The Chaos that is a Buffers Brewery brew day

[Spratt]

Good to hear!


Sorry to hear that. Not bragging but I’ve managed to get my system sorted. I collect +3 balloons full of fermentation gas which I use 1 or 2 during cold crash and 2 to fill my King Keg with gas before beer transfer. I fill the KK with water, fit the lid and syphon the water out of the KK after attaching a balloon so as the water exits the KK it sucks the gas out of the balloon. The trick is to prime the syphon tube with water first.


Welcome to the club. I was diagnosed type 2 about 5 years ago. So far I’ve given up sugar in my tea and coffee and watch my carb intake…….and my weight. Get on a DESMOND course if your doc hasn’t already sent you on one.

Keep brewing!

I'm sure you have already posted it somewhere, but which balloon are you using and what size / type tube are you using to fill and empty them? I thought I had the answer with Mountain Warehouse water bottles, but they don't hold enough and as I've posted previously, have occasionally blown apart before I could swap them.

 

[Buffers brewery]

I use these balloons…
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/202622077756?var=502863133000
the 22 inch version. I currently use 6mm OD pneumatic pipe but I’m thinking of changing this to 8mm OD (6mm ID). I use this supplier..
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120848560815?hash=item1c2322b2af:g:2JIAAOxy3NBSjFl-
I currently fit a tap to the tube but with the larger diameter I’ll fit a gas disconnect to seal off the balloon when full and connect to my KK lid to gas flush.

You can find my method of modding the balloons in my post…
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/another-bruloonlock-method.90942/…but there are others that you might prefer.

 

[Spratt]

I use these balloons…
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/202622077756?var=502863133000
the 22 inch version. I currently use 6mm OD pneumatic pipe but I’m thinking of changing this to 8mm OD (6mm ID). I use this supplier..
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120848560815?hash=item1c2322b2af:g:2JIAAOxy3NBSjFl-
I currently fit a tap to the tube but with the larger diameter I’ll fit a gas disconnect to seal off the balloon when full and connect to my KK lid to gas flush.

You can find my method of modding the balloons in my post…
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/another-bruloonlock-method.90942/…but there are others that you might prefer.

That's great. Thanks for those links. I'll have another go and see how I get on.

 

[Buffers brewery]

I thought I had the answer with Mountain Warehouse water bottles, but they don't hold enough and as I've posted previously, have occasionally blown apart before I could swap them.

Now I have a 3D printer I’ve made a MKII version of my Brewloonometer .
Rather than make the callipers from aluminium strip and box sections rivoted together, I’ve got an all plastic version.

It has a wireless door bell mounted on the top and has a microswitch wired into the push button switch so when the brewloon is full the microswitch is actuated and the doorbell rings in the house prompting a quick brewloon change.

Here’s the Brewloonometer with an empty brewloon.

This is my current set up with the fermentation gas coming out of the fridge from the FV into a small gunge trap. The brewloon is connected to the gunge trap using a corny gas post. At the start of fermentation I don’t connect a brewloon instead the long red hose is connected to the bubbler that is fixed on the side of the fridge. This serves two purposes. First it flushes any air out of the system and second primes the long red hose with CO2 for use in closed transfer later. Once I’m happy the system is sufficiently flushed the hose is disconnected and brewloon connected. After filling all my brewloons the red hose is reconnected to the bubbler to finish fermentation.

FYI the doorbell cost £9.09

https://www.screwfix.com/p/blyss-plug-in-wireless-door-chime-kit-white/764hf
..and the plastic bits cost me a fiver and took 2 days to print!

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Now I have a 3D printer I’ve made a MKII version of my Brewloonometer ...and the plastic bits cost me a fiver and took 2 days to print!

must... resist... urge to buy 3D printer...

 

[Spratt]

Now I have a 3D printer I’ve made a MKII version of my Brewloonometer .
Rather than make the callipers from aluminium strip and box sections rivoted together, I’ve got an all plastic version.
View attachment 55349
It has a wireless door bell mounted on the top and has a microswitch wired into the push button switch so when the brewloon is full the microswitch is actuated and the doorbell rings in the house prompting a quick brewloon change.
View attachment 55350
Here’s the Brewloonometer with an empty brewloon.
View attachment 55351
This is my current set up with the fermentation gas coming out of the fridge from the FV into a small gunge trap. The brewloon is connected to the gunge trap using a corny gas post. At the start of fermentation I don’t connect a brewloon instead the long red hose is connected to the bubbler that is fixed on the side of the fridge. This serves two purposes. First it flushes any air out of the system and second primes the long red hose with CO2 for use in closed transfer later. Once I’m happy the system is sufficiently flushed the hose is disconnected and brewloon connected. After filling all my brewloons the red hose is reconnected to the bubbler to finish fermentation.

FYI the doorbell cost £9.09

https://www.screwfix.com/p/blyss-plug-in-wireless-door-chime-kit-white/764hf
..and the plastic bits cost me a fiver and took 2 days to print!

