Tonys Ag Brew Rig

[kirem]

Very nice Tony, good job BOB.

I love the hinged mash tun. I have a similar solution. I will take some pictures and post them later today.

My brewery goes to work (again) this week to have the SS plumbing done.

I am currently looking at PID control and LPG solenoids for the HLT and Kettle. I am not worried about temp control for the kettle, I would just like to use the least amount of LPG to boil the wort.

K

 

[domonsura]

Tony, I like your rig, good work!
As far as the vent holes goes, I made a ring similar to yours, and I found it necessary to cut 10 vent holes to allow air flow in, and also take a few scallop shapped cuts out of the ring where it meets the vessel to allow a path out, if you understand what i mean..heres a pic.. You can see the vents below, and then the little scallops letting the burn back out.

(not sure if that will work...)
Couldn't get it to burn properly without the vent holes, As soon as I took the little scallops out it burned like a champion!
I like the hinges on the mashtun, that would make the cleanup a WHOLE lot easier!

Best of luck mate!

Edited: Stuffed the image path up......

 

[Tony]

thanks folks.

Its still a work in progress.

Bunyip...... yep barrel unions. I have a few of them in the ststem. they make it easy to break the lines to get t oa blockage or to remove parts.

Browndog.

1. The plumbing will only hold a few hundred mills. I dont really wory about accurate water calculations any more. I brew to have 52 liters in the kettle after chilling. with 7 liters/hrevaporation and a 75 min boil i usually need 62 to 64 liters in the kettle at the start of the boil.
I just mash in to somewhere inbetween 2.5 and 3L/KG (i dont think it makes much difference and at the end of the mash i flood the mash with hot water to rais the mashout temp and help thin it out to make draining it out easier. This is them pumped to the kettle.
I then batch sparge by filling the mash ton to the top again and pump this to the kettle.
I usually end up being a few liters short so i top it up from the tap and then boil it down so if in 2 or 5 or 3 liters short i just top it up. easy

2. i have found with the davey pump i have been using that ti will hold the wort in the kettle at bay when it stops but yeah, its best to close it off and stop the pump once she runs dry.

3. there is a drain tap on the pump outlet that i havnt plumbed in yet. I ran out of copper tube. Basicly i will pump clean water through everything at the end. Will be collecting the initial hot water from the imersion chiller in the HLT for this. 50 liters of 80 deg water should do the trick.

I am excited at the prospect of firing this puppy up. I hope it works ok

cheers

 

[Tony]

well got all the electrics hooked up tonight and gave it a quick run.

Leaked like an old ford.

I found a few fittings missing thread tape and fixed it up.

Teps were spot on, HLT heats up as required, pump pumps everywhere is suposed to.

oooooooooo im all excited.

will be working out thermal masses before the sunday maiden voyage.

I hope its not a titanic clone.

cheers

 

[Ash in Perth]

hey not all old fords leak, mine doesnt.

Cant wait to hear how it all goes.

 

[Tony]

thanks wally, there are a few icebergs in tamworht latly, its cold enough.

will take a few pics of the pending disaster as it happens

Ash...................... there is no help for you.

How will you ever be a great comercial brewer if you can never get to work due to a crap car.

get a holden!

ahhhh ive always been a holden boy but my first car was a little '78 ford escort and it was tops

123km hr terminal spped down hill in 4th. yeeeeeeeee haaaaaaaaa

the ute winds off the clock past 240

cheers

 

[poppa joe]

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH..... Now you done it Tony(.....leaks like an old Ford.... )
My "37 Ford does not leak as much as your setup.Ford Owners Unite.....
Cheers
PJ

 

[Franko]

Very nice work there Tony your an Inspiration good to see the "BULLS HEAD BREWERY" taking shape
well done

 

[Tony]

AHHH i knew id get a bite on that one

all in fun

cheers

Oh and franko, i will be sticking a label on there somewhere when its done.

 

[Steve]

Holy crap Tony!!! I saw a few pics earlier on in the thread and then stopped following the thread...Jeesuz - that thing reminds me of my old high schools boiler room! Sensational effort. Wish I knew how to use more than a hammer, screwdriver and one of those spanner socketey rachety things! :blink:
Cheers
Steve

 

[big d]

Looking good tony.Only thing i would suggest you change in the future would be the location of your control box.Other than getting hot under there i reckon a more user friendly working height will be appreciated after you get tired of bending down to turn on/off etc.

