Very nice. The kit I've got from MrLard has been excellent, should have a new stainless racking cane and hop filter arriving soon.
I'd be interested to know what you think of the grain mill, decided I'm moving to uncrushed grain in the new year so I'll need to get one soon.
Outdoor brewery build
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Fil
- Telling imaginary friend stories
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Re: Outdoor brewery build
sounds like a grand brewery your setting up, keep the pics coming 
ist update for months n months..
Fermnting: not a lot..
Conditioning: nowt
Maturing: Challenger smash, and a kit lager
Drinking: dry one minikeg left in the store
Coming Soon Lots planned for the near future nowt for the immediate
Fermnting: not a lot..
Conditioning: nowt
Maturing: Challenger smash, and a kit lager
Drinking: dry one minikeg left in the store
Coming Soon Lots planned for the near future nowt for the immediate
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Jocky
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Re: Outdoor brewery build
Since my last update 3 boxes of MrLard's best shiny stainless steel toys arrived, and then I've been waiting for the weather to warm up a bit before I built the brewery stand.
Since that's not happening any time soon (it's either very wet or very cold) I decided to put together some of the shiny stuff and get that tested.
I got MrLard to predrill holes for everything, as I felt that was a good investment vs the time and risk of me messing it up. So most of the work here is putting PTFE tape on threads and then screwing stuff together.
All pots came with taps prefitted. Here's the Hot Liquor Tank in bits:
And a few minutes later:
That's a 33 litre pot with:
2 piece tap
Type F camlock fitting
Sight glass
Any angle temperature dial
2.4kw element
Big element shroud.
Worth noting that for the dial and sight glass I've put the silicon seals on the outside of the pot, as recommended by MrLard elsewhere on the forum. They go:
Dial/sight glass - Seal - Pot - Washer - Nut
One of the weightier things that came were the element shrouds. They're very chunky pieces of steel:
There was just about enough thread on the element to fit the backnut and then the shroud after that:
Since that's not happening any time soon (it's either very wet or very cold) I decided to put together some of the shiny stuff and get that tested.
I got MrLard to predrill holes for everything, as I felt that was a good investment vs the time and risk of me messing it up. So most of the work here is putting PTFE tape on threads and then screwing stuff together.
All pots came with taps prefitted. Here's the Hot Liquor Tank in bits:
And a few minutes later:
That's a 33 litre pot with:
2 piece tap
Type F camlock fitting
Sight glass
Any angle temperature dial
2.4kw element
Big element shroud.
Worth noting that for the dial and sight glass I've put the silicon seals on the outside of the pot, as recommended by MrLard elsewhere on the forum. They go:
Dial/sight glass - Seal - Pot - Washer - Nut
One of the weightier things that came were the element shrouds. They're very chunky pieces of steel:
There was just about enough thread on the element to fit the backnut and then the shroud after that:
Ingredients: Water, Barley, Hops, Yeast, Seaweed, Blood, Sweat, The swim bladder of a sturgeon, My enemies tears, Scenes of mild peril, An otter's handbag and Riboflavin.
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Jocky
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Re: Outdoor brewery build
Coming from my tiddly stove top batches, the 35 litre thermopot mash tun feels imposing (I wanted something decently sized to be able to no sparge on quick brew days, or to handle bigger batches).
It came mostly assembled, with 3 piece tap, bottom drain and thermowell all ready fitted.
Like the HLT I've added an any angle temperature dial and type F camlock:
There's also a false bottom inside:
Plenty more to do yet...
It came mostly assembled, with 3 piece tap, bottom drain and thermowell all ready fitted.
Like the HLT I've added an any angle temperature dial and type F camlock:
There's also a false bottom inside:
Plenty more to do yet...
Ingredients: Water, Barley, Hops, Yeast, Seaweed, Blood, Sweat, The swim bladder of a sturgeon, My enemies tears, Scenes of mild peril, An otter's handbag and Riboflavin.
Re: Outdoor brewery build
MrLard still builds them then? I couldn't see the pre-built thermos on his site and I mailed him last week to see if he still did them but didn't get a reply.
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Jocky
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Re: Outdoor brewery build
He's certainly very busy at the moment. My contact was entirely via email and lead time on the work was about 6 weeks once I'd paid the invoice.
Ingredients: Water, Barley, Hops, Yeast, Seaweed, Blood, Sweat, The swim bladder of a sturgeon, My enemies tears, Scenes of mild peril, An otter's handbag and Riboflavin.
