to CJBrew here goes.To the strains of Steve Miller’s “The Jokerâ€,
Justified (by me, to me, being Ancient, driving an Ice Cream Van, well old maroon camper and definitely in Moo Moo Land), in my debut here viewtopic.php?f=1&t=26501,,, Ramble On, Led Zep
I offer you The Pharsical Peeko Brewairy.
The idea was hatched at the beginning of September, originally purchasing a Bruheat boiler and then finding this forum – significant change of mind, the first of many.
Got some nice shiney vessels while I was building the “roomâ€:
Framework:
Insulation:
The under floor heating going in – it freezes in here in winter and it also means I can regulate the whole room for fermentation:
Serious blower to try to avoid getting dead from asphyxia:
Mounted above the room:
The finished bare room; its two orders of magnitude smaller than a Micro Brewery, thus Peeko coz I karnt spel. At 1.2 x 2.4m less the tiles, definitely no feline rotating in here!
From the Outside:
Got some cheap kitchen worktops from B&Q for the staging – too inflexible and not easy to get tiers right. So it’s big boys Mecanno – lots of fun and very adaptable! I used two of the worktops for shelving in the Fermentation and Stores area:
But the Mecanno horizontals on the floor (to spread the weight on the tiles), contravene one of the primary design criteria, “easy to keep clean†- what happens to spillages (or heaven forbid, leaks) with all these holes and narrow gaps?
So I filled up the big gaps with GP filler, filled the holes and put a slant on all the horizontals with P38 car body filler then finished off with a coat of Hammerite and some silicon sealant:
Now the gear. A view through the door:
The Boiler, Mash Tun, Pump 2, Counter flow Cooler and a few valves. The control box is plug-in so that it can be taken indoors to the hospital for sickness or major surgery.
A view with the mash tun removed showing cold water feed from behind the HLT, into HLT if needed, down and to the right for boiler fill (chlorine/chalk removal etc) and straight down to CF cooler. Mash tun fill and sparge is though a JG fitting to revolve upwards out of the way. Other feed to the JG “T†is via the two-stage RIMS/HERMS heater and the pump at the bottom of the pic.
One of the sparge arms fitted, it would normally be supported off the other side of the tun:
This shows the mash tun with the stuck sparge line coming around the back from the HLT. I got quite carried away thinking about the liquor coming up from below to gently lift and separate the grains, the pert firm grains…
The two stage RIM/HERMS heater, the lower has a stop end for the time being, Marya at Cartridge-Heater only had one 1800W off the shelf; I will add another later:
The top RIM heater showing the temperature sensor. This fitting is actually an earth crimp connector I had left over from the bathroom last year. The valve in front is the stuck sparge line ooh err missus.
With the boiler and bits of wiring removed, this shows the second pump, counter flow cooler etc. At the back is the cold water feed to the CF, to the right of that, two valves allow hot water from the CF to be saved in the HLT for cleaning and boiled liquor from the boiler to the HLT at the start of the day (via pump and two red valves).
The pump can circulate wort either via the CF or not and the flow through the CF can be reversed for back washing (all 4 red valves and black valve). The top yellow “T†valve allows CF hot to waste, bottom right “T†rinses to waste, bottom left “T†is wort out.
The plumbing is on the piss for three reasons 1) to minimise wort left in the pipe work 2) it freezes in here if left unused during the winter, so I need to be able to drain it easily and 3) coz I am a lousy plumber.
Just playing with cold water, I’ve found that it’s very easy to get this wrong, luckily the pump does not mind short or open circuits!
Now the Work-In-Progress End.
The three pipes into the top of the boiler are 1) mash tun out, gravity 2) re-circulate wort and 3) RIM/HERMS drain:
This is the burner assembly from a Beauclaire out door cooking system; it usually has a big cast griddle or massive paella dish on it.
It will bring 30L to the boil from 14C in 54 minutes, not brilliant but the boil looks quite vigorous.
I am somewhat concerned about the stability with a 50L run going….
(Thinks, need extra support which does not transmit too much heat into the framework)
While I was working this out it was quite easy to think through where I wanted the water, liquor or wort to go but it can come as a bit of a surprise when you look at what happens backwards e.g. pre-boiled water to HLT also equals saved hot water (in the HLT from the Counter Flow cooler) back to the boiler for cleaning – bonus!.
I have not yet brewed a single drop and its killing me!
Water tests at 80C this afternoon found one duff joint when it washed out the flux. Otherwise left it all running for half hour or so to get it clean. Starter bottle on the go...
There are bound to be many cock-ups, oversights and much learning.
I beg the group’s indulgence and assistance when I come crying back with my tales of woe!
Special Respects:
Mmmbeer for the shineys - when I saw you I only intended to put up some simple staging, no extra plumbing and gravity feed only, I got a bit carried away…
Garysmiff - for the RIMS heater, I didn’t know what a cartridge heater was before your posts, its amazing what Google will do with the right words!
Brewzone – for introducing the Speck pumps, how to connect to them and other advice
Jubby – for the pics of his three level setup.
Scooby – for recirculation ideas
Garth – for warnings about the counter flow cooler, after that I made sure I could blast the hell out of it by reversing the pumped flow for as long as I like and with cleaner fluid at 80C.
PhilRobins – for HERMS and other ideas
Pantsmachine – for having similar ideas (although on a much larger scale), drawing it out and for the stuck sparge line with all its Playtex fantasies.
Aleman – for telling me how to get the piccies up here
Dave Line and Graham Wheeler – For telling us how to do it properly.
And finally Jim – for creating a magnificent arena to learn, dream and get inspiration.
And yes, I am certifiably insane
.
Wish I could afford something like that.
