Howdy
Today I finally got my new brew rig up and running. For the last ten years I have been brewing in the garage on a rig made up of an assortment of bits and pieces I have gathered over the journey. It worked well and I have made some great beers with the basic gravity fed 3 tier system. But there is only so long that you can sit bye and pretend that all the brew porn on this site and others doesn't make you just a little envious! So I started to research systems and line up few mates to help with some of harder or technical bits.
Old Faithful
The basic design was a single tier, 3 vessel HERMS system using a march pump to move the liquids around. The HLT & Heat Exchanger will be powered by 2 x 2.2kw elements and a gas fired kettle.
The first step was the brew frame. I chose 50mm x 50mm galvanised steel. A mate helped me weld it up and the a quick prime and a paint with blue enamel. I filled in some of the open gaps in the top of the frame with aluminium checker plate, and filled the lower level in with merbau decking! The results looked great. A set of sturdy casters ensure that the rig is mobile. Next came the purchase of 3 x 60lt aluminium stockpots, and orders were placed with Beerbelly and Craftbrewer for all the plumbing bits and pieces. A trip to Auscrown placed a Rambo gas burner in my hands and the elements were bought of ebay. The pump was bought through Grain and Grape. A quick visit to the Mashmaster web site saw 3 Mashmaster HLT temperature controllers coming my way! All of a sudden I had all the pieces of the jig saw. Apart from one! I had initially thought of simply wiring the temperature controller into individual boxes and having a really simple system. However, when I told an electrician mate of this he thought I was mad and suggested that he take over the design of a single control box for all of the electrical components. The result is what I think is the sexiest part of the new brewery and works awesome! It consists of a powdered coated box containing a mains power switch, on/off controls for the pump, 3 temperature controllers each with individual on/off, red and green, illuminated buttons, and interlocks that prevent more than one element being used at a time! I really am indebted to Ang for all his hard work. The resulting box looks great, and is safe and easy to use!
Nice.
Ang's work on the control box was awesome!
Once all the plumbing bits and pieces arrived I set to work finishing off the remainder of the rig.
The Mash Tun.
The Kettle.
And finally today all the bits came together!
The nearly completed rig!
The Brewing team seem quite happy with the new rig!
I still have a lot to do before she is ready for her maiden run. Water tests, pump cover and heat exchanger insulation are at the top of the list. It has been a six month process and has cost a small fortune. But at this early stage I am very happy with the results. A big thank you to all the contributors on this site that have given me the inspiration to build the rig. Nothing here is new (well maybe the control box) and most components are directly inspired by the posts of other members! Now I look forward to brewing some beer, and maybe having a slightly easier brew day!
Cheers
Juddy
