Tonys Ag Brew Rig

[Tony]

OK

Just dropped the burner 2 inches

this gives me a great airflow potential and it worked

It is roaring like it did when i had it on bricks with lots of blue flame and heat being produced.

It doesnt run flat out as the flame pools and spills out the sides but it doesnt need to under 50 liters. It does it easy.

Bought $96 worth (well they were $147 but they gave them to me trade price B) thats the benifit of being a tradie) of ball valves, nipples, couplings, tee's, barrel unions and compression fittings

I have the 1/2 inch pipe benders from work. Might get a bit of work done on it over the long weekend

I also mounted to mash ton on a 316 SS hinge so i can tip it back easily to hose out. Pic of the hinge is included.

It was cold out so better pics will be forthcomming when its a bit more complete. Will be rough wiring it and running it to work out any bugs. Then when its running right i will strip, paint and finnish it prolerly.


here are some pics

cheers

 

[ausdb]

Just dropped the burner 2 inches

this gives me a great airflow potential and it worked

It is roaring like it did when i had it on bricks with lots of blue flame and heat being produced.

It doesnt run flat out as the flame pools and spills out the sides but it doesnt need to under 50 liters. It does it easy.

Get the holesaw out too Tony and drill the holes you were talking about and it will work even better!

 

[Darren]

Tony,

I found that the first two or three boil-overs blocked a few of the jets on my mongolian burner. From then on I had no sooting problems. 5 years on still going strong. Brings 75 litres to the boil in 20 mins.

cheers

Darren

 

[Tony]

ausdb......

Am planning on it. It will let the air in but it has nowhere to go when its burning now.

I have some 30 mm holes cut in 4 corners of the ring but will have to cut more. The ring is 4mm thick 316 stainless so i might take it to work and attack it with the plasma cutter i think.

Darren. they are awsome burners hey. I can batch sparge and have 40 liters in the kettle before i turn it on and it will boil in 15 min no wories.

My 3 ringer took 45 min.

1/2 hr is 1/2 in my books.

also getting clearer beers since i have better boil too.

cheers

 

[roger mellie]

Impressive bag of SS bits there Tony - I could do with some of those 1/2' Tee Pieces

RM

 

[Darren]

Tony,
I had 25mm x 30cm slots cuts into the bottom of my HLT. The flame laps out nicely.

My kettle is round bottomed .

cheers

Darren

 

[Tony]

Roger..... they are chrome plated brass.

SS would have cost me $20 eash per fitting.

I dont have $1000 to spend on the brew rig.

I did work out that brewing ir myself saves me over $2000 in beer a year.

mmmmmmmmm is that good or bad.

I say Good

cheers

 

[Tony]

Ohhh one thing i will add...... Im thinking of just venting the ring at the back to premote heating at the back of the kettle. This should give me thermal currents in the kettle to circulate the wort while its boiling.

Its just a plan at the moment.

cheers

 

[Tony]

Well i have consumed 2 of those bags of fittings so far and almost finnished.

used about 4 rolls of thread tape, 2 of them got used by my twin daughters, what a mess

I have all the inlet lines to the pump plunbed in and have the xmas tree on the pump outlet half done but will need some more fittings to finnish it off. that will be the 3rd bag.

It will allow me to pump from any vessel to any vessel, i hope

cheers

 

[Chatty]

Tony, the first photo (of the whole set up) won't load - apparently it isn't available. Could you try posting again?

Ok, no fear. it's decided to work properly now. Calm down folks

Chatty

 

[Tony]

well i finished the plumbing :chug: was a big job but worth it.

All that is left is wiring in the solenoids, PT100's and elememt and it should go.

Im hoping on getting some cables roughed in tomorrow for testing and tyding it up later on.

Will give it a "dry" run so to speak with just water to check for leaks and work out thermal masss of the pipes ect for brew day.

My wife looked at it and said............... you can build that but you cant paint the wall in the hall

I replied......... well.......... i'm good at doing this

I still have lots to do. It still needs the drain outlet plumbed in and hard lines to the chiller in the kettle with a line to run hot water to the HLT when it starts cooling the brew for cleaning up or a quick start to a second brew for the day B).

and then the painfull bit.

It will need to be stripped down to nothing again so i can paint the frame.

I have included pics of the plumbing, the mash ton setup with the hinge for easy removal of 10 to 12 KG of grain and my sight glass that mounted above the inlet to the march pump.

cheers

 

[spog]

10/10 nice setup :beerbang: cheers....spog.........

 

[Stuster]

Wow. :wub:

That is amazing, Tony. :super:

 

[browndog]

Spectacular Tony, I bought myself a welder a while back on the pretext of repairing a trailer etc, but in the back of my mind all I thought was "brewstand". I've studied pics of Pumpys brewery and the plumbing looks pretty straight forward, but yours seems to have a few added bits of piping there, mind explaining to the novices how it works?


cheers

Browndog

 

[Tony]

OK...... explain.

Brew with it............ no probs.

Explain it :unsure:

here we go.

left to right are HLT, MT and kettle.

htere are lines running from each of these vessels to the inlet of the pump. each one is isolated by a ball valve. they all meet up and feed through the sight glass so i can see i can see if there is liquid in there and run down to the inlet of the pump (the bottom). This allows me to pump from all 3 vessels.

Now..........

the outlet of the pump has 4 taps running from it.

the first one that goes strait up runs to the HERMS. I can draw from the mash and the temperature of the mash liquor as it exits the mash ton will determine wheather it bypasses of passes through the HERMS. this lin returns to the top of the mash.

Ith second one that faces back will be the drain. THis will be used to pump out the crap when im cleaning up.

The third one that faces up is to underlet to the mash ton. I have fallen in love with this method. pump from the HLT into the bottom of the tom that is already filled with the cracked grain. I can pump onto the top too via the HERMS bypass line.

the 4th tap from the pump outlet is the line to the kettle. When im finished mashing i open up the relivent valves and pump to the kettle. there is a third valve (blue handle) on the kettle. this is a gravity feed out to feed the firmenter. I have found i get a lot less crap from the firmenter if i slowly gravity feed it out instead of the pump smashing the break back into the brew.

hope this helps.

cheers

 

[Tony]

OK here are some pics with some green lines to follow/confuse

cheers

 

[Sunday Brewer]

Really Nice Work Tony !

bless

Sunday Brewer

 

[Zwickel]

Tony thats not fair

Now I dont like my stuff anymore.

Great work mate, its a kind of "Beer Monument"

Cheers :beer:

 

[FNQ Bunyip]

WoW fantastic set up Tony.. :beer:

How do you quickly undo the mash tun / ton ? Barrel union ??

:beer:

 

[browndog]

Thanks for the explanation Tony, much appreciated. I've a few questions.

1 With all that amount of plumbing, how would you accurately measure water from the HLT for the mash or is the amount in the tubing insignificant?

2 When pumping the wort to the kettle, must you quickly close the valve between the pump and the kettle as the last of the wort leaves the pump?

3 How would you go about cleaning all the tubing? do you need a drain tap down by the pump?


cheers

Browndog