Show us your brewrig

[tricache]

Wow some crazy builds going on lately...everyone seems to be going for the full control unit mini brewery kinda thing! :icon_drool2:

 

[Burt de Ernie]

I'll say! I'd love a detailed writeup of that one. Looks ingenious.

MB,

Its still a work in progress and I`m currently adding an upgrade of a HERMS unit that will double as the chiller.

Once I am done honing the system (confirm it actually works ..LOL)I will give you the low down.

 

[bradwhite087]

G'day fellow brewers,

I thought I would upload my automated gas PID BIAB system. It has been a long and somewhat painful process which at some point I thought was not going to be successful, but with a little persistence I finally got there

If anyone is thinking of going down the same/similar path, I am happy to help where I can.

Enjoy!



The system about to be fired up!



The pilot light



Valve used to control the pilot light



Servo motor with heat shield, used to rotate the main valve for gas flow to the burner



The results of the system, I know its a bad photo, but it was overshooting by 0.53 degrees C. I managed to calibrate and now it is within 0.3 degress C which I am stoked with

 

[MastersBrewery]

NICE!

 

[Ninegrain]

I finally built my wooden BIAB stand a few weeks ago. Built it out of extra pine and merbau decking left over from some jobs. So materials was practically free incorporated a crane and bunnings rope hoist for the bag. Essential for the double batches I plan on doing

Limited space in my laundry where I brew. It's all electric so can boil indoors, just have to have a extraction fan right next to it with ducting straight out the window :/ (or the sample alarm is on REAL quickly)



And kettle in place. It's a 70l craftbrewer pot wrapped in insulation with the usual 3 piece bv. Looking forward to the first brew on it soon, will be much better than using milk crates and physical effort for bag hoisting!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[catcher]

The beginning of my 3V system

 

[Clarkholio]

Some awesome 3v systems here. Great to get some idea's and progress from my BIAB urn. Thanks guys and keep the pics and beers flowing :chug:

 

[silverbrew]

Never done AG before and here is the beginnings of my BIAB rig lol

Not very impressive I'm sure but I hope she will make great beer

 

[JB]

Good onya Silverbrew, looks like it should do the job just fine. Enjoy the voyage!

 

[New_guy]

Never done AG before and here is the beginnings of my BIAB rig lol

ImageUploadedByAussie Home Brewer1398223116.297701.jpg

Not very impressive I'm sure but I hope she will make great beer

Looks great mate, mine looked the same 12 months ago. Few brews under your belt and you will be away.

 

[BlueMutt]

Fitted up some 3 way valves and new hose for the first run on the new stand.
I hard piped from the valves to the pump in copper for the meantime, will go ss once I have a liitle more coin saved up.
Plan on another pump so I can pump boiled wort back through the HLT which has a copper chiller coil fitted and will be full of cold water and snow or ice. (one advantage of living in the MTNs).

 

[pk.sax]

Latest state of affairs. Bulkhead comp fitting from Connor brewing sorted out the leak. Put the free urn in action as HLT. Need to replace the tap on it or I'd go mental measuring with 1/2L jug.

Mash pot/kettle now has a problem. Adding the ss pickup tube from Beerbelly that goes in further and makes the mash 'pipe' sit askew. This is causing recirc water to overflow. Mine recircs from bottom to top with nothing covering the 'pipe'. I'll have to put legs on the mash basket so it sits above the pickup tube.

Also, need to upgrade to herms. The temperature swings a lot with the recirc. Turning on the burner just takes it way too high. A bit tiring to keep adjusting flame/flow rate/check pipe level.

I know who I'm visiting when I get to melb next...

 

[stew.w]

Started this thread a few years ago. Still using essentially the same setup as before but I have added a rims tube, pump and electric hlt with temperature control. Just gotta add the plate chiller that ive had for about a year, no chill is just too convenient. Got the hlt from a bakery, it was a flour bin but makes a very good hlt

 

[Beertard]

sorry double posts always happens when i post photos to forums from my dodgy mobile. please delete

 

[Beertard]

My cheap and simple gravity fed rig, the old bbq frame was modified to suit some upgrades which will be coming soon, a 40l crown urn for the boil and rectangular esky.
The hotplate is good for the HLT, strike and sparge water but barely enough for the boil, the wind shield and insulation help.
It's high enough with adjustable wheels and legs to fill a fermenter bellow the boil pot.

edited to add an extra picture.

 

[Ranga]

Fitted up some 3 way valves and new hose for the first run on the new stand.
I hard piped from the valves to the pump in copper for the meantime, will go ss once I have a liitle more coin saved up.
Plan on another pump so I can pump boiled wort back through the HLT which has a copper chiller coil fitted and will be full of cold water and snow or ice. (one advantage of living in the MTNs).

