DIY All Grain Brewery

[boingy]

I always brew 5 gal/23 litre batches. The bulk goes into a cornie and the remainder is split between a couple of 2 litre coke bottles and a couple of 250ml coke bottles. The small ones are so you can have a crafty taste to see how the main brew is doing. The big ones are so that you can have a not so crafty taste of you beer before it is properly ready....

[beergut]

Hi jdt, great how to. Any progress on the boiler build?

[oxford brewer]

Nice pics jdt199
Have you found out what loss of wort you will experience as deadspace with your manifold design?It seems from the pics that the out take is 10-15mm higher than it needs be...
It is worth checking how much you will lose to deadspace in your mashtun when working out the volumes of mash and sparge water you require.

[jdt199]

Sorry guys, I have been progressing with the boiler but Christmas kinda got in the way. Anyways its finished. Ill post the pics later this afternoon. Re the mash tun manifold positioning and dead space, The tank connector can’t be fitted flush to the bottom as the fitting will foul the bottom of the cool box. I found I had just over 1l of deadspace but I have since fitted a spout to the ball valve and if I put siphon tubing on the spout to create a siphon effect the deadspace is reduced to half a litre which seems reasonable to me.

[jubby]

sparky Paul wrote:

In any case, I would still use a flux, and even an extra dab of solder with Yorkshire fittings.

Quiet right, you must use flux, otherwise the solder won't stick (it's not in the solder like the electrical stuff). Type immersion chiller into youtube, there are a few video's on how to make one. It may have been said already, but i would recommend Gurgeh's design, it works very well with 10m of 10mm pipe.

Edit.......disregard all that, I should learn to read the whole thread before posting replies

[oxford brewer]

Sorry guys, I have been progressing with the boiler but Christmas kinda got in the way. Anyways its finished. Ill post the pics later this afternoon. Re the mash tun manifold positioning and dead space, The tank connector can’t be fitted flush to the bottom as the fitting will foul the bottom of the cool box. I found I had just over 1l of deadspace but I have since fitted a spout to the ball valve and if I put siphon tubing on the spout to create a siphon effect the deadspace is reduced to half a litre which seems reasonable to me.

1/2 ltr is great .The syphon effect is a brilliant tool

[ritchie]

So im planning on a trip down to Hop & Grape to buy a 10 gallon bucket with the holes drilled for a couple of kettle elements, but what are these issues with the taps (which taps?) that has folk fitting 15mm ball valves? i was hoping to save myself the bother....could someone please shed some light for me?

[jdt199]

OK heres the last part of the jigzaw... The Boiler.

Parts
15mm Copper pipe
2 x Sainsburys Buget Kettles
1 x Hop and Grape 10gal Bucket with 1 x 20mm and 2 x 40mm holes ready drilled. (if you ask H&G they will kindly do it for you)
3 x 15mm right angle solder ring fittings.
Flux
PFTE tape


Tools
HackSaw
Drill 2mm or 3mm drill bit.
Hammer
Wrench or grips




Step 1
Fix tank connector after applying PFTE tape to the thread. Again you need to file the coller out of the tank connector (see earlier post in this thread for the mash tun) Just tighten up with a wrench.



Step 2
Cut a length of 15mm pipe about 3inches in length to pass through the tank connector to connect the hop strainer too and the ball valve.


Step 3
Dismantle the Kettles.
Unscrew the back cover and rip it off.




Unscrew the element backplate with the switch and electronics on.


Remove the element and switch and rubber gasket. Add the rubber gasket to the 40mm elemnt holes in the bucket.




You now need to disable the auto cut off on the switch. On the Sainsburys kettles its an small white pin behind the switch which the thermocouple pushes back when 100deg is reached.


Cut the unnecessary extra plastic off the element cover. You can also cut the wires to the switch light if you wish but DON'T join the wires toghether which some people do. These wires are simply a parrallel curcuit from the element feed to power the switch light, joining them will just short. Personally I left the lights on as its a usefull indicator to show youi have power.


