Sully's Brewrig

[Sully]

Hi Guys,

Well, after having to postpone my brewday yet again, I thought I would share a few pics of the progress of the brewrig. Hopefully only a couple of things left to do on it. Feel free to comment on any flaws you may see with it. HERMS system with a seperate heat exchange.

Thanks to TidalPete for his help and putting up with the neverending barrage of questions :beerbang: , as well as eveyone on here that has posted useful info for us noobs to follow.

2 Weeks til it gets christened...

...and from this day forth she will be known as "Creekside Brewery"

 

[Sully]

more pics..

 

[NickB]

Mate, that's looking absolutely brilliant!

I finally got my March Pump yesterday, so looking around for ideas to 'borrow' for my brewstand

Quick question - what sort of connectors have you gone with? They sort of look like snap lock connectors or something (I'm a bit clueless on these things!!!)

Cheers

 

[David Sinclair]

Very nice quite similar to mine but i don't have the digital temp controls/control box yet - it's a working progress. Where did you get those temp controllers?

Looks the goods, hope unlike me you don't have too many teething problem your first voyage out. By the looks of that system it should be smooth sailing.

 

[TidalPete]

Great job Sully. :super:

You certainly have put a lot of time & effort into your brewframe. Those connectors look fabulous but when are we going to see the other bits?
Just one question ATM --- I presume hinging & swinging your kettle is your way of keeping the heat off the rest of your equipment?
Really looks good Dan. :icon_cheers:

TP

 

[jeddog]

Mate, that's a bloody ripper.....

good work!


Lets brew some great beer

 

[browndog]

Outstanding work there Sully, but mate, you are going to have to do a 1hr boil with some water in your kettle to burn all that nice paint away before brew day, otherwise things are going to get smelly.

cheers

Browndog

 

[Sunshine_Brewer]

friggin awesome their sully, i'd like to get something similiar going this year too!

Im sure your beers will taste as good as that brewrig looks!

 

[Sully]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Quick question - what sort of connectors have you gone with? They sort of look like snap lock connectors or something (I'm a bit clueless on these things!!!)

SS camlocks - Tony Powell Fittings in Geebung (or Salisbury) were the cheapest local source I found - about $10 +GST ea. I didnt like the gaskets that were in them (black rubber) so I got some Silicone material from a mob in Brendale and cut my own.

Very nice quite similar to mine but i don't have the digital temp controls/control box yet - it's a working progress. Where did you get those temp controllers?
Looks the goods, hope unlike me you don't have too many teething problem your first voyage out. By the looks of that system it should be smooth sailing.

The HLT controller is a MashMaster and the HE Controller is a Tempmate from Craftbrewer. I am hoping for smooth sailing too, fingers crossed.

Those connectors look fabulous but when are we going to see the other bits?
Just one question ATM --- I presume hinging & swinging your kettle is your way of keeping the heat off the rest of your equipment?
Really looks good Dan.
TP

Yeah, soon... was hoping to spend the time yesterday getting the rest done, but, well you know the story

Hopefully have the beerbelly falsie on monday so will upload some more when that arrives and the plumbing is in place.

The hinging of the kettle was to do exactly that, but it was also to have less protruding out the sides as well to make it a little more compact and be able to store the Gas Bottle underneath when not in use. I will still put up some sort of heat shield at some stage though .

Mate, that's a bloody ripper.....

good work!

Lets brew some great beer

Thanks.. yeah, definately... :super:

Hi Sully,

The return manifold to your mash tun appears fixed.

What happens if you have different grain bills?

My herms return slides up and down and just sits on top of the grain bed. This way the grain bed is not disturbed.

It is not toatally fixed, I can unscrew it from just underneath the lid and put on a shorter length. the arms are just push fit with a SS screw holding them in place. It will get calibrated to an average set height on the first couple of brewdays. I have looked at the adjustable height setup, next re-incarnation

Outstanding work there Sully, but mate, you are going to have to do a 1hr boil with some water in your kettle to burn all that nice paint away before brew day, otherwise things are going to get smelly.

cheers

Browndog

Yeah I realise that, just got carried away painting it but I will be repainting the top bit with Hi Temp Pot Belly Stove Black. Still not as nice as Charcoal Hammertone finish though.


STILL TO DO:

HE Coil

Keggle polished and fittings

Grain Mill

Plumbing

Minor frame tweaks

Cheers :icon_cheers:

 

[Sully]

friggin awesome their sully, i'd like to get something similiar going this year too!

Im sure your beers will taste as good as that brewrig looks!

Cheers :icon_cheers:


Sully

 

[technocat]

Congratulations Sully nice setup. This rig will make your brew day easier and more consistant.

 

[Screwtop]

It is not toatally fixed, I can unscrew it from just underneath the lid and put on a shorter length. the arms are just push fit with a SS screw holding them in place. It will get calibrated to an average set height on the first couple of brewdays. I have looked at the adjustable height setup, next re-incarnation

Nothing to worry about, I use a length of 1/2" copper pipe with a flap on the end to fan out returning wort, it is submerged during a double batch and above the surface for a single. Tried all sorts of shower heads and pipes with holes drilled in them etc, the spray head types blocked up with small grist particles and the horizontal pipe ones with holes drilled in the bottom were a waste of time as wort only dribbled out of the first half dozen or so holes. When ramping up I have the return valve fully open, once to mash temp I throttle back to a very slow flow for the duration of the rest to allow the grainbed to settle and filter, there is never an issue with disturbing the grainbed with such a slow flow, and with a double batch when the return is submerged the grainbed is so deep there is still no problem, the same when continuous sparging, the flow out to the kettle and in from the HLT are very slow so no probs.

Cheers,

Screwy

 

[yardy]

Bloody Nice Job Sully B)

Cheers
Yard

 

[Kleiny]

Sully looking great

The HERMS seems to be located to close to the pump i don't think you will get a hose and couplings between them, The HERMS doesn't look like its mounted yet so possibly wait until you can put a piece of hose in between to get a comfortable distance.
Unless you were to loop the hose.

Good work
Kleiny

 

[Pumpy]

Sully ,

One of the neatest looking breweries I have seen for a long time has all the bells and whistles too .


pumpy

 

[raven19]

Brew p0rn Brew p0rn Brew p0rn Brew p0rn!!!

I like the flexibility gained by adding the hinged kettle too.

Nice work Sully. Look forward to the next round of piccies.

Cheers!

Edit - added this to my shortcut library for future reference. Will come in handy!

 

[Cannibal Smurf]

Hey Sully,

I'd take a chance and guess you drew this up in cad before you built it, would you mind sending me the .dwg file? Looks like an awesome rig and I've been planning one myself...can I steal your design ;-) maybe modify it a little to suit my needs. Also, if you were to build it again, what mods would you make to your current design?

Cheers

 

[Sully]

Thanks for all the positive comments so far... at least I know I am on the right track.

Nothing to worry about, I use a length of 1/2" copper pipe with a flap on the end to fan out returning wort, it is submerged during a double batch and above the surface for a single. Tried all sorts of shower heads and pipes with holes drilled in them etc, the spray head types blocked up with small grist particles and the horizontal pipe ones with holes drilled in the bottom were a waste of time as wort only dribbled out of the first half dozen or so holes. When ramping up I have the return valve fully open, once to mash temp I throttle back to a very slow flow for the duration of the rest to allow the grainbed to settle and filter, there is never an issue with disturbing the grainbed with such a slow flow, and with a double batch when the return is submerged the grainbed is so deep there is still no problem, the same when continuous sparging, the flow out to the kettle and in from the HLT are very slow so no probs.
Cheers,
Screwy

Thanks for the heads up, I was going to suckitnsee for the first few brews. I have also got a 60L round mashtun to use for double batches down the track that I need to make a return manifold for.

Sully looking great

The HERMS seems to be located to close to the pump i don't think you will get a hose and couplings between them, The HERMS doesn't look like its mounted yet so possibly wait until you can put a piece of hose in between to get a comfortable distance.
Unless you were to loop the hose.

Good work
Kleiny

Yeah, not bolted up as yet but thanks for the headsup, will keep that in mind when I do.

Hey Sully,

I'd take a chance and guess you drew this up in cad before you built it, would you mind sending me the .dwg file? Looks like an awesome rig and I've been planning one myself...can I steal your design ;-) maybe modify it a little to suit my needs. Also, if you were to build it again, what mods would you make to your current design?

Cheers

Certainly did (actuallly in REVIT - should have done it in 3d, just too lazy) and you're quite welcome to it, although a very basic schematic. Send me a PM with an email addy and I will forward it on (let me know what ACAD you have so I can export it in that version).

I cant think of any changes with the stand itself just yet, see what happens after the first few brews though. The main thing was to try to be as compact as possible without having the hassle of setting everything up over and over, and keeping everything within the footprint of the frame when not in use. I sort of acheived that. One thing that I did come up with - after the fact though - was to have the brains box spin around so that it faces inwards when not in use - next re-incarnation maybe.

What I would like to do is add a few more 'bling bits' to it, maybe a second pump to fly sparge on the agenda, but its one of those things of will it be an overkill or not as batch sparging is just as effective and could use those $$ for hops n grain. Would have loved to put solenoids on the ball valves for automation, more for the cool factor. I didnt want to hard plumb any of the piping at this stage, only just because I liked the idea of being able to dismantle easily to clean it, but that is also on the cards if I can see it being viable. The only other thing is build it out of stainless, but wouldn't we all..(well most of us).

Words of advice - just make sure you are happy with everything on paper first before you go cutting holes in things also. Some things I ended up adapting after drilling holes, but then changed my mind. It didnt originally start out being a HERMS system.

Cheers again,

Sully

 

[Cocko]

Hey Sully,

Only advice I can offer is to give it to me to test for you for a year or so and I will report back!!

Seriously though, fickin nice looking rig mate, I hope know you will know out some killer brews on that puppy!

Good work! You have given a lot for up comers to aspire to!

Cheers
Cocko

 

[Sully]

Hey Sully,

Only advice I can offer is to give it to me to test for you for a year or so and I will report back!!

Seriously though, fickin nice looking rig mate, I hope know you will know out some killer brews on that puppy!

Good work! You have given a lot for up comers to aspire to!

Cheers
Cocko

Mate I will have to test it properly myself over a few years yet before its passed on to the next level of quality assurance, you know litigation and all that crap...


Cheers