Plumbing Layout

[Tony M]

Having been lightheartedly impugned for being a bit valve happy, I thought it best I justify myself by submitting a schematic of the current layout I use. I previously would take about ten trips around my rig wondering what to switch where and often getting it wrong. I even pumped half the mash back into the HLT. Thats when I decided it was time to tidy up my life. Now all the valves are together at my fingertips and hardly confusing at all.

 

[LethalCorpse]

So that's seven taps, including the outlet valves on each vessel right?

I'm still setting up at the moment, but I spent a lot of time pushing around drawings to come up with the minimum number of taps to get the job done. I'm going all stainless, so taps are expensive. Here is the final layout. I'm afraid it will only work if you've got a reversible pump - I'm building a peristaltic pump. I'll have a cheat sheet somewhere with the settings for different directions. Taps which should be on are specified, if pump should be on its direction is given:

Underlet (HLT - bottom MLT) : A,B,D, P-> (can't gravity feed through peristaltic)
Overlet (HLT - top MLT): A
Recirc (bottom MLT - top MLT): B,D,<-P
Sparge (Bottom HLT - top MLT, bottom MLT - boil): A,C,D,P-> (A can be independent of C,D,P-> for batch sparge)
Cube (boil - cube): C,<-P

The HLT and boiler are on the same level, MLT is below them. Cube can go anywhere. Pump just has to be lower than the sparge inlet, or lower than the underlet if the pump doesn't self prime. The hose to go out to the cube has to pass higher than the top of the level in the MLT, it has the added benefit of acting as a snorkel to indicate stuck mash when recircing or sparging.

 

[Vlad the Pale Aler]

I've got 12 ball valves.
Most of the time I get the open/close sequence right, this was helped by an ingenious system where the the brewer is rewarded with a lolly when opening the correct valve and a receiving a mild electrical shock to the testes for getting it wrong.

 

[ausdb]

Having been lightheartedly impugned for being a bit valve happy, I thought it best I justify myself by submitting a schematic of the current layout I use. I previously would take about ten trips around my rig wondering what to switch where and often getting it wrong. I even pumped half the mash back into the HLT. Thats when I decided it was time to tidy up my life. Now all the valves are together at my fingertips and hardly confusing at all.

Sorry was just mucking around my brewery has become somewhat "valveaphobic" if there is such a term!
Martin Luther King was heard to say "I have a dream" however Randyrob has decided the new slogan for NoIdea brewing should be "i has a bucket"

 

[browndog]

So that's seven taps, including the outlet valves on each vessel right?

I'm still setting up at the moment, but I spent a lot of time pushing around drawings to come up with the minimum number of taps to get the job done. I'm going all stainless, so taps are expensive. Here is the final layout. I'm afraid it will only work if you've got a reversible pump - I'm building a peristaltic pump. I'll have a cheat sheet somewhere with the settings for different directions. Taps which should be on are specified, if pump should be on its direction is given:

Underlet (HLT - bottom MLT) : A,B,D, P-> (can't gravity feed through peristaltic)
Overlet (HLT - top MLT): A
Recirc (bottom MLT - top MLT): B,D,<-P
Sparge (Bottom HLT - top MLT, bottom MLT - boil): A,C,D,P-> (A can be independent of C,D,P-> for batch sparge)
Cube (boil - cube): C,<-P

The HLT and boiler are on the same level, MLT is below them. Cube can go anywhere. Pump just has to be lower than the sparge inlet, or lower than the underlet if the pump doesn't self prime. The hose to go out to the cube has to pass higher than the top of the level in the MLT, it has the added benefit of acting as a snorkel to indicate stuck mash when recircing or sparging.

I highly recommend another tap in your boiler to drain straight to a fermenter, otherwise you will have to come up with a way of sterilising your pump before you pump your wort out of the boiler. Unless your doing NC that is.

cheers

Browndog

 

[randyrob]

 

[LethalCorpse]

I highly recommend another tap in your boiler to drain straight to a fermenter, otherwise you will have to come up with a way of sterilising your pump before you pump your wort out of the boiler. Unless your doing NC that is.

cheers

Browndog

I will be doing NC, but I don't want to sterilise the pump first because I don't want to take all the botulism flavour out of the beer

srsly, it'll be coming out of there at close to boiling, so should be fine. But, if I was being particular, I could very easily have a QD on the boiler which I unplug after the wrt is in there, send some sanitiser down it, and reconnect. The pump will be peristaltic, so all I'm trying to clean here is hose and taps

 

[browndog]

I will be doing NC, but I don't want to sterilise the pump first because I don't want to take all the botulism flavour out of the beer

srsly, it'll be coming out of there at close to boiling, so should be fine. But, if I was being particular, I could very easily have a QD on the boiler which I unplug after the wrt is in there, send some sanitiser down it, and reconnect. The pump will be peristaltic, so all I'm trying to clean here is hose and taps

you will need 1 extra tap in the line between your cube and your mash tun.

cheers

Browndog

 

[LethalCorpse]

whaffor?

 

[mika]

Botulism addition..

 

[browndog]

whaffor?

Ah ha, so by having your hose to the fermenter go above the height of the HLT, you are avoiding the neccessity for fitting a tap to stop strike/sparge water running out of that line when filling the mash tun right? Can't say I'm keen on that idea.

