Tonys Ag Brew Rig

[Tony]

Jye.... i found these bronve and glass sight glasses in the store at work. Hell they had dust on them, they needed a job to do it works great to. you can see the liquid level going to the pump and if it flow gets a bit slow you can throttle back on the pump outlet and watch it come back up to regulate the speed of the flow.

VL.... I have spent many hrs stewing over this, I know how you feel. Should the temp be taken at the ontlet of the mash or the return from the HERMS.

should it control the HLT temp or the distance between the moon and my arse multiplied by 3.14 ?

worked out today the HLT tank has to be 5 deg hotter than the temp i want to mash returned at. I had the mash and the HLT set at the same temps today and got a 4 deg drop in temp in the mash....... bugger.

I heated it back up, the 3600W element in the HLT heats the water up a 10 deg in just a few minuites so temp differences arnt a wory in there when it comes to sparging.

I recon i will get close next brew and after that..... look out.

Oh and pumpy........ your not the only one with pictures to play with

hehehehehehehehehe

 

[Tony]

I wouldnt call it an american wheat

Id call it a NZ wheat for sure. I was only refering to the typical style. I agree with darren as american beers usually need amarican hops.

I will coment the hops smell and taste great in the wort. Will be interesting to see how they turn out.

the 405 is taken through a bronze sight glass i got. Its got the recirculeatin wort from the mash in it. Clear hey

If you look back on pics of the rig its on the inletto the pump located under the mash tom in the middle.

cheers

 

[Pumpy]

Oh and pumpy........ your not the only one with pictures to play with

hehehehehehehehehe

Well done Tony I asked for that ,

Hey that guy with the Solar panel for a sex machine gets in on all the Brew day pics.

God look how young Ducati Stu looks in that

Pumpy

 

[warrenlw63]

Oh and pumpy........ your not the only one with pictures to play with

hehehehehehehehehe

:lol: :lol: Mmmmm... Pumpy appears a good sort. :wub:

Warren -

 

[Pumpy]

Thats 'Pumpette' :blink:

 

[Tony]

ahhhh i love a good stir.

just an update.....

the Nelson Sauvin Wheat Ale was just getting a slight white foam on it when i got home from work and was bubbling every 30 seconds. Temp was 19 deg.

That was 24 hrs from pitching. 4 hrs later it has 2 inches of foam and is bubbling at a rate of one bubble every 5 or 6 seconds.

oooooooooo shes taking off fast.

I dropped the temp back to 18 deg.

this WLP001 needed 100% wort volume as head space to hold the foam it produces. And that was in the starter that was made with dry light malt extract to 1.030.

this is protein rich 1.046 (70%) wheat ale.......

Oh god i think im going to need a blow of tube.

ahhh i have tomorrow off....... if there is a mess on the lid when i get up i will clean it up and get a coke bottle blow off tube going .

cheers

 

[Tony]

ahhhhh ive had a few beers and i couldnt resist

all in fun boys

cheers

edit: net crashed on me, re loaded pic

 

[Tony]

while i sorted out my internet problems i had time on my hands

cheers

ahhhhhhh im in a good mood.......... i couldnt help myself

hhehehehe

 

[Tony]

Here is an update on the system.

I found that i was loosing lots of temperature when recorculating through the HERMS coil. The slightest breeze ment i needed the HLT at 72 to 74 deg to keep the mash temp at 66 deg and this ment the returning wort was at about 67 to 68 deg.

I made a dry stout with it last and mashed it at 65 deg to get good attenuation but after the wort got heated too much to hold the temp right it only went from 1.046 to 1.018 with WLP001.

So i have come up with a few things to help.

First i will recirculate hot water through the system to reduce the initial high temps i need when mashing in and i insulated the pipework that holds the wort to reduce heat loss.

Problem is i wont be brewing with it till next year now as my new job is keeping me away from home all week.

Here are some pics of the insulation.

cheers all

 

[Pumpy]

Tony the Bulls Head Brewery is looking great , you must be like Casey Jones driving that Steam engine with all them levers switches and buttons .

What are your Solenoids controlling are they SS

What make are they

Can you use just on the water and not the Wort ?


Pumpy

 

[Tony]

hey pumps

The solenoids are stainless. They are ASCO brand ones.

I aquired them from my last job.

I use them on the HERMS and they switch over automaticly to either pump the wort through the heating coil in the HLT or bypass it depending on the mash temp.

cheers.

 

[Pumpy]

Your a legend Tony .

hope you looking settling into the new job well.

look after the Tamworth Flash and the Ugliest cat in the world ( I lost the pic of that perhaps you can post another to scare everyone .

Suppose you no longer in Tamworth .

No more boot scootin !!

Pumpy

 

[Rocket]

Looks good Tony.
Only one question and that is why didnt you put the HLT on a higher teir and use gravity to fly sparge and therefore halving your plumbing hardware?
Doesn't fly sparging give a better efficency?
Also if you reciculate your mash through your HLT and your hot liquor is at at mash temp (say 66c) then you have no need for solinoid valves as your mash can not exceed the desired temp?
Then when it is time for sparging increase the HL to your required temp for sparging?

 

[Tony]

yeah pumps, settling into the new job ok. I dont have access to a computer down in the hunter valley yet so only posting when im home in tamworth on weekends.

And i never boot scooted...... i hate country music. glad to see the last of it.

Rocket: I did it couse i had the stuff and i could

also because each brew is different, they flow differently which means that setting on that temp wont always work. If i have a fast flowing bed it will heat the mash quickly and stop the heat loss but if it is slow it might not be able to cope with heat loss in the system (some mornings i dough in and its -1 or -2 deg c ambient) so i need a hotter HLT than mash temp as it looses a couple of deg during recirculating.

Also went with single tier cause i like to batch sparge. I used to fly sparge but found that efficiency didnt change and when i went to batch sparging and it doesnt channel any more.

cheers and good points made mate.

Oh here is a pic of the flash and the cat

 

[rockitbob]

Hey Tony,
Dont you have tempurate control (theremostat) for your hot liquor tun. If so you can adjust the HLT to the temp you want your mash. When I strike my mash (lets say i want it to start at 66c) i will heat the HL to desired temp (using a digital thermostat) which is higher than my mash temp and when i have mashed in I now have room in my HLT to add some cold water to bring it down to 66c and reciculate. My thermostat then keeps my HLT at a constant 66c or what ever the temp i want it.
If my HLT is at lets say 70c and i want 66 in mash and im reciculating wont it activate more of the beta enzyms as they are in the mash liquor which is travelling through the heat exchange?

 

[rockitbob]

I have tested my liquor that returns to the top of the mash and is the same or 1 degree less than the HLT temp.
Might be because I have insulated plumbing.

 

[Tony]

true.

thats why i nisulated it

cheers

 

[Tony]

Well the rig is getting pulled apart this weekend.

It will be loaded into the ute and shipped to the hunter valley where i hope it keeps up its good work.

I will be doing some more work on it when it gets there like insulating the mash ton and HLT, a bit more work on insulation of the mash recirc piping and adding a caravan plug for power in, an extrrnal isolator for the HLT element and maybe a timer to fire up the HLT before i get out of bed

Might have to do a bit of work on the burner under the kettle to inprove efficiency of the flame, its still not reaching full combustion of the gas. Needs more air flow i recon, some holes around the kettle base and a bit lower with the burner.

Will keep you all informed

cheers

 

[Tony]

well its stipped down and loaded up ready for the trip tomorrow morning.

looks like i have a stoaway

cheers

 

[Franko]

Drive Carefully Tony
will adjust your logo with its new home for you
Franko