My first brewery... I've got cabinets now!!!

[calumscott]

Thanks Vossy, I'll engineer in a bit of tension...

...actually, if I were to support it round the circumference, fill it and do the internal plumbing underwater that would ensure that any deformation was accounted for wouldn't it?

 

[calumscott]

How are people plumbing up their systems... particularly around transfer of mash runnings to boiler?

So far I'm thinking of a gravity feed from Burco HLT to mashtun.

That'll have a split outlet, one connected to the bottom drain of the mashtun, one connected to a sparge arm. That way I can underlet the mash liquor - not too sure if there is much temp loss just filling via the sparge arm or not but it just seems "nicer" and "better" to me.

Gravity feeding at this point is easy - the burco stands pretty much at the right height compared to the tun, close enough anyway.

The trickier bit is the collection of runnings from the tun and transfer to the boiler which will sit pretty much on a level with the tun.

I know I need a pump but how do you plumb yours? Do you have some sort of collection vessel and pump out of that? I would have thought that was the obvious answer but I have that feeling of "missing something".

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

How are people plumbing up their systems... particularly around transfer of mash runnings to boiler?

I just use a bucket under the mash tap, never had any probs.... sometimes simple is best.. :thumb:

BB :drink:

 

[calumscott]

So run into a cheapo FV and pump that back up to the boiler. That's kind of what I was thinking...

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

So run into a cheapo FV and pump that back up to the boiler. That's kind of what I was thinking...

I was thinking about buying a fancy stainless steel one a while ago but as you suggested I just use an old fermenting bucket...

BB

 

[calumscott]

So run into a cheapo FV and pump that back up to the boiler. That's kind of what I was thinking...

I was thinking about buying a fancy stainless steel one a while ago but as you suggested I just use an old fermenting bucket...

BB

Yep, easy enough to justify shiny when it's going to be mashing in there for a while or boiling for an hour and a half but a few minutes before getting pumped somewhere else doesn't seem to warrant shiny stainless...

 

[PD]

just don't.....don't use a pink plastic bucket..... :sick:

 

[BrotherMalice]

Not one of these then?

 

[PD]

:sick: :sick:
Please remove this image otherwise GA will be wanting one for Christmas..... Do they do it in a 55 litre size ?

:twisted:

 

[calumscott]

Trust me, that will NOT be happening!

 

[Frogfurlong]

How about a 100 liter water storage barrel in PINK?

 

[PD]

shall we leave that colour for the extract boys ?................

:twisted:

 

[Frogfurlong]

shall we leave that colour for the extract boys ?................

:twisted:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

 

[Vossy1]

...actually, if I were to support it round the circumference, fill it and do the internal plumbing underwater that would ensure that any deformation was accounted for wouldn't it?

Yep, that's why mine had a swan neck, it created the pressure. If you use a big enough FB the popping up isn't a problem as it tends to be worse the closer to the middle you get. Re the hlt set up, my old system had the boiler next to the mash tun on the top tier and it doubled as a HLT with a collection pot under the mash tun. I gravity fed the runnings to the collection pot then pumped to the boiler....twas very compact

 

[calumscott]

Ooh that's nice!!

Mines likely going to look a bit more "Heath" than that!!

If anyone would like to cast their eye over these schematics for the fittings for the vessels I'd be grateful...

HLT is an ancient Burco F44L, I'm going to ditch the burco tap and replace it with:

One tap gets connected to the sparge arm, the other to one tap on the mashtun for underletting the initial mash liquor.


Mashtun is a 50l thermo which is going to get a bottom drain:

One tap is connected to the HLT for underletting the initial mash liquor the other will be a spout for runnings


Boiler is a 70l stainless stockpot:

One tap is connected to the runnings collector via a solar pump, the other to a counterflow wort chiller.

Thoughts?

 

[Vossy1]

All looks good to me though I'd change/ditch the boiler runnings collector arm and rack into the boiler with a racking cane or similar. The reasoning being my thoughts, if you rack in from the lower ball valve and then shut it off to boil you'll have an unboiled/non sanitised fraction of runnings in the pipework at the end of the boil ( I wouldn't be happy for heat transfer to sanitise personally). I'd also recirc the boiling wort through the cfc to sainitise it and all fittings, I found it an easy way to do it.

 

[calumscott]

Thanks!

That mod makes the plumbing easier.

Would you say just a length of copper with a 180 degree bend resting on the boiler rim which leaves the end just short of the boiler floor?

Then for the CFC outflow, add a geka then I can disconnect the pump from the runnings collector connect it to the CFC outflow and recirc for the last ten mins or so of the boil?

 

[Vossy1]

Would you say just a length of copper with a 180 degree bend resting on the boiler rim which leaves the end just short of the boiler floor?

I used to do it like that

you could even have an elbow at the boiler floor to direct the flow and it minimises splashing. I used to use a racking cane the wrong way round

Then for the CFC outflow, add a geka then I can disconnect the pump from the runnings collector connect it to the CFC outflow and recirc for the last ten mins or so of the boil?

Yep, and I have a picture of that too :lol: ...I've been around too long

 

[calumscott]

Nothing wrong with lots of pics of shiny!!!

...and thanks again for more pointers!

 

[calumscott]

It's all falling nicely into place!

I've just bagged a small pile of old kitchen cabinets off freegle and just waiting to hear back on a small pile of timber...

...if only someone would freegle a big pile of brass fittings, 1/4 turn taps... :lol: