Plastic Brewery Construction

[Bongo]

Top stuff fella,that's a great effort.i have been doing something similar this week that shroud is excellent,

the only trouble i have found so far is that my value elements need a small wire connected to each other to complete the circuit otherwise they will not work did you or anyone else here have anything similar happen.

[anomalous_result]

That was quite a good deal on the camping mats, where did you get them from if you don't mind me asking?

[Phill]

Not to be a pain but are you sure the bucket you’re using for your boiler can take the heat? It looks like the same one I use as a fermenter. The last brew I did, I ended up putting some hot wort in it (no where near boiling mind) and it when all wibberly wobberly, so much that I thought it was going to break.

I could be wrong but I thought i'd mention it for the sake of your feet. You've got a price on the ball valves as well, I paid through the teeth at BNQ for mine and they dont look as good.

Phill

[sstanier]

Hi chaps,

The ball valves are compression fit 15mm jobbies and were good value at £2.69 from Screwfix! It seems Screwfix is the place for plumbing bits.

The camping mats are quite good value. I got them from Go Outdoors in Sheffield. I then used spray adhesive to bond the three layers together before gaffering it all up.

On the kettle front.....I dont appear to need any wires connecting up. I just took them out of the original kettle, sawed off the auto cut off and filed the cicumerence smooth, and then removed the steam sensor and the two wires attaching it to the element. I have left the over-heat cut off so I dont melt the element but during the test boil the elements worked fine. I think that if you need to connect up some extra wires to get the element to function you may well have a different element to mine.

The buckets are the same ones that Leyland Homebrew use to make boilers i think. They are very tough and dont deform under boilin temperatures so should be fine. They are much tougher than the Young's fermenters I have anyway. I would say though that if there is any doubt or you have the space then get 10G buckets like the Hop and Grape ones, as then there is no danger of deforming buckets or boil overs. If i consume my brew's too quickly I may well have to upgrade the buckets!

Also....bought my ingredients for the first brew today. Nice and simple. 5kg of Pale Malt and 100g of Styrian Goldings. AG#1 - Styrian Stunner shall be brewed next saturday!

[Bongo]

ok cheers for that it must be down to the cutout i shall look into it further, i look forward to the Styrian Stunner day your gonna do and the results,good luck fella.

[anomalous_result]

Not to be a pain but are you sure the bucket you’re using for your boiler can take the heat? It looks like the same one I use as a fermenter. The last brew I did, I ended up putting some hot wort in it (no where near boiling mind) and it when all wibberly wobberly, so much that I thought it was going to break.

They do go 'squishy' but can take the heat. As long as it's not LDPE you should be ok. But never think you're safe with 30 litres of boiling wort in the same room as you, seals can still go.

[spearmint-wino]

Very tidy job there, nice work

[ADDLED]

They do go 'squishy' but can take the heat. As long as it's not LDPE you should be ok. But never think you're safe with 30 litres of boiling wort in the same room as you, seals can still go.

Hey anom, thats a worry. What type of seal would you suggest using for plastic with brass fittings?

[floydmeddler]

Bump! Great post... just in case any one's looking to build a brewery on a budget.

[tazuk]

welcome to the dark side now lets see some brews on