Had a few brew sessions

I have had a few brew sessions (actually 3) since the system was finished.  I have made a few tweaks.  First I added a water filter between the water source and the HLT.  I bought a charcoal filter at Home Depot for about $25.

I had some problems with the March pump priming so I lowered it to below the current location (under the plastic tub).  I am still having problems with the pump priming.  I found a thread on Realbeer.com forums that had some discussions on this.  I will try doing what they suggested to others.  I will post the results here.

So far I have brewed three batches.  A pilsner, a stout, and a heffe.  Pilsner is just ok but I think I got an infection somehow.  I haven't transferred the other two batches yet.  Hopefully they don't have infections.  Seems the first batch would have NOT had much of a chance getting an infection since everything was new.  It does concern me a bit.

Finally - The day has come

The System is finally complete.



The summer has been a bit hectic and most of the work on the brew system has been trying to figure out how to do things. First of all I got rid of the second shelf. I didn't want it to extend the whole way across since I would need to get to the tops of the two bottom kettles. I purchased some expanded metal and then build a couple of cross beams to give the expanded metal some support. The expanded metal was the same kind of metal used in many grills and smokers. I would recommend catwalk material over what I used. It is much thicker and probably wouldn't require any support. I found both types of metal at a metal salvage yard. Problem with the catwalk material is that I didn't need 20 feet of it and couldn't fit that much in my truck anyway. For the supports I found some bedframe rails at a garage sale. $5. Much more sturdy than angle iron. I used my $15 angle grinder to cut them to size.

The next step was mounting the burners. I have one hose and black iron tubing controlling all 3 burners. I have a shutoff valve for each burner. Now that it is complete it was really a fairly some task. (Did I mention that I am NOT a plumber.) Once I had the burner all hooked up I connected a pressure hose to the system and put about 20 lbs of pressure (valves shut) through the system and used a bottle of soapy water to test for leaks. NONE!

The last task was figuring out how to run all of the liquid lines thorough the pump and then through all of the different valves. Here is a picture coming out of the mash tun and the boil kettle. From there it goes into the pump.



Coming out of the pump I had to build another "manifold". Here is a picture. It is much less complicated than it looks. A t-connector from the pump. (Looking at the picture...) To the left is a valve that goes to the wort chiller. To the right there is a valve that allows pumping from from the mash tun to the boil kettle. Going up is the recirculation that goes from the mash tun, through a coil in the hot liquor tank and back in to the mash tun.



After all this was done I added a few lines so that I could run a hose into the system and then run water into the HLT and/or through the wort chiller.

Here is a picture of the system with all three burners going at one time. If you look close you can see all three flames.



The real test will be this weekend when I plan on trying to brew a batch. We will see if I have time to get to that.

Take care.

Things are coming along

It has been a while since I have worked on my system. I did finally add the thermometer to the hot liquor tank and to the mash tun. Here is a photo:

I have been trying to decide how to build a brew sculpture. I don't weld so it does present a bit of a challenge. I came across this commercial rack at Costco for about $160. It comes with 4 shelves and each shelf holds up to 2000 pounds. Best of all the shelves are adjustable. I bought the shelf a month or so ago and put it together this weekend. Only used 3 shelves. Put the extra 2 supports in the back of the rack thinking that maybe I could attach hoses, my pump or whatever to the supports. Here is how it turned out with my finished kegs on it.

Picture of the bottom rack with the mash tun. You can see some of the supports for the rack. I also hope to figure a way to attach the burners there.

What is nice is that I have a top shelf on the rack so that I can store stuff when I am not brewing.

I found some rollers at Home Depot for $8 each. They allow me to roll the rack in and out of the garage as needed. The lever you see next to the wheel allows me to lock the wheels in place so that they won't roll.

The brew system is getting close to be able to use. I need to work on the plumbing, attach the burners, mount the pump and chiller. Maybe it will be ready by the fall season. If I am lucky my Hop crop will produce something usable. First time to try growing hops. We will see if the Texas sun will kill them during July and August.

Modified Kegs

I purchased old kegs from the scrap yard. I also kept the receipts to show that I purchased them and that they weren't stolen. The next stp was to cut the kegs. You can search the web for some good articles on converting kegs. A few are: (http://www.schoville.com/brewing.php/kegconversion, http://www.texanbrew.com/article.php?story=20021110200202146, http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/homebrewing/keg_conversion/).

