I was wondering about that line going in through the manifold also but you cleared that up.Does your wort go straight into the fermenters after going through the chiller once or do you recirc more than once to reach pitching temp?
Cheers
Not a dumb question. I actually made that link thinking it would be an easy way to pump batch sparge water in from the HLT. Then I drew in the connection to the top of the MLT for the recirculation and realized that's how I'd get the HLT water in and just forgot to remove that link.
I noted the same thing about your BK connection. I've never tried it, but I guess it would work. I guess I thought the pump wouldn't be able to push against the head pressure of 7 gallons of wort. I'll try it next time. Also, why 90 degree female QD's?
I got the 90 degree QD's because they were only a dollar more than the straights and I figure it would take strain off the hose. IOW, the hose will hang straight down off the barb rather than form a 90 degree angle on its own. The males thread right into my ballvalves so they stick out horizontally. The pump will be mounted underneath.
I have recirculated wort back into the boil kettle through the CFC and I made that hose assembly long enough to do that or go right to the fermenter.
Good point about the head pressure. I know the March isn't good with it so I'll probably make some "over the rim" output pipe with a male QD on it. Prior to chilling the pump output would be connected to this. It will hang over the MLT when adding sparge water or recirculating the mash and then over the BK when draining runnings. It'll probably be integrated right into a lid that I'll just move to different vessels like the Brutus 10.
Why the brass disconnects instead of the readily available plastic food grade? My concern is handling a hot disconnect, the plastic wont get as hot to the touch.... A thought.
I don't know about Bobby, but those polysullphone QD's are WAY overpriced. Brass QD's are more durable, cheaper, and they really don't get THAT hot. Gloves are appropriate anyway, just because you're stirring a boiling liquid with searing hot steam coming out of the keggle....and when you disconnect your hoses/qd's some wort may get on your hands.
1. What are you making your stand out of? Welded steel? Erector set style? Is managing the piping for the burners technical (drilling, welding, etc.)?
2. What convinced you to go the direct fired route? I'm still working through some similar plans (nearly identical to yours) with an alternative as a HERMS setup to reduce the burners to two total, one for the BK and one for the HLT, with wort pumped through copper tubing in the HLT. That results in two burners, one pump (for batch sparging). What do you think of that idea?
i.) MT
ii.) HLT/HERMS for mashing/ice bath for chilling (burner #1)
iii.) BK(burner #2)
3. Are you doing any temperature controls for the propane burners (like the Brutus 10), or keeping it manual/simple?
4. Really dumb question, but where are the female and male QDs?
I do like the idea of HERMS and it's certainly not outside the capability of my stand design. I have both the third buner AND a spare immersion chiller I don't need so I can go either way.
When I think about my current process, the part of HERMS I don't like is having to get my entire HLT filled with water up to 150F and keep it there. I don't know, the more I think about it, I think HERMS and direct fire have about the same number of pros and cons. I'll try it both ways and pick the one I like better.
For the gas, I'm terminating my hose assembly onto the main gas "bus" which is 1/2" pipe. I'll run it down the stand and put "tees" at each burner position. The branch on the tee will have a valve, then use a compression fitting to attach 1/2"OD copper tubing to each burner. That would work if I find a neat way to suspend the burners. If not, I might try using all solid pipe and have it hold the burners in place. I'm not quite there yet.
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