Tonys Ag Brew Rig

[Tony]

Well i have had a bad case of the gunna's in the last year or so.

I have been "gunna" built a frame for all this AG brewing equipment i have gathered so i dont have to work off the floor but it hasnt happened for some reason or another.

I have a control pannel for it and all the gear set up, I have a march pump sitting in its box waiting for it to get built.

Well i welded her up last night. Got called in to a breakdown at work and finnished up at 11pm.

Finished welding her up at 2am this morning :blink:

Its made from 40x40x2 painted RHS. Used about 12 meters all up.

Now all i have to do is costruct, plumb, wire and paint the thing and i will have a brewery of my own

Will keep ya all posted with regular updates. Im all motivated now that ive seen it on the stand.

IT MUST BE DONE !!!

cheers

 

[Jye]

Im in the same situation as you Tony, since I got a pump I have been working on the floor to make sure everything works at the same level. I have been looking for old bed frames so I can make something like Justins, but I scores an aluminium frame from uni yesterday that is nearly perfect and will give it a go in the next few weeks.

Look forward to seeing how you put yours together.

Cheers
Jye

 

[Steve]

Tony I think your bar and bar stool in the background probably needs an upgrade too! I can just image you sat there scratching your head beer in hand wondering what to do next with the new brewstand :lol: :lol:
Cheers
Steve

 

[Justin]

LOL Steve!

Very nice Tony. She's under way. Will be a ripper

 

[Tony]

Im planing to plumb it so i can pump from any vessel to any vessel.

I have solenoids on the HERMS to rotare between heating and bypass depending on the temp of the wort comming out of the bottom of the mash ton.

I have it wired up so that the solenoils can be run in auto mode and switch via the mash temperature or manual operation.

Will have a pickup and return half way up the kettle too to wirlpool the wort around the imersion chiller as it cools.

The HLT has a 3600w HWS element in it and will be switched via a 40 amp solid state relay to holw whatever temperature i want.

that will be handy for step mashes cause i can crank up the temp in the HLT and the mash ton on the temperature controllers and it will slowly heat to the next temperature rest.

I wont be using this for going from a 50 deg to 67 deg step but mashing in at 60 deg and slowly rainsin the temp to 67 or so for lighter lagers will be fun to experiment with.

cheers

 

[Tony]

Tony I think your bar and bar stool in the background probably needs an upgrade too! I can just image you sat there scratching your head beer in hand wondering what to do next with the new brewstand :lol: :lol:
Cheers
Steve

[post="129281"][/post]​

Ive got the 10 tap "harbour Bridge" on order for it.

thats where my 2 year old twin daughters sit and have a beer while daddy plays with brewing



cheers

 

[spog]

in the same boat as you tony,gunna get my ag system going, now as per previous post,s i said i am nearly there, well it,s true. just got some minor (to me major) bit,s to tweek.(bit like posting photos of last years trip to nz and waiting for my lad to come home and show me how) SHIT i wonder where the hell he went! :blink:

 

[hupnupnee]

Looking good Tony,

BTW how are you going to use that pig shaped keg on the left. I've had one laying around here for ages. Mines got the threaded hole in the middle of the side of the keg?

floculator

tim

 

[roger mellie]

Looking good Tony,

BTW how are you going to use that pig shaped keg on the left. I've had one laying around here for ages. Mines got the threaded hole in the middle of the side of the keg?

floculator

tim

[post="129563"][/post]​

Hupnupnee

If its the same type as a mate of mine has, its double skinned. He cut off the outer skin and was left with an capsule shape - perfect for a kettle after attack with an angle grinder - but not self supporting.

He had to bung up the hole in the middle and add some legs.

RM

 

[Tony]

this one isnt one with the hole in the middle.

It is just like a regular one and i cut the top out and have done many boils in it.

It handles a 50 liter batch with ease.

cheers

 

[Tony]

Well i know she aint much to look at yet but its getting there.

I have mounted the wheels and the temperature control panel.

I mounted the mongolian burner today and plumbed in the pilot light on the burner to let some of the hair grow back onto my arm

Here are some pics

next i will be mounting the mash ton on a hinge so it can be tilted back to clean out the grain without having to lift it down or scoop it out.