Re: Outdoor brewery build
He's just pinged me on here - think my email was eaten by the interwebs!
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Jocky
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Re: Outdoor brewery build
Having had winter descend on us I've not been particularly keen on getting out to the brewery to build my stand. I decided that I'd get on and start testing my kit last night.
First things first was just filling it all up and seeing what leaks.
As I kind of expected, the temperature dial leaks on both HLT and Boiler. The dial comes with a nut, a washer and a silicon ring. I believed that the preferred way to mount was nut-washer-pot-ring-dial. Sadly the dial doesn't have a big enough shoulder to cover the silicon ring, and so it gets squashed out of the way making it largely useless.
I rearranged once with a washer between dial and ring to provide a shoulder, but it still leaked on one pot. Think I'm going to have to get a silicon cake tray and make a chunky seal to go on the inside.
In much better news, I wanted to know if I could gravity feed my chiller. I got a big one from MrLard:
And set it up with all the fittings in place, including hop filter and the big bore cam locks.
It works beautifully. I'll now have to experiment with actually chilling through it.
One thing I was particularly impressed with was the pick up from MrLards DX hop filter. Spot the water level:
You can't? That's because there isn't any. It guzzled the lot, leaving bare metal at the bottom of the pot. Zero dead space! Won't be quite that good once hops and break clog the filter a bit, but it doesn't get better than this.
Hopefully Sunday will be nice and allow me to work on the brew stand.
First things first was just filling it all up and seeing what leaks.
As I kind of expected, the temperature dial leaks on both HLT and Boiler. The dial comes with a nut, a washer and a silicon ring. I believed that the preferred way to mount was nut-washer-pot-ring-dial. Sadly the dial doesn't have a big enough shoulder to cover the silicon ring, and so it gets squashed out of the way making it largely useless.
I rearranged once with a washer between dial and ring to provide a shoulder, but it still leaked on one pot. Think I'm going to have to get a silicon cake tray and make a chunky seal to go on the inside.
In much better news, I wanted to know if I could gravity feed my chiller. I got a big one from MrLard:
And set it up with all the fittings in place, including hop filter and the big bore cam locks.
It works beautifully. I'll now have to experiment with actually chilling through it.
One thing I was particularly impressed with was the pick up from MrLards DX hop filter. Spot the water level:
You can't? That's because there isn't any. It guzzled the lot, leaving bare metal at the bottom of the pot. Zero dead space! Won't be quite that good once hops and break clog the filter a bit, but it doesn't get better than this.
Hopefully Sunday will be nice and allow me to work on the brew stand.
Ingredients: Water, Barley, Hops, Yeast, Seaweed, Blood, Sweat, The swim bladder of a sturgeon, My enemies tears, Scenes of mild peril, An otter's handbag and Riboflavin.
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Jocky
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Re: Outdoor brewery build
Resolved leaky temperature dial by putting the seal on the inside and the washer on the outside of the pot.
Also did a test run of 22 litres of cold water from 9 degrees to boiling - took bang on an hour as predicted by the water heating calculator on here.
Just got to test mash tun water tightness and I might need to get a brew on soon...
Also did a test run of 22 litres of cold water from 9 degrees to boiling - took bang on an hour as predicted by the water heating calculator on here.
Just got to test mash tun water tightness and I might need to get a brew on soon...
Ingredients: Water, Barley, Hops, Yeast, Seaweed, Blood, Sweat, The swim bladder of a sturgeon, My enemies tears, Scenes of mild peril, An otter's handbag and Riboflavin.
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Jocky
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Re: Outdoor brewery build
Today was nice and I was free, so I could either fix the shed roof, or finally build the stand for the brewery.
The shed can wait. So the task was to fit my brew stand into this:
I can't weld, but I can build stuff, so I bought some Dexion slotted angle from http://www.richardsonsuk.co.uk. It's mild steel, powder coated, very strong but quite light.
While you can spend time cutting it with a hacksaw... it takes a while. Luckily I have a circular saw that happily slices through metal:
It goes through 14swg steel like a hot knife through butter, although you do get the odd rough edge that needs tidying up:
I use a regular file to tidy it all up:
The shed can wait. So the task was to fit my brew stand into this:
I can't weld, but I can build stuff, so I bought some Dexion slotted angle from http://www.richardsonsuk.co.uk. It's mild steel, powder coated, very strong but quite light.