Your ingenuity never fails to amaze me. Looks like you're having a lot of fun with that 3D printer. Some-one in our village has just bought one and I was amazed how much they have come down in price since I looked a couple of years ago.

Ingenious though your door bell idea is, it unfortunately wouldn't have saved my Mountain Warehouse containers. They always burst during the night, I guess because I was too greedy and always hoped they would hold just a bit more.........

 

[Buffers brewery]

Your ingenuity never fails to amaze me. Looks like you're having a lot of fun with that 3D printer. Some-one in our village has just bought one and I was amazed how much they have come down in price since I looked a couple of years ago.

Ingenious though your door bell idea is, it unfortunately wouldn't have saved my Mountain Warehouse containers. They always burst during the night, I guess because I was too greedy and always hoped they would hold just a bit more.........

I only connect my brewloons during waking hours. The bubbler is connected over night .

 

[Buffers brewery]

Kit of bits straight off the printer.....

 

[Spratt]

Kit of bits straight off the printer.....
View attachment 55451

Was this all your own design or did you adapt somebody's existing pattern? It looks a thoroughly complicated set of bits to create from scratch

 

[Buffers brewery]

Was this all your own design or did you adapt somebody's existing pattern? It looks a thoroughly complicated set of bits to create from scratch

I took my original aluminium version….

…and modified the design so that it could be printed. It had to be broken down into smaller (shorter) parts in order to fit on the build plate of the printer. Obviously needs a few additional bits like nuts and bolts, microswitch and doorbell push button to finish it off.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Brew day underway. Having a go at a London bitter (Greg Hughes recipe….almost).

4 kg Maris pale malt
400 grm medium crystal..made up of 100 grm 135 EBC crystal and 300 grm 100 EBC crystal….it’s what I had
400 grm carapils

Just finished first mash with 3 gallons of strike water achieved 1.1 gallons of wort at 1.078 SG. Second mash underway with 2.5 gallons of water for 30 minutes stirring every 15 minutes.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Second and third mashes done yielding a little under 7 gallons of wort at 1.035 SG. Boil is now on and 25 grm of Challenger leaf hop added for the 60 minute boil. Half a crushed protofloc tab going in 15 minutes from the end, then 10 grm Fuggle pellets 10 minutes from the end and 6 grm Celeia pellets (didn’t have any Goldings) at flame out.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Boil finished. Giving my new pump a run out to whirlpool during cooling. The small 12 vdc solar pump struggled (failed) to produce a good whirlpool so I upgraded with this 240 vac pump.

Got the temperature down to 22C in 30 minutes when whirlpooling was stopped. I’ll leave it for an hour while I have a bit of lunch, clean up and re-hydrate the London ale yeast.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Transferred today’s effort into my fermentation bucket….

…managed to get about 5.5 gallons of wort..

….and a gravity of 1.049

Just waiting for the yeast to re-hydrate then that’ll be pitched and the fermentation bucket transferred to the brew fridge via the fermicular ramp.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Yeast pitched and fermentation bucket tucked up in the brew fridge. Connected the bubbler until fermentation gets underway then I’ll connect the first brewloon.
Based on the numbers achieved today, brewhouse efficiency for the day was a smidge over 80%. Happy with that

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Transferred today’s effort into my fermentation bucket….
View attachment 55943
…managed to get about 5.5 gallons of wort..
View attachment 55944
….and a gravity of 1.049
View attachment 55945
Just waiting for the yeast to re-hydrate then that’ll be pitched and the fermentation bucket transferred to the brew fridge via the fermicular ramp.

It's hard to read from this angle, but I'd say you're being conservative with that 1049...

 

[Buffers brewery]

Visited the brew shed this morning to find fermentation well under way…

… and the bubbler very busy, so quickly set up the Brewloonometer and an empty brewloon was connected and bubbler disconnected.

The door bells in the house and shed were turned ON so I can hear when the brewloon needs changing from anywhere within my boundary

 

[Buffers brewery]

50 minutes later.....

...door bells are ringing! First brewloon full and disconnected. Second one connected. Now waiting for "the bells, the bells!"

 

[moto748]

The 3D printer stuff is fascinating. What software did you use? I used to do 3D modelling for a living, but I've never had (or used) a 3D printer.

 

[Buffers brewery]

I have an “old” cad package (TurboCAD) running on an even older XP pc to create the 3-D models. Each part is then saved as a .STL file that can be imported into a slicer. I use Slic3r which is free to download. This breaks down the model into layers for the printer and works out the extrusion path for the printer. The Slic3r outputs a .gcode file, which I believe is similar if not the same as files used by CNC machine tools, that gets copied to a micro SD card that gets plugged in to the printer. There’s a bit of setting up required to get the printer properly “zeroed” and the slic3r has to be set up with the filament and printer details and various printer settings have to be input too but once that’s done you’re set. I have an Elegoo Neptune printer, £160 off Amazon a few months ago. Works OK. The only issue is a lack of spare parts for sale.