The Dream Rig / Technique

[Nodrog]

What would you do differently building your rig next time, specifically to save time on brew day?
(and brew higher vols to reduce brew freq, or increase consump on same brew freq.....!)

not saying money is no object, but if a few $$s can save 20mins every time I brew, I'm interested.

So far I have:
electric heating HLT(?), so can programme mash in temp on STC, and timer clock, be ready to roll first thing in the am or after work.
Volume set up for max realistic in FV, i bottle, so no keg concerns. Thinking can get away with 25-28 litres. Am looking for a bigger FV to maximise ferment volume in the fridge.

Best burner i can find to get up to boil quickly.

Kettle has been struggling with BIAB size, so I Biab in an eski. Will a mash tun / batch sparge take much longer?

Am using an IC with whirlpool pump and iced water for the last stage, no water saving concerns in the rainy isle, and don't have to revisit the brew next day, better with SWMBO that way.

Any other ideas to save time on the day?
equipment and technique?

 

[kelbygreen]

Well I pump out 42lts into cubes in about 4.5 hours on my rig, I could do a tripple batch but it will stretch the system and It should only take 30 mins extra at most. If you want to save time do a bigger brew. BIAB is good but for me it isnt right, It all depends what you want to do. For doubles I find it better to no chill as you dont want to ferment and drink the same beer at the same time, So the brew goes into 2 cubes so you can ferment them when you want/need to. I want to put in a herms system so I get clearer wort (one of the reasons I went from BIAB) and also can do step mashes without infusing which is a pain to do and time consuming as you have to manually heat the water and then refill the HLT for the mash out and heat that up.

There is many options and what suits you may be different to me or any one else.

edit: Oh and a pump makes life so much easier to transfer from HLT and mash tun and also to recuirc the wort. The kettle just siphons into the cubes

 

[ekul]

If i was building again i'd start with a big stainless pot, 100-140L. Then i'd buy two bags from Ross and a pulley from somewhere. And i'd also install a tap (i've been siphoning for over a year). And a herms on my biab pot to keep temps stable.

Then i'd install 3 coldrooms. One side would be for fermenting, one for cold crashing and the other for storing my 50L kegs.

Then i'd employ 8 strippers and tell them to start brewing, while i sat out on the deck doing lines and watching the other 10 strippers frolicking in the pool thinking about how awesome it is to have unlimited amounts of money

 

[jlm]

Bandito was well on his way to building the ultimate time saving rig......18 months later there's a couple of 3d monitors and a giant butterfly valve but little else. Location is a big one for me.... Having recently moved I realise how lucky I've been to be able to leave my setup basically ready to go and have power + water close by. Now I have to brew out side I lose a lot of time just setting up and packing everything away again.

 

[stakka82]

Then i'd employ 8 strippers and tell them to start brewing, while i sat out on the deck doing lines and watching the other 10 strippers frolicking in the pool thinking about how awesome it is to have unlimited amounts of money

like

 

[QldKev]

like

Double lick like....

 

[peaky]

Then i'd employ 8 strippers and tell them to start brewing, while i sat out on the deck doing lines and watching the other 10 strippers frolicking in the pool thinking about how awesome it is to have unlimited amounts of money

:lol:

 

[pk.sax]

I want an island and unlimited supply of ammo

 

[fcmcg]

I want an island and unlimited supply of ammo

And your home country was us to supply it uranium....PK you are mad lol

 

[alfadog]

If i was building again i'd start with a big stainless pot, 100-140L. Then i'd buy two bags from Ross and a pulley from somewhere. And i'd also install a tap (i've been siphoning for over a year). And a herms on my biab pot to keep temps stable.

Then i'd install 3 coldrooms. One side would be for fermenting, one for cold crashing and the other for storing my 50L kegs.

Then i'd employ 8 strippers and tell them to start brewing, while i sat out on the deck doing lines and watching the other 10 strippers frolicking in the pool thinking about how awesome it is to have unlimited amounts of money

I am failing to see where the strippers are having a pillow fight?

Or is that just me?

 

[Jace89]

I wonder if strippers could actually make beer....



Stupid thought who gives a flying f**k.

