Category: Brewing

[QUOTE=”takai, post: 1452938, member: 38312″]Slight update. Moved house, so a bit more room and no need to lug it up and down the stairs now. So i built a brew stand and a new controller for it:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/38573-2/20170506-225424-iPhone.JPG[/IMG]

Still fundamentally the same, still pumping out large quantities of beer :)[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=”takai, post: 1317665, member: 38312″]Inaugural brew went pretty much flawlessly and I hit all of my numbers pretty much dead on.

Mashed in:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/37536-2/20150916-133214-iPhone.JPG[/IMG]

Malt pipe out and draining/raining:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/37546-2/20150916-133213-iPhone.JPG[/IMG]

Chilling and hop spider draining post boil:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/37551-2/20150916-133213-iPhone_001.JPG[/IMG]

Built up a good rolling boil throughout, and boil off was spot on calculations.

Only a couple of niggles, the main one being that i forgot to turn the pump off at the end of the chilling process, so it kept the trub in suspension for longer and didnt form as nice a cone. The other is that the drainage rack can get caught on the legs and that just makes a bit of a mess, plus i dont have anywhere to put it for draining anymore as it is larger than the bucket i used to use.

All of that is simple to fix. The only other thing im considering is putting a short length of drilled pipe on the end of the malt pipe feed so that it distributes more evenly around the malt pipe. Thoughts on that, is it worth it?[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=”takai, post: 1313741, member: 38312″]Problem solved on getting it to seal.

Ended up converting a BSP tapered fitting to parallel with more thread and then using the recessed nuts i already had.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/37484-2/20150902-204850-iPhone.JPG[/IMG]

Went for a bit of lateral thinking, and the TIG. Should do that more often.

Now i have to pull it all apart and re-threadseal everything, because with all the pulling apart and refitting a few little leaks have appeared. Will avail myself of a new roll of pink plumbers tape and go for gold.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=”takai, post: 1312380, member: 38312″]Finally got around to getting some work done on this, plus the rest of the fittings arrived, so i put in the external return.

Lower whirlpool, upper to feed the mash:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/37442-2/20150829-194211-iPhone_001.JPG[/IMG]

How the malt pipe is fed. Will put some 10mm hose between and just lock in place during mash, low flow and low resistance so shouldnt pop off.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/37447-2/20150829-194210-iPhone.JPG[/IMG]

Finally what it looks like externally:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/37457-2/20150829-201413-iPhone.JPG[/IMG]

Currently waiting for the liquid PFTE to dry and then can leak test it again (failed the first time)[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=”takai, post: 1306610, member: 38312″]Finally got around to working on this again.
Built the control box:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/37385-2/20150808-194337-iPhone_002.JPG[/IMG]

Installed element and hardware:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/37363-2/20150808-194338-iPhone.JPG[/IMG]

Now currently repassivating and leak testing:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/37390-2/20150808-195115-iPhone.JPG[/IMG][/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=”takai, post: 1303382, member: 38312″]Well i managed to pick up a cheap 38L pot off eBay, cheaper than 2x19L BigW pots 🙂

Started modifying it today for the malt pipe:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/37341-2/20150726-215945-iPhone.JPG[/IMG][/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=”takai, post: 1302633, member: 38312″]After someone mentioned that you can get these pots on eBay i went looking, and found the 38L ones:

[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/37335-2/20150723-155242-iPhone.JPG[/IMG]

Much better size than the 19L BigW pots, and should work quite well for my purposes. Now to find time to get the rest of the bits together, and then start installing…[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=”takai, post: 1300803, member: 38312″]Been piecing stuff together for a little while now to go recirculation on my BIAB setup. Things accelerated a little bit last week when i was able to pick up some of those cheap 56L pots at a good price. Ultimately ill probably discard that pot for a nicer MegaPot or similar from the US when i head over in November. But until then this will get me going for now.

Ill be making two of these at the same time as a mate is after one as well.

Take one 56L pot:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/37307-2/20150715-171638-iPhone.JPG[/IMG]

With a 19L BigW pot for comparison:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/37310-2/20150715-171635-iPhone.JPG[/IMG]

19L pot will become the basis for the malt pipe.

With two 4500W Camco elements:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/37317-2/20150715-171634-iPhone.JPG[/IMG]

Planning on doing a two point recirculation. Just waiting for the last few bits to arrive for that.[/QUOTE]

Been piecing stuff together for a little while now to go recirculation on my BIAB setup. Things accelerated a little bit last week when i was able to pick up some of those cheap 56L pots at a good price. Ultimately ill probably discard that pot for a nicer MegaPot or similar from the US when i head over in November. But until then this will get me going for now.

Ill be making two of these at the same time as a mate is after one as well.