New Brewery Build

Comment by mattd2 on April 14, 2013 at 8:09pm

Update time: Just realised this has been going for over a year, man time flies when your having fun. 3.5 kids kind of helps as well!

Anyway back to update time... Over the last few week I have been putting together the stand and this weekend was sorting out the pump and HEx mounting. So onwards with the pictures:

Everything set up

Pump "skid", this is not attached to the frame and will end up hanging vertically during storage so the pump fully drains.

HEx mounting, again HEx will be removed for storage (lift up then slid out) so it can fully drain.

Starting to get the hang of stick welding again

Starting off the welds weren't looking too pretty (the paint makes it look better in the photos!

Got the inlaws coming down next week, break in brew will be a Hobgoblin clone. I'll take some more pictures during brewing.

Cheers!

Comment by mattd2 on April 21, 2013 at 5:03pm

The brewing last night went great. Having the stand really made things 200x easier. I did make a mistake of cutting the hoses shorter but not thinking to make sure they were long enought to be able to move water/wort into the top of the MLT! It all worked out in the end though and still easier.

Photos of the Hobgoblin clone brewnight (didn't even notice the weatherbomb hitting Tauranga while brewing inside!)-

Cheers!

Comment by mattd2 on November 27, 2013 at 10:01pm

So I have gone through a few brews on the setup and everythings works pretty good... but there is always something more you can do. The 3 big pains with how it is currently setup are:

1) The temp probe is right after the pump, so when cooling the wort I don't know when I have hit the target temp on the outlet of the HEx,

2) Having to swap hoses over all the time (and having to pich the burning hot hose/fittings to stop liquid spilling everywhere!)

3) lautering is a real pain which involves somehow getting a 2 litre jug between the MLT and the fermenter I have to run-off the wort to since the HLT/BK is still full of sparge water!

So my B'day is in a few days and I had a big plan to do somewhat of a major overhaul... until the wife's camera crapped out, so guess what I'm getting for my Birthday :)

I have scaled things back to the bare minimum to address the 3 points above:

1) The temp probe is now at on the kettle return so when the HEx is hooked up it will show the wort exit temp

2) Extra hose on pump suction hose so I can stop water/wort backflowing out when I change this hose over (need to change this 3 times), the pump outlet hose will only need to be changed when hooking up the HEx.

3) I can now pump wort to either the BK or back to the HLT with valves - no need to swap hoses for this or drain wort into a bucket anymore . Sparge water will be pumped into a bucket to free up the BK to receive the wort.

Lastly I am going to try one of these spray nozzles (90° spray angle) out for the lautering return.

Comment by mattd2 on December 13, 2013 at 11:33pm

OK more pictures, got the fittings in and put together. Just waiting on the spray nozzle now.

Comment by JumpR on December 15, 2013 at 8:45am

The brewery is looking good Matt!

Comment by mattd2 on December 16, 2013 at 4:10pm

Thanks Gary, brewed on it last night and I think the new recirc is going to be an awesome addition. Much easier going from recirc to kettle. Had one small issue with the pump suction line getting full of trub during the boil and took me 5 minutes to work out it wasn't block on the discharge side, which might make me IPA a bit more bitter than intended. Looking forward to the next brewday.
Are you still in Tauranga?

Comment by JumpR on December 21, 2013 at 7:51am

Hey Matt, yep still in Tauranga.  Have been out of town for work a bit and have missed the last few catch ups over at Mt. Brewing.  Have also been going through a rough brewing patch, bombed in my two entries to soba (tried and failed at water adjustments) and have been having (low) carbonation issues with my brews.  I think I am cold crashing too long in the FV and using a too flocculant yeast, which is hampering bottle conditioning.  Will catch up soon.

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