Shiny shiny 1V recirculating rig

[Meddo]

G'day all, here's my new rig - the second one that I've built.

Inspiration for this was my distaste for the cleanliness (lack of) of ball valves, so I decided to start from scratch using diaphragm and butterfly valves. The original concept was a lot simpler than what you see here but once I started down the rabbit-hole I had to keep following it. My aims were to have a system which required no (or minimal) detachment of hoses while brewing, completely sanitary, and no pooling fluids - all plumbing should drain to a single point.

Most of the complexity on the plumbing is to allow for the late addition of the counterflow chiller at the top right of the rig. Given my aim of not detaching any hoses, the valving system allows complete reversal of flow through the chiller for cleaning in place.

Tri clamp fittings everywhere possible - about the only bits that missed out were the pump ports and a couple of camlocks in the lid.

All plumbing drains to the dump point on the intake side of the pump. This unfortunately mean no forced drainage of cleaning fluids - gravity only.

Couple of sight glasses for bling factor, love them already

Specs:
84L kettle
58L malt pipe
40 cm false bottom
Grainfather overflow tube in malt pipe
2x 2400W Romar ring elements
Lael's matho's controller
Stainless CFC
8 x 3/4" diaphragm valves
2 x 1.5" butterfly valves
1 x 3/4" butterfly valve
3 x inline sight glasses
1 x process view sight glass
60W Keg King mag pump (MP40RM)
3/4" ID / 1 1/8" OD silicone tubing
3/4" tri clamp fittings
SS Brewtech recirculation manifold

Additions in the near future are a clear acrylic lid and a temp display box for four sensors - wort in and out and water in and out of the CFC. Also a stainless steel pump head whenever Keg King bring them out.

The part I'm really looking forward to is installing an oxygenation stone into the sight glass on the outlet side of the CFC for inline oxy straight into the fermenter. This needs a small welding job done sometime in the next couple of weeks, and also the temp monitor on the CFC outlet when I get the parts off the slow boat from China.

Certainly looking at it now it seems overly complicated but the proof will be in the brewing. Currently running my first American amber ale through it so will see how she goes.

 

[rude]

MAAAAAAAAAAATE

 

[husky]

Impressive! Where did you get the diaphragm valves from? I have a couple of 1" ones on my new system but I was surprised at how expensive they were. Any reason you didn't go butterfly valves?
And yes, sight glasses are awesome! Wouldn't build a brewery without one now.

 

[Meddo]

Impressive! Where did you get the diaphragm valves from? I have a couple of 1" ones on my new system but I was surprised at how expensive they were. Any reason you didn't go butterfly valves?
And yes, sight glasses are awesome! Wouldn't build a brewery without one now.

99% of the tri-clamp gear and valves is from Aliexpress. I went with mostly diaphragm valves for the flow control and because they're a bit more compact in terms of the wheel versus lever handle. I used three butterfly valves for where I just wanted an on-off control - the kettle drain, the dump point and the pump outlet.

 

[Judanero]

Love the process view sight glass! Schmick.

 

[Meddo]

A few more pics:

 

[Brewnicorn]

That looks simply magic.

 

[Stouter]

So beautiful, I'm speechless, so I'm just going to STFU.

 

[shacked]

Wowzers!! That's super cool!

 

[Meddo]

Couple more pics, I got the inline oxy sorted today - bent up one of the FFL wands and had the local SS welder weld it into a tri-clamp endcap for me. I've got a DS18B20 temp probe mounted in the same cap so that once the output from the CFC hits pitching temps I can send it straight to the FV, flick the oxy switch and watch the bubbles coming out in the sight glass. Now I just need to shorten the tail and put a check valve and shutoff valve onto it to make sure no fluid gets back into the oxy reg.

 

[bronson]

Far out! This looks amazing.
I truly feel like the rat of the brewing community brewing on my ghetto rig ha ha.

 

[malt junkie]

The SS head for your pump now on KK's website!

 

[mfroes]

That just looks amazing!
How long did it take from purchase on aliexpress to arrive? Would you know how much roughly you have spent to build it ? do you use the magnetic pump for CIP as well ? I found that mine is a bit too weak to pump through a Stainless CIP ball.
Do You have a crane or anything like that to lift the grains out ?

 

[Meddo]

The SS head for your pump now on KK's website!

Oh hell yes - thanks for the heads-up. I've already snapped the outlet off the head once, while I was building the system, been petrified of doing it again with the replacement head while I've been pumping hot wort or cleaner through it.

 

[Meddo]

That just looks amazing!
How long did it take from purchase on aliexpress to arrive? Would you know how much roughly you have spent to build it ? do you use the magnetic pump for CIP as well ? I found that mine is a bit too weak to pump through a Stainless CIP ball.
Do You have a crane or anything like that to lift the grains out ?

Purchased in a few different batches as I refined the design, and also from different suppliers for unique items or just the cheapest on offer. Not all suppliers offer the same types of shipping so some packages came in a week or two while others were four to six weeks. No idea how much I spent and don't want to know - plausible deniability

Yes I run the mag pump through a little rotating CIP ball. It doesn't have the pressure to function properly, although it will wet the whole inside of the vessel. Certainly won't strip crud off though.

I use the hoist shown here on my old rig for lifting the malt pipe, but I've now got it mounted to the ceiling since I'm not using the rack-it shelves any more.

 

[Meddo]

Pic of hoist, missed it from post above: