Show us your brewrig

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

We used to pump 10 tonnes of mash through a 3" plug valve so it should be OK.

On re-reading this I've made a mistake. The 3" plug valve was on the smaller brewhouse so it only had to pass about 3 tonnes of mash. I can't remember what was on the larger brewhouse as by then we had actual maintenance staff so I didn't have to fix it every time it leaked.

Did I mention how much I hate plug valves and ball valves?

 

[Camo6]

There's more to this than meets the eye. The lautering system is designed to automatically hold a diffferential pressure set point, I don't know of any home scale brewhouse that has incorporated this feature previously. I haven't shown the bits that accomplish this as I don't want to publish it yet.

I built two smaller prototypes and they worked a treat, this is the final proof of concept. I am certain it is patentable but I don't know if it's worth doing so, having been through the wringer some years ago on a wine technology I invented which cost a fortune to develop and went nowhere in the market. The financial effects of that are still plaguing me today.


I will also eventually add automatic control of mash temperature (hence the thermowell) and when I do it will be incorporate a bit of fun: The agitator drive will be linked to the heater controller so the motor goes to 65 RPM x 100% duty cycle when the heater is on and back to 45 RPM x 30% duty cycle when it isn't.

That's better!

 

[Judanero]

Can you provide some more info on the induction unit you've used LC?

I've had my eye on a 3000w 15A one for the 50L pot I've got, still not 100% sure though.

http://www.nisbets.com.au/apuro-induction-cooktop-hob/CE208-A/ProductDetail.raction

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

I wasn't sure on brewing with induction so I went to the local K Mart and bought their $50 cheapie, I've been pleasantly surprised at how well it's worked. I've spilt wort on it a few times and dropped it a couple of times and it hasn't died yet. Honestly if it did I think I'd just buy another one. The instructions are in Engrish but once you work out how it goes it's really easy to use.

Be aware that the rated power is the input power to the RF circuit, these are never 100% efficient so effective output power is a bit less (90% is as good as it gets). The 2 kW unit handled 15 litres quite well though it was a little slow to come to boil. I anticipate it will struggle to cope with 25 litres so I am in the process of putting a second (resistive) heater in the mash / wort kettle. What I think will work is to leave the induction heater on an appropriate setting and control the resistive heater with an STC1000 to achieve the required mash profile. I bought one of Mattrox's profile controllers for this purpose. Similarly, I expect to have to use the resistive heater and the induction heater to get to boil in a reasonable time then cut back to just the induction heater to maintain the boil.

Based on this I think a 3 kW unit will really struggle with 50 litres.

 

[Lethaldog]

Looking at all these fancy rigs is making me feel a little underdone lol, don't know how to put up pics yet but my system as primative as it is consists of 2 10 gallon Rubbermaid coolers, one with false bottom, the other set up for fly sparging and both with ball valve taps and mash master round temp gauges, an 80 litre ally pot with ball valve tap and beer belly hopscreen and a 40 litre ally pot that I generally heat up mash and sparge water in unless I decide to do a single batch then I use it as a kettle but rarely, a big Rambo 4 ring burner that provides adequate heat and a few milk crates here and there for tiers, all gravity fed and you know what I love it[emoji106][emoji16] I generally brew 45-50L batches so it's perfect for me but probably a bit more work than some of the systems I've seen here, nice shiny kits guys[emoji106]

 

[Judanero]

I wasn't sure on brewing with induction so I went to the local K Mart and bought their $50 cheapie, I've been pleasantly surprised at how well it's worked. I've spilt wort on it a few times and dropped it a couple of times and it hasn't died yet. Honestly if it did I think I'd just buy another one. The instructions are in Engrish but once you work out how it goes it's really easy to use.

Be aware that the rated power is the input power to the RF circuit, these are never 100% efficient so effective output power is a bit less (90% is as good as it gets). The 2 kW unit handled 15 litres quite well though it was a little slow to come to boil. I anticipate it will struggle to cope with 25 litres so I am in the process of putting a second (resistive) heater in the mash / wort kettle. What I think will work is to leave the induction heater on an appropriate setting and control the resistive heater with an STC1000 to achieve the required mash profile. I bought one of Mattrox's profile controllers for this purpose. Similarly, I expect to have to use the resistive heater and the induction heater to get to boil in a reasonable time then cut back to just the induction heater to maintain the boil.

Based on this I think a 3 kW unit will really struggle with 50 litres.

Yes that was my thoughts too, I only plan on a maximum of 34L so hopefully it will suffice- the Buffalo brand ones apparently do so I'm hoping it's the case with the Apuro (which I believe is just a re-badge?)

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

so it drains faster?

This turned out to be prophetic: the drainoff rate is far too fast, I could not get the fore runnings to clarify properly. Worse, my efficiency went down to ~ 80% (not helped by spilling some of the early runnings due to an overflow) so I came out about 20% under predicted pre-boil oP .

To cap it all off I evidently overlooked one of the new fittings when cleaning so the whole thing smelt of cutting fluid. Down the drain it went.

 

[Pricey]

Just finished, first brew next week

 

[spog]

Fargin sweeeeet.

 

[droid]

nearly ready to go with this;
image hosting 15mb
LtoR
114ltr HLT and Kettle
76ltr Mash tun with a few doo-dadsto be plumbed outside (recirc and sparge system doubles up on a smaller system but needs alterations to work on this)
WP vessel, chill vessel, hop back thingy yet to be ironed out completely

Happy Days are here!

 

[MartinOC]

Noice new bling...

 

[Mardoo]

Compensating.

 

[droid]

That could be reply of the year right there lol

 

[droid]

Noice new bling...

you know what I like...

 

[Curly79]

Are these little brown pumps the go? I remember there was a link somewhere but can't find it.
http://www.ebay.com.au/ulk/itm/231402254133

 

[nosco]

They are ok for recirc but seize up at boiling temps.

 

[Curly79]

Yeah just for recirculating. Cheers.

 

[fdsaasdf]

Are these little brown pumps the go? I remember there was a link somewhere but can't find it.
http://www.ebay.com.au/ulk/itm/231402254133

They haven't skipped a beat in my brewhouse, have used for recirculating mash and also for pumping from HLT at over 80 deg C. I also know someone who accidentally let his run dry for a few minutes and it's still working happily years later, except when he fills it up with flour...

 

[Adr_0]

Are these little brown pumps the go? I remember there was a link somewhere but can't find it.
http://www.ebay.com.au/ulk/itm/231402254133

And they won't handle decoction mashes. There are a few out there - I have a KK with a variable speed on it, which is a simple triac circuit. Works absolutely brilliantly.

My rig below:


2V + cubes for sparge and final beer if I choose to no chill. 1800W element through an Auber, variable speed KK pump, 2 x STC's purely as monitors. Bottom drains on both kettle and mash tun for zero dead space.

 

[Curly79]

Cheers.It'll just be for Sparge water so all good. I just remember a thread a while ago with a heap of links for them. Ordered one last night. $28 [emoji106]