First you need to vent the keg or release the pressure out of the keg. This is fairly simple. All you do is take a large screwdriver and push down on the ball on the keg. Make sure you have a rag or something over the hole or you will get smelly old beer squirted all over you.

Once the pressure has been release you can mark the keg for cutting. On my kegs I cut the hole at 12 inches. I took a string and looped it around the keg tap and used a sharpie to mark the circle. I remeasured to mark sure the hole would be 12 inches. (Being paranoid that I would cut the hole too big.) The first time I cut the hole I used an angle grinder with a 4 inch wheel (found everything at Harbor Freight for about $20). The first hole I cut was about 10 inches then later I decided to cut the hole to 12" so that I could fit the false bottom that I wanted. The first hole I cut wasn't very circular. I think it was a combination of rushing and not used to cutting. The second time when I cut the hole to 12 inches I used a RotoZip which has a 3 inch cutting wheel. This hole came out better but again I think it is because I took my time. Once the hole was cut ithe edges were very sharp. I used a barrel sander attachment to my hand drill to clean up the holes (I also bought this at Harbor Freight for about $5). It took about 2 hours to cut 3 kegs and do the necessary cleanup of the hole. Oh, important point, I also used ear and eye protection while cutting the holes. It is really loud. If you are lucky enough to have access to a plasma cutter then take a look at this from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_reRMz7YHic. I believe it took him 3 minutes to cut 1 hole.

Here is how mine turned out:

Next I cut the holes for the fittings. I used a drill to start the hole and then a step bit (also from Harbor Frieght). BTW, I use Harbor Frieght because they are inexpesive for the tools I am using. Good for tools that you will rarely use (like an angle grinder, step bits...). Here is the Keg with the hole cut out:

Then I added the weldless fittings and the false bottom and here is the final product:

The concept

This is just a quick entry that shows the sketch that started it all. I looked at pre-built brewing systems and found some really nice ones. The problem was the cost was a bit steep. That is what prompted the decision to build one of my own. Besides it was kind of a challenge. Anyway, here is the design I am shooting for.

Homebrew and Brew Systems

A few years ago I decided to start making beer. I had a few friends who were doing it and it kind of looked interesting. I thought it looked easy and it was something that I could do. If it turned out "ok" then I could share it with my dad.

When I started I bought a basic setup and was doing 3 gallon batches. It took about 3 hours to make the batch before letting it ferment for a few weeks. Over time I added on to the setup. I started fermenting in glass carboys. I started doing a secondary fermentation. It was all going well. (I was also able to add a few different pieces and also make wine. Incredibly easy.) I also went from 12 oz bottles to the flip top bottles (each bottle holds more and less bottles to clean).

As time progressed I met more people who brew and they were making beer the all-grain way. Then I came across a DVD on all-grain brewing. It actually looked easier than I imagined. I had a friend who did all-grain brewing (35 gallon batches) and he gave me his old coolers. I bought a false bottom, replaced some hoses, and did my first 5 gallon batch. Took about 6 hours to make but most of that time is sitting around and waiting. The beer came out awesome! I also started kegging into 5 gallon corney kegs instead of bottling. Tastes awesome. I made about 10 batches before I started looking at wanting to do bigger batches (actually 10 gallons). It takes the same amount of time and you get more.

Now I come to the main point of this whole bit of blabbing. I was looking at systems to do 10 gallon batches. After looking at the pre-built systems I decided that maybe I should try to build a system. I looked for plans and couldn't find anything that fit what I had in mind, kinda inexpensive. (BTW, there was an issue of Brew Your Own magazine that had a good article on building a brew system.) So I have decided to build a pump driven brew system. In my future posts I will try and posts pictures and show how I put the system together. I hope it helps someone else who decides to make their own system.

What I have purchased so far is 3 sanke kegs (from the salvage yard for a total of $75). Some fittings from Austin Homebrew Supply (Ball Valves, Bulkhead, Nipple). A false bottom from Midwest Supplies. A grain mill off of eBay (Barley Crusher Malt Mill pictured below).












I still need to purchase a counterflow wort cooler, a march pump, and get a sculpture to hold everything. Then I need to add burners and do the plumbing.

Hope you enjoy. More to come.