While you can spend time cutting it with a hacksaw... it takes a while. Luckily I have a circular saw that happily slices through metal:
It goes through 14swg steel like a hot knife through butter, although you do get the odd rough edge that needs tidying up:
I use a regular file to tidy it all up:
Ingredients: Water, Barley, Hops, Yeast, Seaweed, Blood, Sweat, The swim bladder of a sturgeon, My enemies tears, Scenes of mild peril, An otter's handbag and Riboflavin.
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Jocky
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Re: Outdoor brewery build
I originally planned a three tier stand, but after receiving my brewing vessels I realised that would mean that my HLT would be at head height, and even the Mash Tun would be rather higher than I'd like. So instead I've decided to do a single tier stand, and get a pump to run between HLT, MT and Boiler, with gravity runoff from the boiler into the fermenter via the plate chiller.
After some cutting, and lots of bolts, I ended up with this:
A handyman's drill with a socket adapter is highly recommended to do the bolts up quickly. You really need the corner plates from dexion too, as it can be hard to always locate a common slot between all the pieces, and they provide bracing for the construction.
And it fits!
A sheet of plywood cut to size and it's all looking good. Even the cat thinks so.
And it's strong. Jumping up and down on it proves so:
After some cutting, and lots of bolts, I ended up with this:
A handyman's drill with a socket adapter is highly recommended to do the bolts up quickly. You really need the corner plates from dexion too, as it can be hard to always locate a common slot between all the pieces, and they provide bracing for the construction.
And it fits!
A sheet of plywood cut to size and it's all looking good. Even the cat thinks so.
And it's strong. Jumping up and down on it proves so:
Ingredients: Water, Barley, Hops, Yeast, Seaweed, Blood, Sweat, The swim bladder of a sturgeon, My enemies tears, Scenes of mild peril, An otter's handbag and Riboflavin.
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gibbiem
Re: Outdoor brewery build
Looking good this mate, watching with interest. I can't wait to move now and get my new brew shed setup!!!
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Jocky
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Re: Outdoor brewery build
Thanks! At 5' x 3' I thought the shed might be a little small, but with the stand in place it now seems cavernous. It could actually fit in pots with twice the capacity - 70 litres.
The shed cost me £110, the slotted angle £85 (£47 for the 4 x 3m lengths, £14 for the corners, £16 for bolts and a few quid delivery), and the plywood was £26, so a total for the brew shed of £220.
Not exactly budget, but it's the way I wanted it.
The shed cost me £110, the slotted angle £85 (£47 for the 4 x 3m lengths, £14 for the corners, £16 for bolts and a few quid delivery), and the plywood was £26, so a total for the brew shed of £220.
Not exactly budget, but it's the way I wanted it.
Ingredients: Water, Barley, Hops, Yeast, Seaweed, Blood, Sweat, The swim bladder of a sturgeon, My enemies tears, Scenes of mild peril, An otter's handbag and Riboflavin.
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Jocky
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Re: Outdoor brewery build
Not much left to do. I made up some power leads, with splash proof boxes:
Mounted the pump, with tap on the outlet and camlocks:
And made up some hoses with the camlocks.
The big bore camlocks have great flow, but the silicon hose tended to pop off when the fitting was wet, so I added some jubilee clips to keep them on:
Mounted the pump, with tap on the outlet and camlocks:
And made up some hoses with the camlocks.
The big bore camlocks have great flow, but the silicon hose tended to pop off when the fitting was wet, so I added some jubilee clips to keep them on:
Ingredients: Water, Barley, Hops, Yeast, Seaweed, Blood, Sweat, The swim bladder of a sturgeon, My enemies tears, Scenes of mild peril, An otter's handbag and Riboflavin.
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Jocky
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Re: Outdoor brewery build
After that I set the whole thing up and circulated around some hot PBW just to make sure there wasn't any factory residue on anything.
To be honest, I'm not wild about having a pump in the system, it's a bit of a fiddle to swap things around and turn it on/off etc. I may yet go back to my original idea of a 3 tier.
But otherwise I think I'm ready to brew.
To be honest, I'm not wild about having a pump in the system, it's a bit of a fiddle to swap things around and turn it on/off etc. I may yet go back to my original idea of a 3 tier.
But otherwise I think I'm ready to brew.
Ingredients: Water, Barley, Hops, Yeast, Seaweed, Blood, Sweat, The swim bladder of a sturgeon, My enemies tears, Scenes of mild peril, An otter's handbag and Riboflavin.