Safety

[Benn]

Things got more safe when I stopped using the spiral burner indoors and cleaned up the garage. Other than that, shits pretty dodgy round my neck o the woods. I'm slowly moving towards a dedicated brew area which will be better than the nail in the rafter and string tied around the door knob wot hangs the BIAB Bag over the Urn n that.

 

[peteru]

Probably the most dangerous piece of advice I have seen going around the traps is actually from Grainfather. They suggest (actually they even programmed the app to do it) ramping up the heater to bring the wort to boil while you are sparging with the malt pipe balanced on top of the kettle on nothing more than four tiny legs on a bit of springy steel rod resting in a groove of the vessel. Besides the potential failure modes of the equipment (the spring loaded steel rod has been known to give way), there's plenty of scope for the operator to drop the malt pipe back in the kettle and have near boiling wort shoot back in their face. It would be bad enough at 75C, but at 90+C? Lifting 8 or 9kg of water soaked grain up to eye level is not a trivial amount of effort.

I'm quite happy to sparge first, then add first wort hops and turn the heat on after the malt pipe is off the kettle. That extra 15-20 minutes is not worth the risk.

 

[shacked]

I use silicon gloves, wear boots and also have a fire extinguisher handy. I brew on a 100L system. Electric HLT and gas BK.

Plastic pails from bunnings could be your friend if you single vessel brew and don’t want to hoist the bag out. You could run off into a series of buckets, remove the bag, then tip wort back in (gloves of course). You’ll lose a little temp but I always found lifting the bag a bit of a nightmare.

5 hours is a long time to not have a beer but I guess balance is the key here. This all went out the window when Paulyman and I did an 8 hour turbid mash brew day. Waaaay to many sours.

 

[ballantynedewolf]

Where do you get these silicon gloves?

 

[Dan_kville]

Lifting 8 or 9kg of water soaked grain up to eye level is not a trivial amount of effort.

I'm quite happy to sparge first, then add first wort hops and turn the heat on after the malt pipe is off the kettle. That extra 15-20 minutes is not worth the risk.

Why are you lifting it to eye level? Are you very short? Mine is lucky to be just over my waist and I am not very tall

 

[EalingDrop]

A timely post. The BM, GF and Robobrew (BIAB in general), all face a precarious trinity of Height, Weight and Heat.
Danger exists when introducing new equipment, not just the inconvenience of a longer brew day.

Last weekend I had to lift the Braumeister with over 30 litres of wort up onto 3 milk crates to gravity feed into the conical (as they all tend to be taller of course).
Safety can be met by using a transfer pump, or utilising built in pump of the Braumeister.

 

[earle]

Where I currently brew (Crown urn biab) has enough height to have the urn on a bench, solid timber above to hoist bag using pulley and no issue with getting fermenter under urn's tap.

I've recently set up a new brewing dedicated area but it doesn't have the same height. Seriously considering building a scissor lift type table. The movement would be driven by threaded rod which would be powered by my Ozito spade handled drill. Would get another use other than milling.

Might even be able to "underlet" at mash in by raising the urn up to the already suspended grain bag. Figure I can brew at whatever height, and lower the table to drain the bag. Raise it once more when it's time to transfer to the fermenter.

This is a couple of examples I found for inspiration. Thinking I might add an upright in each corner for added safety and also would then provide something to suspend the grain bag from.

http://www.jax-design.net/2017/06/how-to-make-scissor-lift-table-lift.html

 

[shacked]

Where do you get these silicon gloves?

Bunnings aka “Church” (as I am there every Sunday).

 

[bradsbrew]

A timely post. The BM, GF and Robobrew (BIAB in general), all face a precarious trinity of Height, Weight and Heat.
Danger exists when introducing new equipment, not just the inconvenience of a longer brew day.

Last weekend I had to lift the Braumeister with over 30 litres of wort up onto 3 milk crates to gravity feed into the conical (as they all tend to be taller of course).
Safety can be met by using a transfer pump, or utilising built in pump of the Braumeister.


View attachment 110236

Good kaixen pump can be had for $70 tops. Once your back is fucked, it's fucked.
Or tap to tap transfer, lift half the weight?