Hey Bluemutt nice rig mate. I just tried the copper coil in the HLT for cooling trick, plenty of ice and water. After 5 minutes all ice melted and temp in HLT/Cooler up to 55c. F**k, empty water, replenish with cold water..... Great idea but, an hour later.... Wort temp still 38c. For me, back to the drawing board. Good luck.

 

[pk.sax]

Run it through 1 pass with normal tap water back into the kettle, then second pass through coil in ice - slowly.

 

[slcmorro]

So, it may not be the most beautiful or sophisticated setup, but I have upgraded from my first AG setup to my 2nd. Kinda... and I love it!

The keggle is a decommissioned CUB keg (obtained legally) also donated to me by the very generous vic45, with a 1/2" ball valve supplied from iBrew.



A semi-retired mate of mine did the metal work, and I couldn't be happier!

The firepot you see is my original keg, also donated to me by vic45 from B.A.R which I have done many a BIAB brew in. Great little keg, now serving a new purpose.






The burner mounted in the keggle stand was just a 4ring burner I got from Grays Online for $65 shipped from memory, and it cranks out a decent flame. It's still got the standard reg on it, and it works just fine. Prior to this keggle stand, I just used to put the old keg on top and fire away to strike mash water and do my boil. Gets a good rolling boil up in about 10 mins from mash temp, and maintains it with just the two middle burners going.

 

[catcher]

Not much has happened, mainly due to lack of $$$ but getting 4 burners and stands in next few weeks then will progress further.

 

[pk.sax]

Something weird has happened to this thread. It seems the 'brewing rigs' thread has been added to the 'showing off' thread rather than the other way around.

Might just be the phone and the app but desktop dwellers might be able to tell. I was searching for the 'brewing rigs' thread earlier and couldn't find it either.

 

[slcmorro]

Happened back on the 4th of June, when my thread I made was merged into this one by the mods. Just renaming it would work I'd imagine.

 

[Beertard]

I was wondering about that too, I don't recall posting in the showing off thread but it's not that out of the ordinary for me to not remember.

 

[Camo6]

Got around to making a bracket for my new brew controller today. Figured I could squeeze a batch out this avo to test it all out. Ramp/soak PID worked perfectly and with all the led's it was easy to watch from the kitchen window. Next project is to clad the carport I brew under, Melbourne's weather isn't ideal for outdoor brewing ATM.

 

[Cocko]

Got around to making a bracket for my new brew controller today. Figured I could squeeze a batch out this avo to test it all out. Ramp/soak PID worked perfectly and with all the led's it was easy to watch from the kitchen window. Next project is to clad the carport I brew under, Melbourne's weather isn't ideal for outdoor brewing ATM.

Amazing.

Good work Mate, [GWC]

thanks for sharing... Seriously, awesome.

 

[Truman42]

Got around to making a bracket for my new brew controller today. Figured I could squeeze a batch out this avo to test it all out. Ramp/soak PID worked perfectly and with all the led's it was easy to watch from the kitchen window. Next project is to clad the carport I brew under, Melbourne's weather isn't ideal for outdoor brewing ATM.

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Mate that is truly awesome. What a work of art. Can you share some info on how you made your herms vessel? My PVC pipe job has started to warp after too many boil overs when I stop flow to transfer to kettle and forget to switch it off. Time to upgrade.

 

[Mardoo]

wow..........0_o

 

[spog]

The last pic wtih glowing lights in the gloom looks as if aliens have landed in the carport .
Nice rig though. Yep cladding the walls will make brewing more comfortable gotta be freezing in that weather,but that's the passion of brewing.
Cheers....spog...

 

[Truman42]

I brewed on Sunday and fark me it was cold even in the garage. Everytime I came inside the house with the heater going I didnt want to leave again. And standing out the front in the rain hosing off vessels wasnt fun either.

Only plus side is that the water in my rain tank was that cold it pulled my lager wort down to 10C through the plate chiller so I could pitch straight away instead of having to wait 24 hours for it to cool down in the fridge.

 

[fraser_john]

Finally finished water testing my last week, waiting on my craftbrewer order to fire the first brew up on her..full rebuild of stand, HEX location, new pump, new plumbing, electric kettle (not shown)

 

[Camo6]

I brewed on Sunday and fark me it was cold even in the garage. Everytime I came inside the house with the heater going I didnt want to leave again. And standing out the front in the rain hosing off vessels wasnt fun either.

Only plus side is that the water in my rain tank was that cold it pulled my lager wort down to 10C through the plate chiller so I could pitch straight away instead of having to wait 24 hours for it to cool down in the fridge.

Thanks all for the praise. It's nice that someone else appreciates all the time I spend in the backyard instead of renovating the house.
Truman the hex us part of a still a mate's dad made when he worked in the food industry. I had to modify it a bit and if I was to source another I'd use 100mm tube or one of Nevs new housings. I'll send you a bit more info on it when I get home.