Jim's Beer Kit

In theory, that would seem to be the case as the outflow water is at a lower temperature than other methods (immersion/counterflow). In practice it doesn't seem to use much more water than my previous version which was using the same coil as an immersion chiller. But of course it's faster than the i...

The right-angle lines in the 3-way valve indicate where the flow is. The arrow indicates that this valve can be turned anticlockwise (through 90deg) so that the HLT is connected to the T connnector. This then allows sparging, whereby the hot water is passed through the coil first, thus sanitising it...

The drain is only for the water from the HLT (which is also a cooling tank). Firstly it drains any excess not used for sparging. Then for cooling: Cold water enters through the troughmatic and is drained when the PID registers the temperature as too high while the wort is passed through the coil and...

I posted earlier about converting my "one-pot" system with a gas burner to a dual-heat (gas and electric), because the electric supply is inadequate to boil 10gals and the gas is not controllable. Instead, I decided to use the HLT (OK, so , its 2-pot not 1-pot) which is electric to act as a HERMS de...

I used to have a gas fired kettle on a wooden stand. I just put some spare ceramic floor tiles under the burner and never had any problems in over a decade of use.

Ta muchly!

I made a 3Kw immersion heater, it's on a length of pipe as a handle so it can be lifted in and out. Aamcle That’s an interesting approach. It might suit my setup quite well as I could use it for the mash and take it out for the main boil. That way I can avoid having the cable anywhere near the gas ...

Thanks Jim. That gives me some confidence to proceed. Now I just need to find a low profile heater, preferably with a low watt density, and a support to keep the plastic bucket away from it. When it’s done I’ll post some pics here, as I’m quite pleased with the overall setup - it uses a steel channe...

Hmm. Sort of related to my recent post - http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=80765&sid=245bcdea1eb1659b465fda3ed42f0233 - which hasn’t had any replies yet :( My 100L tank works well with a nominal 8.5kw gas burner. Electric is more efficient, so I guess about 6kw (two 3kw heaters)...

I’ve recently converted my 3 vessel setup to a 2 vessel one, using a plastic bucket with holes in the bottom as a BiB inside the brew kettle. The kettle is 100L capacity and this enables me to brew 10gals easily. Previously I brewed 15 gals with the 3 vessels. The kettle is gas-fired as I am on a re...

Quite an old post, so maybe you found some. I got some from Solway Heaters in Workington - but a bit of a hike for you.

I've done very quick and cheap conversion to a Grainfather-type set up, by getting a 60L plastic bucket and drilling 2mm holes in the bottom. This fits nicely inside my 100L ss boiler and brews 10 gal easily. My pump recirculates from the outer vessel to the top of the inner one. Only trouble is tha...

I have a 3V system, but not all stainless steel. 2 of the vessels (HWT and MT) are old copper hot water cylinders which I cut. The ready-insulated ones are really useful and if you cut the bottom off and turn it upside down on a home-made stand, you get an outlet at the bottom of a sort of "conical"...

I rack straight from primary, after crash cooling in my fermentation cupboard (aka old fridge), into polypin. When I want to drink it, I bring it into the warm and condition it - ready to drink in a couple of days.
In short, do what works for you.

Thanks guys. I'll try and do a side by side tasting of keg (with low carbonation) vs polypin. This for the Candy Kaiser I just made from the Brewdog DIY recipe.