 

[mtb]

I bought an electric winch for hoisting my malt pipe. Was $80 and saves my back as well as removing any reliance on a pulley system. Built a quick mounting frame using Bunnings Stack-It shelving for a further $60 which is rated to huge weights that I'll never even get close to exceeding.

https://www.mydeal.com.au/125-250kg...cXlYhruR54vytkCUhLtNwqJgOacWJ0xxoCNIEQAvD_BwE

 

[malt junkie]

I bought an electric winch for hoisting my malt pipe. Was $80 and saves my back as well as removing any reliance on a pulley system. Built a quick mounting frame using Bunnings Stack-It shelving for a further $60 which is rated to huge weights that I'll never even get close to exceeding.

https://www.mydeal.com.au/125-250kg...cXlYhruR54vytkCUhLtNwqJgOacWJ0xxoCNIEQAvD_BwE

first thing I built into my 1v

 

[Stouter]

Probably to my detriment, but I'm more concerned with the long term old age safety issues rather than the immediate. I want to be brewing into older age.
I like these 1v hoist and height adjustable platform ideas.

 

[peteru]

Why are you lifting it to eye level? Are you very short? Mine is lucky to be just over my waist and I am not very tall

Grainfather is 100cm tall. It sits on a 15-20cm tall platform. The malt pipe extends another 60+cm above that, plus you need a bit of clearance to get it off. In the end you are looking at holding the malt pipe handle at around 160-180cm above ground. Certainly closer to eye level than waist level.

 

[bradsbrew]

Grainfather is 100cm tall. It sits on a 15-20cm tall platform. The malt pipe extends another 60+cm above that, plus you need a bit of clearance to get it off. In the end you are looking at holding the malt pipe handle at around 160-180cm above ground. Certainly closer to eye level than waist level.

Why not just have it on the ground?

Also GF is only 580mm high and pipe is only 440mm.

 

[Dan_kville]

Why not just have it on the ground?

Yeah I do this. Assumed everyone does. Obviously I assumed wrong lol

 

[peteru]

Yeah I do this. Assumed everyone does. Obviously I assumed wrong lol

The floor is not level in the area where I brew. The platform allows me to keep the GF level.

I got the 100cm height off the Grainfather product specification page, but now that I double checked, that figure is actually for the storage bag, not the unit itself.

It's probably more accurate to say that I need to lift the malt pipe handle to chest level rather than eye level. Either way, it's an awkward lift and if the malt pipe does drop back down into the kettle, you are going to get wort splashing right back into your face.

 

[EalingDrop]

Good kaixen pump can be had for $70 tops. Once your back is fucked, it's fucked.
Or tap to tap transfer, lift half the weight?

$70 for a pump and bit of time to sanitise to protect the back is worth it. As said about the back, once stuffed it doesn't really go away. Too easy to take things for granted until it's too late.

 

[spog]

A timely post. The BM, GF and Robobrew (BIAB in general), all face a precarious trinity of Height, Weight and Heat.
Danger exists when introducing new equipment, not just the inconvenience of a longer brew day.

Last weekend I had to lift the Braumeister with over 30 litres of wort up onto 3 milk crates to gravity feed into the conical (as they all tend to be taller of course).
Safety can be met by using a transfer pump, or utilising built in pump of the Braumeister.


View attachment 110236

Milk crates!
Asking for trouble, big trouble.
Just sayin.

 

[EalingDrop]

Milk crates!
Asking for trouble, big trouble.
Just sayin.

Extra precaution was taken that brew day with extra time set aside as well as brewing in the evening to minimise traffic.

Yes, it is asking for trouble and it was a reminder to be mindful of introducing new gear equipment which isn't always as planned. By posting here, hopefully someone with a similar setup would come across this and help them avoid it. It's not a case of what to do, but what NOT to do. Brewing is fun, but sometimes the situation can get desperate especially all that works been put in.

Following this thread, I've also thought about a solution which can help. All part of what makes this forum so valuable, and I'm glad the O.P raised this topic. Goodness how many mistakes I've avoided from reading about others who were prepared to post theirs.

 

[karrathabrewer]

Iv got a pump I use with my 1v BIAB set up that I use to recirculate my wort during my mash, helps with keeping the temp stable and with clarity as I'm sure you guys already know but I use the same pump to recirculate ice water through my immersion chill to bring the temp down fast and to bring it to pitching temp as the water out ground here in karratha West Aus is as warm as dog piss all year round..... my point is I don't come into contact with any hot wort all my wort is chilled before I go near it and I can't work out why any homebrewer would even attempt to move 20 liters of near boiling wort it's madness guys cool it first dump it into your fermenter it's the safest way, the pump costs $70 from keg king!