Show us your brewrig

[skelly22]

Nice one skelly! I got to the point where I was making no progress due to the smallest things on my rig - I almost gave up and I started looking at a bunch of the BIAB setups and wondering whether I should have put my energy into a single vessel build! I'm still considering building one down the track for sure, they are sweet!

Cheers

Cheers Fishy- yours is a great looking piece of kit so it was worth all the effort! I'm v happy with my keggle. works great and is dead simple. i just leave the bag hanging while bringing the work to boil and give a good squeeze before the end and all ready to boil. easy to clean too!!

How are you hanging that over the side element in your keg?

Blitzer- I got one of the these elements with a hook on it. I have a 40mm rim around the top of the kettle and I sit the hook on that. I also have a length of cord on it so I cant knock in to the keggle and blow the element/electrocute myself. I could leave it hanging in the middle of the pot, but last 2 brews i kept it on the edge and the boil still had good circulation.

 

[Edak]

Great looking rig fishy! control panel reminds me of something...

Cool.

Lol keep firing ********!

 

[GalBrew]

Just putting the finishes to my new rig. 3v, 70L/50L/70L, still need to install the Hx and build a control panel.

 

[KingKong]

Just putting the finishes to my new rig. 3v, 70L/50L/70L, still need to install the Hx and build a control panel.

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Breed a couple of winners Galbrew? Group 1

 

[GalBrew]

That was my grandad who owned a couple of nags, back in the late 70's early 80's. Not quite group 1, but they look nice in the bar. A few wins, but the probably made better glue??

 

[KingKong]

Be a good way to name a few 'winning' beers ! ! Im sure they have some great racing names and stable names.

 

[Camo6]

Had some time off this week and made a few updates to the brew rig.

All hosetails replaced with quick disconnects from Nev, added some hose insulation and insulated the HLT and HEX with armaflex from Lukec. Tempted to insulate the MLT but not sure how it would stand up so close to the spiral burner. I think its rated to 200*c so would probably be OK. Anyone had any problems doing this?

 

[Danwood]

Here's a couple of doodles of my proposed 98l recirculated BIAB rig.

If any learned brewers out there can see any faults I can't, speak up please.

The pump is a LBP, which probably is not powerful enough for my needs. The head will only be 60-70cm with 2x 90 degree elbows in the line, but I want an even distribution of heat through the mash and maybe a bit of mash agitation too. I'll see how I go and upgrade if needed.

The kettle baffle plate (for trub/hops later on) will hinder the pick-up while recirc ing, but I was thinking the occasional erratic stir should help filter crap back into the pick-up.

Geordi in Melbourne are fabricating the wort return probe, just waiting for a quote.

Cheers,

Dan

 

[kymba]

Hey danwood, I was going to get all fancy with my rig like yours, but ended up going with this. It's a 98L 'ex' BIAB rig that now uses a decommissioned 50L keg as the 'bag'. The keg can hold over 20kg of cracked grain with some persuasion

I have a craftbrewer green pump and it has just enough enough grunt to recirculate nicely through the copper manifold and the cuts on the top of the keg...mind you it is also pushing the wort though a 3m hex coil so a lbp may be ok

one thing - make sure that you are able to hoist the basket out, because 20kg of wet grains weigh a bit more than 20kg of them dry

what batch size/s are you looking at doing?

 

[Cocko]

Kymba,

Can you please explain wort flow on your rig?

Looks awesome and I am very keen to know what is happening here....

So, the keg has the grain in. It runs out the top? into the pot? then confused?

Please explain?

By no means questioning that it works, just do not get it from the pix.

I am looking at building a rig in a big vessel, and this may be the answer... if I can make sense of it.

:icon_cheers:

 

[kymba]

yeah cox you got it...after it runs out the slots and back into the big pot it goes through a hex then returns back through the copper manifold in the bottom of the keg

you'd go alright at lifting the keg out of the pot as you have a strong forearm, apparently

 

[Cocko]

Awesome.

Gotcha....

Great built Kymba. Seriously, well designed mate.

A little bit jealous, TBH. Any chance of a vid of brew day? yc.

 

[kymba]

i just cbf with all the 'malt pipe' bs that was flying around and simplified it

raise it up, turn the elbow 180 degrees then sparge like a mad c*nt

 

[Danwood]

Hey danwood, I was going to get all fancy with my rig like yours, but ended up going with this. It's a 98L 'ex' BIAB rig that now uses a decommissioned 50L keg as the 'bag'. The keg can hold over 20kg of cracked grain with some persuasion
I have a craftbrewer green pump and it has just enough enough grunt to recirculate nicely through the copper manifold and the cuts on the top of the keg...mind you it is also pushing the wort though a 3m hex coil so a lbp may be ok

one thing - make sure that you are able to hoist the basket out, because 20kg of wet grains weigh a bit more than 20kg of them dry

what batch size/s are you looking at doing?

