Outdoor brewery build

[GAZ9053]

Looks spot on jocky

[Fil]

looking good indeed,,

fwiw i would pull the 'keyrings' off the camlock levers on the small 1./2" ones we use they can get in the way .

have a cool damp rag at hand to open closed and HOT camlocks abd a bucket to catch any in hose volume between valves..

and have a bucket to sit under the pump to catch any fluid that drops out when disconnected.. use a nice clean one and the liquor isnt lost..


enjoy the brewdays you have a top shelf kit there..

you may want to drop a small clean copper pipe into the kettle for the boil.. a little copper is good for the beer, while there are other factors to consider, after upping to a bigger fully stainless kit the beer this end was missing something that the beer out of the placky/copper plumbing kit had..

[Jocky]

Cheers guys.

First brew day was tough - having worked with tiny volumes I can move around by hand, having to use a pump for everything was an education. Things like hitting a mash temperature and getting it all mixed in go from trivial to an art, and let's not mention using a chiller for the first time!

Still, onwards and upwards, plenty learned from that brew to take forward.

One change I do need to make is to move the pump so I can have something to catch stray drips properly.

[Jocky]

So nearly a year on and I get a message about what I'd change with my brewery, so I thought I'd do some reflection and post the result on here for all to see.

First of all, the things I would have done different:

Fermentation Control
The one thing I wish I had designed in from day one was proper room for a fridge for fermentation control... If I had more room it would be two fridges, the other being for kegs. After that build with a neat and tidy single tier brewery I ended up chopping stand I had built to raise up part of it so the fridge would fit in underneath.

Hop Filtration
The other thing I would reconsider is filtration of hops. You need to think if you are mostly brewing with leaf or pellet hops. I bought the best filter I could (BrewBuilder DX Hop Filter) and it worked amazingly for leaf hops with super clear run off, but clogged instantly with any amount of pellets, even when mixed with leaf. I've tried other methods of filtering and in the end I've concluded that pellets need to be bagged, or removed via other methods. Personally I've found that I like the convenience and availability of pellets, so now I buy everything in pellets and I'm not filtering in the kettle, I just let everything settle and then run off, catching everything else in a bag in the fermenter. With bigger pots I think you can effectively whirlpool to remove pellets, but I don't know how well it will work for leaf.

Temperature Dials
Which leads me onto my next subject... temperature dials. If I was going to do this again I'd not waste my money on a temperature dial/thermowell in the MT. I'd buy a thermapen instead. Dials are a nice quick reference in the HLT to quickly see where you are, and somewhat useful in the boiler when I'm chilling to see how I'm doing, but really they're not accurate enough for the MT, and the probe gets in the way when using said mash stirrer/paddle.

Chilling
The final thing I would have done differently was the chiller. I used the plate chiller twice and then sold it for an immersion chiller. With the immersion chiller I just have to stand there and stir the wort and it chills as fast as a plate chiller could with 95% less clean up. If I went to a bigger size I'd probably just get a bigger immersion chiller, unless it was over 100l when a plate chiller probably starts making sense.


I did get some things right though

Big Mash Tun
Overall i think I got quite a few things right. Having a mash tun marginally bigger than my HLT and Boiler has given me huge flexibility - I can no sparge most beers if I wish, and make super big beers with lots of grain too. If you're going to fly sparge everything it's probably not so much of an issue and could have a smaller MT, but for batch sparging and full volume mashing to save time on the brew day it's awesome.

Interchangeable HLT/Boiler
I also like having my HLT match my boiler in size and setup as it means I have a backup. I damaged my boiler one day part way into the mash, so I just swapped my HLT in for the boil.

Camlocks
I love camlocks - particularly the big bore ones. That is all.

3 tier vs 1 tier
I planned for 3 tier initially and then went with 1 tier, and I'm pretty happy with that decision - it's kept everything compact, and I couldn't imagine having my boiler almost on the floor and hot water at head level. When moving liquid sometimes I put the receiving pot on a stool below the surface, sometimes I use a bucket and sometimes I pump. I've not really worked the ideal out yet.

Pumping
The one area I abandoned for a bit but have gone back to is the pump. With my size brewery there's definitely no need for a pump unless you have a bad back and can't lift, although if you have a plate chiller you will need a pump for proper recirculation of cleaning fluid.
When my plate chiller went my pump went in the cupboard, but more recently I've been using it to recirculate my mash to improve efficiency and clarity.

Mash mixer/Whirlpooler/Aerator
The best £5 I spent was buying a cheap paint stirrer I could attach to a cordless drill. It's been one of the best labour saving devices for my brew day. When mashing in I just get the water to the right temperature then just dump the grain in and let this thing obliterate dough balls. Clean it up, drop it in the boil to sanitise for a bit and then run it in reverse to aerate wort after it's cooled.

I can see myself getting one of the maltmiller's stainless steel paddles as an upgrade. http://themaltmiller.co.uk/index.php?_a ... ductId=726.