Doppel-Hund Brewing - My new brewery build

[Kev888]

Aye kev, I've been meaning to upgraded for a while and your excellet posts have been one of the big inspirations that have made me pull my finger out!

I'd pretty much decided it was going electric on the hlt as I don't mind bodging the copper tank, wont be too hard to get a replacement if I'm a bit ham fisted! Seeing how well made these SS tanks are and the fact that my land lord won't let us get a 16 or 30A supply in the garage means it's gas for the boiler.

I kinda like the idea of gas anyway as I think I'll have better contol over the ferosity of the boil. The price of the gas will also come out of my brewing budget, rather than the electricity bill!

Oops, hadn't realised the responsibility But I totally agree with it - was getting frustrated with my limited old kit; being forced to brew more often than I could spare proper time for and more often than not doing partial grain or extract to get a decent volume out of it.

Yes, my ideal choice would be for a gas boiler too - mainly for the extra power. It was a hard decision to go with an element in the end - for convenience and indoor-friendliness. In your setup I can see that gas would work very well though so good luck with that.

Ironically, you're now giving me some of my own medicine. Having seen your move to the garage I'm now thinking maybe thats a much better idea and so I suspect my upgrade is about to take an extra turn at the end..

Cheers
kev

[leedsbrew]

Ironically, you're now giving me some of my own medicine. Having seen your move to the garage I'm now thinking maybe thats a much better idea and so I suspect my upgrade is about to take an extra turn at the end..

Cheers
kev

Ha ha! Who keeps a CAR in a garage anyway!??! It's pretty much just a brick shed! And we all know sheds are what makes this country great!

[Kev888]

Ha ha! Who keeps a CAR in a garage anyway!??! It's pretty much just a brick shed! And we all know sheds are what makes this country great!

Yes you're right; I've spent all morning sorting through piles of garage rubbish. Feel a bit guilty about relocating all the spiders to the garden, and it'll take a bit of thought to arrange, but you've converted me to the idea!

Cheers
kev

[leedsbrew]

had a few hours before work today so jumped in the car and got this little lot!



this will be the 1st time I've butchered a kettle for the element so I was a bit unsure. I don't have a tosco near me so I used a curry's one. I only bought one so that if it was no good I didn't have to take the other one back! Now I have to go and get the second one! (it made sence at the time )

Its a little different to the tesco ones when you get the workings out. The black backing has some extra moulded bits (for the switch) that just needed taking off with the jr hacksaw.


15 minutes later and I have a water tight element! I had to put in an extra rubber washed as the copper wall is thinner than the kettle so when the fixing screws were done up tight the element rotated freely in the hole.


slung in the kettle lead to illustrate it!


LB

I decided to use a moulded kettle lead rather than the spade connectors that came with the kettle. I'm going to re use that for wiring up my digital temp controller! yorkshire thrift and all that!

I'm going to fix a shroud round the elements like this one. I put the unused cable in just for the picture! It's a shame, the kettle lead I got from homebase (£4 ish) has a moulded plug on so I'm gonna have to cut it off and re wire a normal one on when the cable is through the gland! Oh well, more tinkering!

[Kev888]

Looking like progress, LB!

I like the idea of those stop ends for the cowel, never thought of that myself.

Cheers
kev

[leedsbrew]

cheers matey!

I thought it was too good to be true when I saw them in screwfix. Saddly it was, the pipe isn't quite big enought to go over the back of the element, so i'm going to saw off the threads and plastic cement them onto some silicone sealant tube, then silicone it onto the copper!

quite chuffed with myself for coming up with something newish! usually follow tried and tested methods!

[leedsbrew]

had a quick test of the heating ability of the HLT with one 2.2kw element today whilst making tea. I've got a second element ready to put in but thought I'd have a quick play (with the tank )

With 65L of cold water (13.7 deg C) it took 1hr 40 mins to reach 60 deg C. Defiantly going to need a second element, although I usually use water from the hot tap for brewing.

And as I'm a massive geek I put the temp recordings into mac numbers and made this!

[Kev888]

Looks promising!

Two elements do seem more popular so I agree is probably the way to go if your electric supply is happy with them. Another option though may be to put an immersion timer on the single element - I'm probably going to do this and start heating whilst I'm still in bed

Cheers
kev

[sladeywadey]

Lo Another option though may be to put an immersion timer on the single element - I'm probably going to do this and start heating whilst I'm still in bed

Cheers
kev

that's actually quite a good idea and I may do the same so it is ready first thing.

[stu-le-brew]

I am brewing today - I use a timer but have burned several out over the years as the switch is not really up to switching the current that an immersion heater uses. However mine is now turning on my controller which then controls the temperature in the HLT so the SSR (solid state relay) is doing the switching. worked very well this morning when I got up the HLT was at sparge temp, this is the third time I have done this.

As an aside I usually mash overnight, mash-in in the evening and sparge/boil the next day. If I am really low on beer stock I brew two consecutive days using the initial chiller water (already hot) from the first batch copper fed into the HLT - energy saving and also time.

time to check all is well with my boiler !

[Kev888]

Just to mention: You can get timers specifically for immersion heaters, i.e. proper jobs designed for installation in the house and capable of the 16A immersion circuits. I've got one of these in my airing cupboard and it handles things all day every day - its more that sort of thing I was envisaging than (for instance) the plug-in type.

Cheers
Kev

[leedsbrew]

cheers for that S-L-B, I like the double brew day timesaving tips! Cheers (I do love a good double brew day!).

I've got this sat on my desk upstairs, and all the gubbings to go in a control box, just not the box to put it all in yet



It's a bit like a a TC-10 only from china via ebay. Would it be able to be hooked up to a ssr? I know it's only rated for 10A so technically out of the question for switching an element on and off. Although I think pdtnc uses one for just that purpose!

pdtnc, any issues with yours matey?

Cheers


LB

[leedsbrew]

on a different note, I realised last night that i had only checked the water tightness of the element with 15ish litres of water. I left 65L in it over night and came back this AM to find the tinniest leak. Probably not more than a few mls had collected on the surface it was sitting on. No other water anywhere, and I collected the water back out of the HLT with an FV, 65L came out so it really is the smallest drip.

Anyway, where electrics and water are concerned I'm not taking any chances so out came the element and in went a second washer. I'm on a night shift tonight so will check back in the AM and see how it has faired!


LB

[stu-le-brew]

cheers for that S-L-B, I like the double brew day timesaving tips! Cheers (I do love a good double brew day!).

I've got this sat on my desk upstairs, and all the gubbings to go in a control box, just not the box to put it all in yet

It's a bit like a a TC-10 only from china via ebay. Would it be able to be hooked up to a ssr? I know it's only rated for 10A so technically out of the question for switching an element on and off. Although I think pdtnc uses one for just that purpose!

pdtnc, any issues with yours matey?

Cheers


LB

I also have bought various controllers from China, not familiar with your model is it a thermostat or a PID, either way you I think you can use an SSR to switch an immersion element. One note of caution SSR's can get very hot particularly when switching on/off a lot (ie in PID mode) so I would recommend as big a heat sink as you can fit into you box, I also advise a metal box as this can act as an additional heat radiator - see pic below

[delboy]

on a different note, I realised last night that i had only checked the water tightness of the element with 15ish litres of water. I left 65L in it over night and came back this AM to find the tinniest leak. Probably not more than a few mls had collected on the surface it was sitting on. No other water anywhere, and I collected the water back out of the HLT with an FV, 65L came out so it really is the smallest drip.
LB

Might even just be a bit of condensation.