Justin
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 4/11/03
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Good morning guys.
Sorry this is a long post.
Well as promised several weeks back now, I would post the pictures of my new single tier brewery once it was made. It's taken a few weeks of messing around and tinkering with the smaller bits and pieces due to time restraints, but I finally got it to a stage that I could give it a test brew on the weekend. There are a few little bits and pieces that I have to finish off to complete the system and one or two little modifications that have arisen since actually using the system but for the most part I am pretty damn happy with how it's come out and how it functions. :super:
I was in two minds over weather to go for a two tier and gravity feed from the tun into the kettle, or go for a single tier and pump between all vessels. I was hoping to be able to gravity feed into my fermenter, so once assembled the two tier was still going to have a highish mash tun-high enough to make mashing in a PITA. I DID NOT want to stand on anything to mash in or be awkward while mashing in. After looking at AndrewQLD's single tier brewery and many on the net-his system already had many of the features I was hoping to have in my brewery and I like the clean lines of a one level brewery so I went with the single tier and am very happy I did so. Mashing in is so easy and you can easily monitor all vessels and it just makes it all work so well having them low down. No lifting vessels high at all, easy on, easy off. Scoop the mash out with a jug straight into a bucket for compost disposal. It's great.
I chose to brew a hefeweizen on the weekend, 1. because I was hoping to do one soon and 2. one of my mates gave me a yeast cake of 3638 Bavarian Wheat yeast. I wasn't sure about trialing the brew with a wheat beer, seeing as I was using a new manifold and also learning how to sparge and recirculate with my pump without causing a stuck sparge but I went forward anyway. I was also going to have my first proper go at batch sparging.
I had a late start to the day, later than I normally start because I figured it was going to be an all day affair anyway so I didn't have to start early. Plus I figured there would be a few hiccups so the entire Saturday was donated to brewing. Which was a nice change I can tell you.
Here's the full set up, I've just mashed in and the HLT is heating up again.
The frame was made of 50mm (3mm thick) angle iron from two bed base frames. Anyone wanting to build a frame and that can weld or bolt it together should consider getting these. They are a vey cheap source of steel and there are a heap of them around, everyone has some lying around and tip/recycle shops can't give em away. I was going to build my stand out of 20mm RHS but this worked out much cheaper and was better in the end anyway. The bed frame steel is light and strong. I can pick my frame up above my head on my own to lift onto roof rack when we go on the road and it will easily hold three full vessels and more without worry-it's strong stuff, no worries here.
Here's the bracket I made to mount my pump. I just made it out of a piece of tin plate, drilled the holes, painted it and mounted it. It works well and allows me to easily put the pump on and take it off for cleaning. I'm going to move the pump about half a foot to the right though to get it out of the drip path of the valves on the mash tun. I mounted my pump, but then ended up putting the valves on the mash tun off centre (that has to do with the sun dial Tel Tru
) which wasn't in the initial plan, but it's no big issue to change it slightly.
What I haven't done at this stage is mounted my third tel tru in the kettle. Keen eyes can pick the spot marked out. I also haven't mounted my kettle return valve and whirlpool attachment yet (same set up as on the mash tun-the top valve). This is mainly because I wanted to test the idea before drilling the holes and mounting the fittings. The idea is to still use my immersion chiller, but instead of stirring it constantly while chilling I'll just put the pump into whirlpool mode and draw hot wort from the bottom and pump into a whirlpool at the top to keep the hot wort moving over the coils. It worked well even with the less than ideal return maniflod (I'll explain later) so I think I'll go ahead and make the attachment.
I also have a control box that I'm in the process of wiring up that is not on the system yet. It will go under the HLT, mounted to the frame. This will have switches for the HLT elements, the pump, and a switch and outlet for my hand held immersion element (what a great tool they are). I'm hoping to house a digital theremostat (most likely a PID) here too for HLT control.
Sorry this is a long post.
Well as promised several weeks back now, I would post the pictures of my new single tier brewery once it was made. It's taken a few weeks of messing around and tinkering with the smaller bits and pieces due to time restraints, but I finally got it to a stage that I could give it a test brew on the weekend. There are a few little bits and pieces that I have to finish off to complete the system and one or two little modifications that have arisen since actually using the system but for the most part I am pretty damn happy with how it's come out and how it functions. :super:
I was in two minds over weather to go for a two tier and gravity feed from the tun into the kettle, or go for a single tier and pump between all vessels. I was hoping to be able to gravity feed into my fermenter, so once assembled the two tier was still going to have a highish mash tun-high enough to make mashing in a PITA. I DID NOT want to stand on anything to mash in or be awkward while mashing in. After looking at AndrewQLD's single tier brewery and many on the net-his system already had many of the features I was hoping to have in my brewery and I like the clean lines of a one level brewery so I went with the single tier and am very happy I did so. Mashing in is so easy and you can easily monitor all vessels and it just makes it all work so well having them low down. No lifting vessels high at all, easy on, easy off. Scoop the mash out with a jug straight into a bucket for compost disposal. It's great.
I chose to brew a hefeweizen on the weekend, 1. because I was hoping to do one soon and 2. one of my mates gave me a yeast cake of 3638 Bavarian Wheat yeast. I wasn't sure about trialing the brew with a wheat beer, seeing as I was using a new manifold and also learning how to sparge and recirculate with my pump without causing a stuck sparge but I went forward anyway. I was also going to have my first proper go at batch sparging.
I had a late start to the day, later than I normally start because I figured it was going to be an all day affair anyway so I didn't have to start early. Plus I figured there would be a few hiccups so the entire Saturday was donated to brewing. Which was a nice change I can tell you.
Here's the full set up, I've just mashed in and the HLT is heating up again.
The frame was made of 50mm (3mm thick) angle iron from two bed base frames. Anyone wanting to build a frame and that can weld or bolt it together should consider getting these. They are a vey cheap source of steel and there are a heap of them around, everyone has some lying around and tip/recycle shops can't give em away. I was going to build my stand out of 20mm RHS but this worked out much cheaper and was better in the end anyway. The bed frame steel is light and strong. I can pick my frame up above my head on my own to lift onto roof rack when we go on the road and it will easily hold three full vessels and more without worry-it's strong stuff, no worries here.
Here's the bracket I made to mount my pump. I just made it out of a piece of tin plate, drilled the holes, painted it and mounted it. It works well and allows me to easily put the pump on and take it off for cleaning. I'm going to move the pump about half a foot to the right though to get it out of the drip path of the valves on the mash tun. I mounted my pump, but then ended up putting the valves on the mash tun off centre (that has to do with the sun dial Tel Tru
) which wasn't in the initial plan, but it's no big issue to change it slightly.
What I haven't done at this stage is mounted my third tel tru in the kettle. Keen eyes can pick the spot marked out. I also haven't mounted my kettle return valve and whirlpool attachment yet (same set up as on the mash tun-the top valve). This is mainly because I wanted to test the idea before drilling the holes and mounting the fittings. The idea is to still use my immersion chiller, but instead of stirring it constantly while chilling I'll just put the pump into whirlpool mode and draw hot wort from the bottom and pump into a whirlpool at the top to keep the hot wort moving over the coils. It worked well even with the less than ideal return maniflod (I'll explain later) so I think I'll go ahead and make the attachment.
I also have a control box that I'm in the process of wiring up that is not on the system yet. It will go under the HLT, mounted to the frame. This will have switches for the HLT elements, the pump, and a switch and outlet for my hand held immersion element (what a great tool they are). I'm hoping to house a digital theremostat (most likely a PID) here too for HLT control.
