Reverse Polarity Brewery - Kal Clone

milldoggy · 04-05-2011, 01:23 AM

I have been building my brewery over the last 4 months. It is an all electric system built following Kal's fantastic directions. I used keggles for the BK and HLT and a cooler for the MLT. I also used Copper for hex and did not use the hop stopper. I chose to use a spider. The keggles are all welded. I used a 1 in half coupler for the elements. My MLT uses a 4 pipe copper manifold I also went with camlocks and 90 elbows following Bobby's method. I also went with Chugger pumps.

I broke it in two weeks ago. I got around 84% eff. It was my first AG batch ever, so I guess I cant complain. It went very smoothly.

milldoggy · 04-05-2011, 01:26 AM

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Scut_Monkey · 04-05-2011, 02:10 AM

Nice! I'm doing a very similar thing. I too am building Kal's control panel and I'm also using keggles and chugger pumps. 3 keggles total. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that went with the Auber timer.

Congrats on the first AG batch. You were definitely spoiled with that equipment.

**Julohan** · 04-05-2011, 02:13 AM

Looks great. How much do you think you spent on just the control panel and the element?

milldoggy · 04-05-2011, 02:22 AM

Well I am at 3100 for everything, tools,parts, things I broke. Welds were free. I have a spreadsheet I could add the stuff up. I would guess 1000-1200, pretty close to what Kal sells his kits for. If I was to do it again, I would buy his kit. You still have cables, plugs, rtds.

**KoedBrew** · 04-05-2011, 11:45 AM

Wow...Nice! I wouldn't even know where to start with something like that.

Looks good, you'll have to let me see it in action some time

milldoggy · 04-05-2011, 11:55 AM

Brewing a Hefe this weekend. Come on over

**chuggerpumps** · 04-06-2011, 03:04 PM

Nice Syste,m!

Be careful putting 90 degree elbows on the inlet side ...this may cause restriction of flow to the pumps ...always plumb inlet side with the least restriction possible ..in order to avoid cavitation

MIKE

**samc** · 04-06-2011, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuggerpumps

Nice Syste,m!

Be careful putting 90 degree elbows on the inlet side ...this may cause restriction of flow to the pumps ...always plumb inlet side with the least restriction possible ..in order to avoid cavitation

MIKE

Not having a 90 in many instances will cause a kinked hose which is far more restrictive. Mine works fine with a 90. Surprised at how much quieter the Chugger is compared to the March. The threads on the head are another story.

milldoggy · 04-06-2011, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuggerpumps

Nice Syste,m!

Be careful putting 90 degree elbows on the inlet side ...this may cause restriction of flow to the pumps ...always plumb inlet side with the least restriction possible ..in order to avoid cavitation

MIKE

Mike, thanks for the info. I really don't need the 90s on the inlet, I will take them off. I have 90s on my hoses. I only heard a slight cavitation when the temp was approaching boiling. I did notice the wort pump sounds slightly different than the water, even when running the same temp water, could the head be slightly misaligned? I did not take them apart. They are as is from you.

Btw great pumps, no issues with the threads, just some extra tape and no leakes.