Might try to get the HLT wired up and running before friday when im doing my"hoppy wheat beer" and then it will be full steam ahead on the plumbing.

When its all done i will have to pull it all apart and paint it. No point painting the frame while im rolling it on the concrete and drilling and tapping away now is there.

cheers

 

[MHB]

Tony
I am building a bigish boiler pot, could you tell me how much clearance do you need from the bottom of the burner to the underside of the kettle?
I like the amount of air available through the punch plate burner support.

MHB

 

[Tony]

I have a ring welded on to bottom of the kettle to give me about about 3 inches clearance.

3 or 4 inches is perfect i recon, too close and the flame is smothered.

these puppies throw a fair flame.

the perfirated plate is 316 stainless thanks to working in the food industry h34r:

I like it cause it will let lots of air through but deflect somo of the downward radient heat that these burners produce.

will see how it goes on friday. I have to make a mod to it so i can get in to light the flame. I cant get at it with the kettle on top :unsure:

cheers

 

[MHB]

Tony
A plumbing supply or good hardware might have a pizeo(?) electric spark igniters, they use them on hot water systems and gas heaters, comes with 300-400mm of wire, just press the little red button.

MHB

 

[Tony]

yeah i was thinking of going that way.

Another gadget for the rig

cheers

 

[Tony]

turned on the gas and lit the main burner.

I seems to stave its self and a pool of un-burnt gas sits under the kettle. It comes out the vents under the kettls and licks of flame run up the side of the kettle.

I think i need to move the burner down a coumpe of inches to let more air in and seperate the flame from the kettle.

It only does this on high flame. I am doing a brew tomorrow so i will se what happens and fix as required.
cheers

 

[Tony]

Yep the burner mounting needs attention.

It wouldnt let enough air circulate and i couldnt crank up the flame.

It boiled it well but i had lots of orange flame and soot everywhere. Maybe this is the problem people have when they complain of soot. I had it under bricks with the kettle sitting on them and it worked fine.

I will drop the burner 2 inches for more air and see how she goes.

Will post a pic when done

cheers

 

[ausdb]

Yep the burner mounting needs attention.

It wouldnt let enough air circulate and i couldnt crank up the flame.

It boiled it well but i had lots of orange flame and soot everywhere. Maybe this is the problem people have when they complain of soot. I had it under bricks with the kettle sitting on them and it worked fine.

I will drop the burner 2 inches for more air and see how she goes.

Tony is that stainless ring actually welded to the base of your kettle, or is it removable? If its removable then try removing that and seeing if it makes a difference. I went from using a 50L keg that still had the chimb around the bottom to a flat bottomed stock pot with a variety of different burners. I can easily get 55L of wort to the boil with only three rings of a 4 ring burner going with the flat bottomed pot yet when using the keg I used to use a blowtorch (more output than a nasa and louder!) to get the same thing happening. I also messed around with setting the keg on bricks and trying the various combinations of burners and the ring around the base of the keg seems to prevent complete combustion.

hth

 

[Gopha]

Tony
Regarding your Mongolian Burner.

• The burner must run flat out to prevent sooting.

• If you are using a pilot light you sould incorporate thermocouple linked to flame fail gas valve, this would make for a safer installation. From memory a mongolian burner has 200 a megajoule output and can be quite scary on a windy day.
• Cheers
• Gopha

Tony,
Further to my previous reply regarding the sooting of your burner also check that is meant for LPG,
a natural gas burner will work on LPG but you get very long soft sooty flames.
If you are interested i can post some photos of a burner set up with flame failure.
Cheers.
Gopha

 

[Tony]

Gopha.

I used it many times with no sooting probs and it will run low without soot as long as you dont get it down to orange flame.

ausdb.

very good point.

It seems with these burners you need max flow of air to get them working.

the ring is welded on but would be easy to remove with a grinder. Problem is it doesnt have a flat bottom to mount it on, hence why i welded the ring on there.

might get a hole saw and do some drilling to increase the airflow potential of the ring to let more flame burn under it and also i think lowerein it will let more air in.

Now that i look at the set up its very restrictive.

like a 1 inch exhaust on my 5 Liter ute.

THe ute has a 3 inch open exhaust, the rig needs one too

cheers