:

Kettle interior, complete with friendly sticker recommending I plug in a RCD breaker just in case:

The kettle will double as HLT due to space constraints, so the plan is to either add the batch sparge water to the top of the mash after conversion, or drop the first runnings into a cheap 12 pot. I would have done the virgin brew today but had a rather large night on the tiles last night so didn't quite feel up to it. Will probably commission it properly next weekend.

And while I'm here, stats on the element from tonight's test: 22-75C in just under 50 minutes and from 75 to a full boil in less than 30. I'm not sure how much less than as I got distracted for a bit and forgot all about it. The element then holds a good rolling boil with the lid removed.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to taking my new babies for a spin next weekend. I'll keep the thread updated on how it goes.

 

[aspro]

Hey Kai


I like that kettle the hop stopper on the pick up tube looks the goods .

Cheers Aspro

 

[Pumpy]

Well done Kai , Be interested how the Beerbelly hop screen and pickup goes always looks a neat litle unit


Pumpy

 

[kook]

Nice bling Kai!

 

[Vlad the Pale Aler]

Nice one Kai, but where is the hook on the ceiling?

 

[Goat]

Nice work Kai - I use the same Tun, just picked the red one 'cos it converts faster. It holds temp really well.

What is that thing on the end of the pick-up tube at the bottom of the kettle? mmm shinny....

 

[mika]

Beer Belly's hop stopper.

 

[deckedoutdaz]

Nice work, so many idea, so little time....

Daz

 

[blackbock]

Kai is that a flexible pickup tube, or did Domonsura bend that S-shape for you?

And how is the hop screen attached to it? Compression fitting?

cheers, BB

 

[Kai]

Yeah, that's a rigid tube bent into shape and with a compression fitting. The pickup extends into the screen with a downward bend on the end, deadspace is less than 1 litre. The plan at the moment is to use a proportion of whole hops in each brew to help filter out the trub around the screen.

Incidentally, I left the water in the kettle overnight to see how the insulation fares. Over 12 hours the temperature dropped from 95 to 60C.

Goat, does the esky work well for you? What kind of false bottom do you have in there? I looked at several different coolers before settling on this one, came very close to buying an ice chest at triple the cost but fortunately it didn't have the right sized outlet.

Vlad, a hook for hanging the extension cord from maybe. My delicates bag is relegated to the laundry where it belongs

Kettle and mash tun will probably get their virgin run next weekend. With a Glacier summer ale, of course.

 

[Goat]

Kai - the esky works very well for me.

Here is a link to a virginal setup - it doesn't look like this any more....

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...ic=1226&hl=

The hose clamps have been changed to s/s but that's about all I have done to it since then. Never had a stuck sparge and have done quite a few claggy Wits in it.

 

[Kai]

Thanks goat, I thought about getting some braid (and also considered a beerbelly manifold), but went with what I had. My old mash tun was a 55L rectangular esky and the deadspace in it was huge... always performed well though.

 

[stoutdrinker]

Kai,

I was fortunate enough to see your converted Robinox before it left Domonsura's workshop and I've got to say its a very impressive kettle. That insulation looked great, and the other fittings were absolutely 1st class.

I like the look of the hop screen and am thinking of getting one too, so would like to hear how it goes.

Cheers,

Stout.

 

[Kai]

stoutsky,

you're right.. the components and workmanship on the kettle are first class. Definitely very well made.

 

[Jye]

Kai how was the kettle insulated? it looks fantastic!

 

[Kai]

13mm Aeroflex sheet glued onto the pot. You'd have to ask Wayne for better details since it's his work, but it definitely suits the kettle.

 

[Guest Lurker]

Pah! Any Kiwi farm boy can precision engineer, wire up, TIG weld and install high quality stainless steel equipment in a kettle, but it takes a special kind of Kiwi farm boy to hew a mash paddle out of a jarrah futon frame using only a Swiss Army knife and 27 sheets of sandpaper.

I'm off to a mine site this week but you can pick the paddle up in 2 weeks time, or leave it till the case swap. Now... I know you arent keen on 25 mm spade bit holes. An alternative would be four by 16 mm spade bit holes, jigsawed into two 16 mm channels down the paddle blade, which would leave three by 12 mm staves. Or pick it up as is. Someone like Vlad or Asher or Mika or AusDB would probably have a hole saw for doing real sized holes in the blade.

 

[Kai]

Another thing o' beauty :wub: I reckon four big holes up its bit are still what I'm after, so I'll happily take it like that at the swap. Cheers GL.

 

[mika]

I got a cheap Holesaw set from Bunnings ($15) reckon there's one in there that'll do 2" no drama's, make any blind woodworker proud

 

[therook]

Kai,

How has the Hop Stopper performed? and what type of hops were used..Flowers, Plugs or pellets

Rook