Put the elemnts onto the bucket (the reverse of taking them off the kettle). Just screw the 3 screws back into the elemnt being careful not to strip the threads.


Step 4
Build the hop strainer.

Cut a length of copper pip 280mm in length and another small piece 35mm in length.
The small piece is to push fit 2 right angle connectors to, This will connect the pipe in the tank connetor to the hop strainer and allow it to fit flush to the base of the bucket.
Seal one end of the long piece of pipe. You could use a 15mm end piece but why bother if you have a hammer?


Then go to work on the pipe with you drill. I used a nail and hammer to dent the pipe to allow the drill bit to have something to sit on. Otherwise drilling will be a right pain.



Push fit the right angle pieces to the pipe on the tank connect then push fit on the strainer.


Step 5
Add the ball valve. Just tighten the compression fitting with a wrench after adding PTFE tape to the ball valce thread.


Step 6
Make a spout with remaining 15mmm pipe offcuts and a right angle ring fitting. I soldered this on the gas cooker.


So thats it One All Grain brewery done. Hope this was useful for anyone wishing to start out

[yashicamat]

So im planning on a trip down to Hop & Grape to buy a 10 gallon bucket with the holes drilled for a couple of kettle elements, but what are these issues with the taps (which taps?) that has folk fitting 15mm ball valves? i was hoping to save myself the bother....could someone please shed some light for me?

The taps are a fairly simple affair that come on the H&G boiler:



As you can see, they operate by rotating that end cap. This means that the taps have a tendancy to loosen as you are turning it in the same plane as the tap is tightened onto the boiler. Furthermore, they require a good few turns to go from closed to fully open, something which is a pain when taking samples from the boiler. The final issue which has come to light recently after being discovered by a member on here, is that the washer can split, although a fibre washer should solve that.

I am in the process of swapping out the orange tap on mine for a ball valve simply because I'm after something a bit quicker to turn on and off, plus which doesn't turn on and off in the same plane as it is tightened. I also happen to (sadly ) like the mechanical precision and engineering of a metal ball valve against a cheap plastic tap.

[ritchie]

Thanks for that Yashicamat, your reply and the previous 'How To..' post have me thinking about going down the ball valve route.

[GBH]

Hi JDT,

Great Pics and a great idea for a cheap large boiler!

Can I just ask where you might get a kettle lead for this , and also does it push on OK? or will it be loose a bit?

cant quite make it out in the pic!

Thanks!

[jdt199]

Hi JDT,

Great Pics and a great idea for a cheap large boiler!

Can I just ask where you might get a kettle lead for this , and also does it push on OK? or will it be loose a bit?

cant quite make it out in the pic!

Thanks!

I have loads of leads for old pcs and associated parts etc. There in much abundance in any office. I know there not proper kettle leads and not rated for the pin teperature so the casing around the pins may melt but the cable is easily rated for the current. I tested it boiling 1 gal of water for around half an hour and they showed no signs of melting. The fit on the pins is fine, not loose at all. I will give the pc leads a go for a brew and see if there are any signs of melting. If you are worried about the plug melting at all I believe there is a post on where to get proper kettle leads somwhere. There exactly the same but the casing around the pins is built to withstand higher temps from the element pins.

Hope this helps

[yashicamat]

I believe you can pick up proper kettle leads for about a fiver from the right place anyway, they're designed to stand up to the heat.

[boingy]

The "hot condition" kettle leads are designed to take the conducted heat from the element. In practice this means a heat-resistant socket and a heat-resistant cable. PC leads can often handle the current but are not quite as resistant to the physical temperature they meet during long boils. They are likely to fail earlier than the proper ones and, if you get a particularly crappy one, could leave you with a pool of molten plastic and some exposed live terminals. Mostly you will get away with using them but for the few quid the proper lead costs it is not worth the risk. Try your local Focus DIY store. I'm pretty sure I noticed proper kettle leads in there for about £4.

[WishboneBrewery]

Hey jdt199,
you really should start a blog or web page for all this and copy paste your How-to's over there so its all in one place... Excellent stuff, I'm very impressed with all the trouble you've taken