Inaugural brew on shiny new brewery

Seveneer · Post by **Seveneer** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 9:45 pm

You, Andy, are a bloody star! If you only knew how many hours I've wasted searching for this stuff. I guees I probably looked for imperial sizes.

Ta very much!

/Phil.

Post by **Andy** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 9:49 pm

Alternative (but more expensive) supplier here:-

http://www.altecweb.com/home.asp?cat=Subcategory1200h

Seveneer · Post by **Seveneer** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 9:57 pm

Mmmm that's a little more than I want to spend. Thanks anyway.

Seveneer · Post by **Seveneer** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 1:13 pm

Right, I've taken a few pictures for those of you who are interested. Forgive the carpentry but there's a very good reason why I didn't take up a trade!

Firstly the exit manifold in the mash tun.

next the pumps..

I am not happy with the bleed valve on the oulet of pump number 1 (I did away with it altogether on two) and will probably swap for another ball valve just to get the pump primed.

Here's a pic of the conrol panel. It's still under development and I need to wire up the switches to switch the power to the conrollers and also fit two more switches to power the pumps. I might even run a file around it and paint it when it's done.

And here's the heat exchanger. It's a lump of 4 inch copper pipe with a circle of copper glued to the bottom then drilled and fitted with a kettle element. I've then stuck a coil of 8mm copper in the top which I recirculate the wort through. You can see the thermocouple connected to the outlet pipe, top left.

I should also take a picture of the return manifold and sparge arm but I forgot so you'll have to wait

/Phil.

Post by **Andy** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 1:27 pm

Superb stuff Phil!

I'll have to pop down the M3 on a brewday to see all this in action

Seveneer · Post by **Seveneer** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 1:45 pm

Any time Andy. You're most welcome. I'll PM you next time I'm brewing, probably about 3 weekends time.

/Phil.

Post by **Andy** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 1:48 pm

That would be great Phil, perhaps DaaB could make it also....Although it is pretty far North for him

Seveneer · Post by **Seveneer** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 1:51 pm

Frothy · Post by **Frothy** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 2:18 pm

sweeeet

love the exchanger

Seveneer · Post by **Seveneer** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 3:04 pm

Frothy wrote:love the exchanger

Hi Frothy,

I know it's not pretty, but it's functional. I was concerned it wouldn't be man enough for a 10 gallon brew (as I built it for my old 5 gallon set up) but it seemed to cope admirably.

How are you going to heat your mash when you get your system set up? if this exchanger hadn't been up to it I'd have gone down the route of putting a 10m coil in the HLT.

I'd be really interested to see what you're planning to build.

/Phil.

BlightyBrewer · Post by **BlightyBrewer** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:36 pm

That's smashing that is!

Nice job Seveneer.

BigEd · Post by **BigEd** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:40 pm

Sounds like an excellent first run! Congrats and continued good luck with your new system.

Frothy · Post by **Frothy** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 6:25 pm

I heard that smaller vessels for heat exchange are far more efficient, yours looks just the job. HLT's are apparently big and inneficient but this is the route I'm hoping to go down using a burco boiler as a HLT and as you said cramming as much 1/2" copper pipe in there as I can. The pump is a washing machine pump (magnetically coupled) and I may just make the mash tun from a bucket. I hope to make 40L brews but I don't know what size mash tun that would require yet.

still hunting a PID controller & thermowell

Matt

Seveneer · Post by **Seveneer** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 6:59 pm

Thanks for all the kind words, guys. I'm really pleased with the way the system has performed on its first brewday.

DaaB, the JG fittings are just hose tails but it took me a while to find them. I flush through with water immediately after brewing. I don't need to sanitise too often as it's pre-boil. The only post boil stuff is the tap on the boiler so I don't need to get into heavy sanitisation.

And, yes the pumps prime beautifully. The only time I have problems is when the heat exchanger is full of water. Otherwise they're fine.

Shame you never venture north of Winchester. I think you'd appreciate it in all its shininess

Frothy, you're right about the small heat exchangers being better than using the HLT but you have to make sure the system is efficient enough. In my case I only have about 8 feet of copper at the very most inside the exchanger. You have to bear in mind that the exchanger isn't just trying to heat the fluid in the exchanger itself but it's actually heating the entire mash, remotely. If I could be bothered I'd make something a bit bigger so I can get more copper inside. Maybe a big 12 inch diameter pipe or something like that.

Seveneer · Post by **Seveneer** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 7:07 pm

Frothy wrote:still hunting a PID controller & thermowell

Matt, try ebay for the PID controller. Try this link http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PID-Temperature-C ... dZViewItem. That's pretty much what I have but I can't necessarily vouch for this particular seller.

As for a theromowell, you want the temperature measurement taken as close to the output of the heat exchanger as poss in order to enable the PID controller to control the exchanger effectively. I use a thermocouple that attaches to a pipe with a jubilee clip. If you take the temperature in the MLT there'll be a big time lag between the temperature reaching the set value and the power switching off in the exchanger causing larger overshoot than you want.

/Phil.

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Inaugural brew on shiny new brewery