Cheers
Big D

 

[Tony]

yeah i thought about that big D but it fitted under there so thats where it went.

once its up and running improvements can start.

cheers

 

[Tony]

Well i ran a brew through it today.

I made an American wheat so th speak... omly i used NZ Nelson Sauvin hop flowers all the way.

I will start with the recipe. without the rice hulls its 70% wheat, 30% ale malt.

Bull Head Wheat Ale

A ProMash Recipe Report

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (L): 52.00 Wort Size (L): 52.00
Total Grain (kg): 11.20
Anticipated OG: 1.047 Plato: 11.77
Anticipated EBC: 7.4
Anticipated IBU: 24.3
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential EBC
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
62.5 7.00 kg. JWM Wheat Malt Australia 1.040 4
26.8 3.00 kg. JWM Traditional Ale Malt Australia 1.038 7
10.7 1.20 kg. Rice Hulls Australia 1.000 0

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.00 g. Nelson Sauvin Whole 11.80 12.4 First WH
35.00 g. Nelson Sauvin Whole 11.80 10.3 15 min.
32.00 g. Nelson Sauvin Whole 11.80 1.6 2 min.


Extras

Amount Name Type Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.10 Oz Irish Moss Fining 15 Min.(boil)


Yeast
-----

White Labs WLP001 California Ale


I underletted and all was well, hit the temp on the head but when i started to recirculate the temperature controller for the HERMS wasnt set up right and it wouldnt read the right temp or recirculate through the heat coul in the HLT.

I cut the puwer, pulled the guts out of the controller and set the dip switches to the right spots (there had to be something i missed) and stuck it back it.

by then the temperature of everything had dropped and the mash was running at about 62 or 63 instead of the 65 to 66 i wanted. NEver mind. I notice the 3 meter coil in the HLT isnt as efficient as i had hoped and the return mash temp was to cool to heat the mash up. Especially as the ambient temp was about 6 deg.

I slowly turned up the heat in the HLT till i got a mash return temp of 67 deg and what do you know the mash bed started to heat back up. It needed to be about 72 deg in the HLT to get this.

The other problem i found was that the heat from the mash just went strait up as i had no lid on it because of the mash return going in the top.

2 things to address before next brew.

1. make a lid that has a slot in it that will cover the top of the mash ton and still allow the sparge arm to sit down in the mash.

2. insulate the bottom of the mash ton. It needs a plastic bag filled with foamafill in there to stop heat loss at the bottom of the mashton.

other than that it want great.

it will take me a few goes to get the temps right but i will just brew beers that are tollerant to a bit of temp fluctioation.

I was very impressed with how clear the wort ended up after at least 1/2 hr recirculating.

I have also added pics of the filter bad similar to the ones ross sells but its finer. About 20 micron i think. I use it to catch the break out of the mash. It works well too.

cheers

 

[Darren]

Looks like a NZ wheat Tony!!

Nice pics too.

cheers

Darren

 

[Pumpy]

Tony considering about a year ago this is where you were with your brewery , and you were making some fantastic beer with the simplest of gear .

You have done a great job and taken it a huge step forward

Pumpy

 

[Jye]

ah... I wondered what this was from your previous pics

Part of my mash return is made from polycarbonate and it is fun to watch the mash clear as it recirculates.

American wheat :beerbang:

 

[vlbaby]

tony,
sounds like your getting your getting the feel for the way your system behaves. You'll sort it all out in time, you seem like a pretty smart cookie to setup what you got. Looks like something NASA built!

I had very similar problems with the temperature when i first fired up my own. I eventually reprogrammed my system to monitor the return wort temperature and modify the HLT setpoint in response to this. Only problem with this was that my HLT temperature at sparge time was not what i wanted. This prompted me to build a seperate HERMS chamber ( which is simply a coil of copper in a s/s kettle), in order to achieve a good level of control without stuffing with the HLT temperature.

Anyhow congrats on the maiden run of your new rig. :beerbang:


cheers


vl.

 

[Darren]

NZ wheat I would say. What is American about it? h34r:

Maybe it is the "405"?

cheers

Darren

 

[Jye]

The yeast

 

[Darren]

Ah, neutral yeast! Not really american though as there are many neutral flavoured yeasts. I always associate American styles with the hop "flavor". Still looks NZ to me! Tony, what part of your brewery have you taken the "405" through?



cheers

Darren

Darren