BD

 

[Tony M]

I'm going all stainless, so taps are expensive. Here is the final layout. I'm afraid it will only work if you've got a reversible pump - I'm building a peristaltic pump. I'll have a cheat sheet somewhere with the settings for different directions. Taps which should be on are specified, if pump should be on its direction is given:

I dont need seven valves, only five.The HLT is isolated with valve "A" and the only reason I have a shutoff on the mash is to stop it dribbling into my boot when I cart it down to the garden to dump the spent grains. Of course there is a drain between the boiler and the cooler.
BTW, if you insist in running your system in reverse, probably the easiest way is to run your peristatic pump with a DC motor so you can reverse the polarity and thus the rotation.
A final observation----Why do people feel SS valves are essential. Brass has served me well for many years at about ten buks a valve and if you think about it, brass is copper and zinc, both essential elements required for the body's well being.
(that should put the cat among the pigeons!!!)

 

[LethalCorpse]

I sure am, though I can't see why you'd not be keen on it. There will be slightly higher resistance in the line to the MLT due to the tap and the grain, which might possibly make the level in the cube hose fractionally higher than the MLT at very high flow rates when underletting, but this would be kept well at bay by going just a few cm higher than the max level of the MLT - the difference can't realistically be larger than that. When going the other way the same applies - restriction in the MLT and its tap and line could cause the pump to suck the cube line lower, but this, as I said, would be beneficial because in extreme cases it would indicate a stuck sparge.

 

[LethalCorpse]

I dont need seven valves, only five.The HLT is isolated with valve "A" and the only reason I have a shutoff on the mash is to stop it dribbling into my boot when I cart it down to the garden to dump the spent grains. Of course there is a drain between the boiler and the cooler.
BTW, if you insist in running your system in reverse, probably the easiest way is to run your peristatic pump with a DC motor so you can reverse the polarity and thus the rotation.
A final observation----Why do people feel SS valves are essential. Brass has served me well for many years at about ten buks a valve and if you think about it, brass is copper and zinc, both essential elements required for the body's well being.
(that should put the cat among the pigeons!!!)

Because we understand how galvanic corrosion works, and have no desire to see our beer eating our fittings. Nothing wrong with brass, if the entire system is brass. Nothing wrong with copper, if the whole system's copper. It's the mixing of metals that creates a problem, and it is a substantial one, no matter what your anecdotal experience might suggest. Copper and zinc are indeed essential minerals, but in completely different forms and in astronomically smaller quantities than those which can be produced through galvanic corrosion. For any valves which are electrically isolated from the vessels (not touching, and not touching the same metal brewstand or earthed), it's not a problem, so I could use brass for valve B. I rather think I'll just buy them all at once though.

pump will be driven by an electric drill at first, then a big stepper or geared DC motor when I can be bothered building a controller

 

[LethalCorpse]

So that's seven taps, including the outlet valves on each vessel right?

I'm still setting up at the moment, but I spent a lot of time pushing around drawings to come up with the minimum number of taps to get the job done. I'm going all stainless, so taps are expensive. Here is the final layout. I'm afraid it will only work if you've got a reversible pump - I'm building a peristaltic pump. I'll have a cheat sheet somewhere with the settings for different directions. Taps which should be on are specified, if pump should be on its direction is given:

Underlet (HLT - bottom MLT) : A,B,D, P-> (can't gravity feed through peristaltic)
Overlet (HLT - top MLT): A
Recirc (bottom MLT - top MLT): B,D,<-P
Sparge (Bottom HLT - top MLT, bottom MLT - boil): A,C,D,P-> (A can be independent of C,D,P-> for batch sparge)
Cube (boil - cube): C,<-P

The HLT and boiler are on the same level, MLT is below them. Cube can go anywhere. Pump just has to be lower than the sparge inlet, or lower than the underlet if the pump doesn't self prime. The hose to go out to the cube has to pass higher than the top of the level in the MLT, it has the added benefit of acting as a snorkel to indicate stuck mash when recircing or sparging.

I've just reviewed this in final preparations for my rig, and it turns out you can do it with a single direction pump if that pump will allow liquid to flow through it in reverse when it's not turned on. Th pump is turned on for sparge and recirc, off for everything else.

 

[Screwtop]

Plus outlet valves on your vessels



ie: Recirc via herms

 

[Cortez The Killer]

I'm most tempted to go for something along the lines of either Jye's (2 tier) or SJW's (1 tier) in this thread

The 2 tier system allows for fly sparging - which maybe useful if the IBU's finally convince me to move to the mythical "floating mash" - this can't be done without 2 pumps in the system

I've got the pump - and only need the space to be able to store a stand

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&p=251194

Cheers

 

[Yorg]

I once had 14 valves - yeh 14 baby!
Now I have a choke valve on the outlet of the March pump, and a dump valve - but could probably do without both of them and use only the valves on the vessels - but I'm finding it difficult to entirely let go.
Now I just QD the hoses from one vessel to another.
Takes about as long as levering valves, and I don't have to hold my mouth just right while I'm at it.
Since abandoning the miniature train set mentality, brew day has been far simpler.