NB's bunker brewery build

[Northern Brewer]

[quote="Northern Brewer":8aur93vf] a big lump of brass with a 1/2" BSP female connection on one end and a M8 female on the other. My PT100 has a M8 thread.
The SS tee is BES part number 14307 1/2" BSP equal tee.
The connector between the lump of brass and the tee is BES part number 14408 1/2" BSP equal hex nipple
......a parallel nipple BES 14462-
The hose connector is BES P/N 14558 1/2" hose tail adaptor
..... a BES P/N 14451 1/2" barrel nipple
Two BES P/N 14547 1/2" BSP locking nuts
two 20mm washers from ebay - M20 form B A2 stainless washers
Going through the middle of the barrel nipple is a short length of 15mm outside diameter 1.5mm wall thickness SS pipe
... a thick washer, about 10mm thick, 15mm inside diameter, and about 32mm outside diameter,

With brewporn talk like that you'll be getting some very excited members here :lol:

Me, I'm just in awe of you lads ability building all this shiney kit :mrgreen: :thumb:[/quote:8aur93vf]
I guess all the talk of females and nipples may be enough to raise the blood pressure a tad, especially after a couple of ales.

 

[Northern Brewer]

Looks good, glad to see it all coming together.

S

Cheers Springer, final bits have arrrived from BES so I can finish of the HLT and boiler. Just waiting for a couple of electrical bits and pieces and I can get the controller built. Shoudlne be long now which is a good job as I have now run out of stout and have no HB left :shock:

 

[evanvine]

I guess all the talk of females and nipples may be enough to raise the blood pressure a tad, especially after a couple of ales.

Nice to hear someone being realistic!

 

[Loetz]

Any updates on the build? I've been curious about how it's coming.

 

[Northern Brewer]

Hi Loetz

I'm hoping to finish it off over Easter, will post some pictures.

Cheers
NB

 

[Loetz]

Hi Loetz

I'm hoping to finish it off over Easter, will post some pictures.

Cheers
NB

Ditto... kind of.

I probably won't have the HERMS set up or fermentation temp control built, but I'll at least be able to do a batch. I'm planning to do something with these nelson sauvin hops that I have here, but I havent settled on a recipe yet. I have a couple pounds of carabelge too... maybe I can use that...

 

[Northern Brewer]

Its been a while since I gave an update on progress however i now have a deadline for the first brew, this weekend :shock: I've invited two friends over to do the first brew, onc is publican from Hereford who is toying with the idea of brewing for the pub and the other is a friend from London who talked me into moving up from a 40 pint AG "portable" brewery to a shiny 80 litre jobby and aslo bought the conical FV.

I'm far from ready, here's the brew room in its current state, sink, water, drainage and cabling in but cabling needs terminating and i need to put the 2 x 15A MCBs in the barn consumer unit. The two thick cables onthe left are some 2.5mm external cable i had spare from when my bore hole pump was renewed so will do for the two 15A element feeds.

The control box is in progress, the front panel was an abosute sod to cut as its was 3.2mm thick, 2 x 1.6mm sheets, trust me to buy an armour plated box. In the end I cut the square holes for the PIDs and timer out using a milling machine and a slot milling cutter (well, about 5 with breakages , but I haven't touched a milling machines for about 35 years)

here's the back box with SSRs and some of teh XLR sockets for the probes plus 3 of the 5 element feeds.

Here's two views of the front panel - 5 PIDs but 2 are just used for temp sensing, not switching, the sixth instrument is a timer. I'm using 1.5mm sq tri-rated instrument cable throughout.

Finally, here's a hops stopper, design courtesy of Aleman Inventions Limited

More updates as I progress, I have 2 hours this evening, 2 hours on Friday evening and most of Saturday to get ready for brew day on Sunday and I've just ordered the bits from BES for the pump connections and bypass plus the camlock connectors from UK pumps. Will I do it in time? :pray:

Cheers
NB

 

[Loetz]

The control box is looking good! I thought about using those heavy duty blue power plugs too, but I went with just normal male wall plugs on both ends of the cable. It's not really the safest way to do it, but it was what I went with and it works.

The hop filter looks good to. Maybe someday I'll make one as nice as that, but for now I just crimped the edges over instead of making the copper holder.

Good luck finishing everything up!

 

[Northern Brewer]

Thanks Loetz
Camlock connectors arrived today - very shiny! :geek:
Cheers
NB

 

[bobsbeer]

How are the XLR sockets working for the sensors. I was going to use 3 pin DIN plug/sockets but some seem to have had problems when cutting the sensor cable?

 

[Northern Brewer]

Hi Bob

I'm just completing the wiring of the control box so will be testing functionality later tonight or inthe morning. I had no issues soldering the connections onto the XLR plug. I wrapped some insulation tape around the cable so that the strain relief gland would make proper contact and stop the wiring from pulling out. See the red tape below. I havent extended the cable screen to the plug as i have heard no reports of any issues. The screen is Stainless so coudl not be soldered too, would have to have some kind of clamp so I am leaving that aside unless I really have to do it.

Cheers NB

 

[Mark1964]

Hows it going Andy you ready for brewing yet??

 

[Northern Brewer]

Nearly - Control box almost wired up, just wiring the back of the XLR sockets to the PIDs, stick in the fuses and see what happens. If all the PIDs and probes work I'll fix it to the brew room walll and cable in the seperate element supplies.

If that goes according to plan I might have a go at completing the wort sprayers this evening.

 

[graysalchemy]

Jealous exactly what I want but unfortunately me and electricity don't go well together

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Nice set-up, you must be well chuffed :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

BB :mrgreen:

 

[Northern Brewer]

Jealous exactly what I want but unfortunately me and electricity don't go well together

I'll find out soon if me and electricity go together well - I may end up with even less hair than I have now. :shock: if you hear a whistle followed by a bang over in the Pennines then You 'll know the answer to that. :pray:

 

[Northern Brewer]

so far so good - no big bang!! :party:
All the PIDS seem to work and the timer however I've only converted one to PT100 so far but that doesnt take long. Not tested the SSRs yet, later this evening...........

 

[Northern Brewer]

Nice set-up, you must be well chuffed :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

BB :mrgreen:

nearly chuffed - don't want to coutn my chickens just yet....... SSRs, elements et.c to test yet. :thumb:

 

[Mark1964]

hurry up and get brewing all that effort needs some return hope everything fire up fine good luck

 

[dennisdk2000]

Just a thought - if you need more resistance in the sight glass, maybe a compression stop end with a small hole drilled through the centre fitted to the top end of the sight glass might work?

Dennis