 

[black_labb]

When the element in my urn died I built up an electric keggle (50L). I started using the urn as a BIAB mash tun and was able to do 2 cubes by doing a fair bit of sparging. I've been making the 2 cubes into different beers by cube hopping differently, sometimes steeping some grain on the side before adding to one cube and sometimes using different yeasts. This works out really well as I don't tend to drink huge amounts of beer but really like having a variety available.

My most different beers I did were probably an amber ale and a nice dubble. I made the amber as a base and fermented it with an english ale yeast. the other cube I steeped some more crystal grains, added some dark belgian candy sugar and fermented on 1214. You couldn't pick them as being the same batch at all, though I'm not all that happy with the amber ale.

I've since started using an esky for mashing (using 2 BIAB bags in the esky) just because we got a new one and it works well. There is still one working element in the urn so I've started using it for the sparge water.

I love the brewing system for me, though it may not suit you

 

[punkin]

If i was building again i'd start with a big stainless pot, 100-140L. Then i'd buy two bags from Ross and a pulley from somewhere. And i'd also install a tap (i've been siphoning for over a year). And a herms on my biab pot to keep temps stable.

Then i'd install 3 coldrooms. One side would be for fermenting, one for cold crashing and the other for storing my 50L kegs.

Then i'd employ 8 strippers and tell them to start brewing, while i sat out on the deck doing lines and watching the other 10 strippers frolicking in the pool thinking about how awesome it is to have unlimited amounts of money

Didn"t work out so well for Charlie Sheen :icon_drunk:

 

[Rina]

Didn"t work out so well for Charlie Sheen :icon_drunk:

I don't know about that. He's got a new job/sitcom and 'Two and Half Men' is certainly shittier (questionable value in the first place) without him (proving his point that he was the star). Though walking from 1.8 million an episode is pretty stupid. Swings and roundabouts.

 

[Nodrog]

definitely like the ideas, 8 strippers brewing and 10 frolicking sounds like an ideal balance.
Although frolicking in the giant hot-tub would be much better than the pool. :icon_chickcheers: :icon_chickcheers:

Given that time saving was in order to keep SWMBO happy, i'm not entirely sure its going to fly, but hey, shouldn't let that get in the way of a good idea

btw $$s were certainly limited, but some modest expenditure can be justified if it saves time

:icon_cheers:

 

[ekul]

Well if its about time saving, the easiest solution is to brew bigger and nochill (if you aren't already). If you want to save space as well then check out this rig http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=52148 He has 25L cubes, so if you're kegging (ie 18-20L) batches then you could just fill each cube to 20L and knock out 5 cubes a brwday.

I find the two bag/big pot setup is great for triple batches. Its nearly the same effort as a single when it comes to lifting.

If you want to go the 3V route then you could use a food grade plastic 44 gallon drum for the mash tun, i;ve seen pics of that on here somewhere. Then you could use a stainless steel 44 gallon drum as your kettle. Doing this means that you could knock out 9 cubes per brewday. It would be a big day but you wouldn't need to brew for quite some time.

Actually cocko has a decent looking big rig for sale, maybe you should check out that http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ALL-GRAIN-BREWE...=item4161154a44

Edit to add- another time saving device is kegs! If you got some money to splurge then get a keg setup. Bottling used to take me a few hours. I had to soak the bottles in napisan, then rinse them, then sanitise them, then fill them and finally capping them. I didn't mind it so much, but god it use to take a long time. Even after a party having to collect all the bottles up was a drag. With kegging its connect hose to tap, put other end in keg and fill. Whack in the fridge and drink in a week. Whilst the fermenter is emptying i'm getting a nochill cube ready to tip onto the yeast cake. I can keg a brew and have another one fermenting in about 10mins, usually takes 20 tho because i usually look at other things in the brewery.

If you want to stay with bottles then get one of these http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/three-ques...335/index2.html (couldn't find an ebay link, they're about $30-40.

And i looked at getting one of these, but i moved to kegs so never ended up gettting it http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Brewtal-Home-Br...=item3f1283c562

 

[alfadog]

I'm pretty happy with the BM, saves plenty of time.

Though part of the reason I took up brewing was to get some time away from SWMBO...