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Mine's fancy ?? You're the one with the system capable of producing quadruple-mega-uber barley wines...20kg of grain...Jeez ! Nice set up.

I have a perforated 20l stockpot as the basket (I'd love a larger SS mesh basket one day) with a bag inside. I could probably get around 10kg of grain at a push.
I was thinking I might be able to squeeze out 3 cubes if I really pushed the limits (60-70ish litres post boil)...I'd be adding the hops veeerrrry carefully though, with spray bottle in hand. Boil-overs suck balls !!

The CB pump is the same as the green Keg King/Kaixin pumps, I'm guessing? They're what I'd be looking at if an upgrade is needed, maybe a Chugger if I'm feeing flush. Both mag drive and around 20l per min, as opposed to the 8l per min of the LBP.
I have a controller to limit the pumps speed too.

I thought the probe was the best way to ensure a decent spread of heat throughout the mash, especially if I need to fire up the burner if temp drops too much (I'm shopping for materials for an insulating jacket atm) or if I'm using a larger grain bill as the mash will be thicker.

Hoisting is no problem. I already have a double pulley rigged up.

The to-do list is

• Drill pot - 3 way ball valve, thermometer and lid wort-return holes.
• Affix SS work surfaces - Both under the Birko HLT (sat on the pot lid for the photo) and large one to the right of the pot.
• Affix pump and controller to a heat protected plate (although the car wheel rim {thanks to Yob for the idea} which the 4 ring is mounted in does a great job of focussing the heat....burns nice and blue too..no sooting)
• Connect everything up and get used to my new brewery !!!

Cheers,

Dan

 

[Danwood]

Oh, and Kymba...a bit less crotch in any photos you post in the future please

And is that pot from a bulk buy a while back ? Looks very similar to mine. If so, how's it going ?

 

[kymba]

hey dan, as long as you use pellets you can knock out a quad batch in this sized pot no worries, you just need to go a bit over gravity then top up to final volume after the boil, but i think this size pot is awesome for triples

yeah pretty sure the pump is the the same as a kaixin

The pot wasn't from the bulk buy, I got it from DNSS hospitality on ebay and it is a POS. The base delaminated a while ago and i thought i could weld it back on, but it is a sandwiched piece of aluminium so no welding. I tried bolting it on but that was **** as it expands a fair bit on the burner so i fkd it off all together. Now the bottom of the pot has 16 SS M8 button head bolts through it

I also run the burner during mash steps and it is too easy, not like with the bag

lastly, you'll need more than a double pulley if you move to a bigger malty pipe. mine is reduced 4 times and i still have to swing from it to get it to budge

oh, and sorry about the sausage, i was sucking my gut in and forgot to move the hot dog aside

 

[Yob]

Version 3.0 or something.. not sure..

upgraded MT to 80l with a new manifold, upgraded Kettle to 120l, still faffing about getting it to seal at the tap properly but should be good to go for a run tmoz.



Element in HLT blew last brew and KK replaced it with their new one no questions asked so the HLT got a touch up today too.. only thing that hasnt been touched today is the HEX h34r:





Really looking forward to giving this a burl tmoz

:icon_chickcheers:

 

[Yob]

well that was different... ended up a little short on volume, couple of L, nothing serious, small cockup with the wort return twisting and spraying wort up the wall, half my losses probably right there.. no measuring stick as yet so just sort of winged it.. I had reduced my eff. to 70% and had a pre boil estimate of 1058 and was 1065, with almost 1075 post boil.. h34r: probaly should have added a few liters but without a measuring stick I wasnt to know.

Ive got 2 cubes out at the end of the day so im happy, these big pots behave so different at whirlpool, perhaps I should leave longer to compact better or adjust pickup to allow for more losses, I was picking up more trub at the end of the second cube than Im used to from a keggle. Perhaps the addition of a WP pump return would help? I was pretty much over the manual WP with me big old spoon pretty quickly.

anyway, tits, next brewday will aim for 75lt output... today was enough to keep me out of trouble for a while though.. Stoked

 

[Muzduk]

Not sure if these have been posted before but anyway thought they may be good for esky mash tuns especially .
Check out the farmers mailbox website. $7.95 ea atm

 

[browndog]

Hi all,

Just made a thread in the DIY section here http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/74654-4v-electric-herms-build/ but thought I'd chuck a couple of photos in here too! Here's my 99% finished rig, brewed for the first time on the weekend on it.

Cheers

Fishy

Where did your graphics come from? they look amazing.