itzkramer

Recipes 

Here's the initial drawings for my BIAB brew stand. It includes:

Pully system for bag, collapsible for storage
March Pump
Motorized grain crushing station
All-copper CFC (seen here: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/show-us-your-diy-wort-chillers-176757/index3.html )
In-Line O2, also used to purge CFC

I have a welder and would like to make it out of square tube steel. The galvanized no-weld bars are also an option.

The burner will be a SQ-14 bolted to the frame.


Any comments or improvements?

itzkramer

Recipes 

Change #1:

Move in-line O2 airstone to bottom, and use a quick disconnect.
Add another quick disconnect at top to purge the lines.

Seven

Recipes 

Looks nice. My questions/concerns:

You will have a lot of weight on brew-kettle side of the stand and not so much weight on the side with the grain mill. So as long as won't tip over because of the weight distribution... then it should work.

My personal preference would be to not install a grain mill on a brew stand like that. I'd rather have the grain mill be separate so I can stash it away somewhere after milling the grain.

Be sure to let us know how the build goes!

itzkramer

Recipes 

Good points, thanks.

The grain mill will have some sheet metal around the sides of the bucket to keep dust at a minimum. I'd still rather have it as part of the system so I dont have to pull extra equipment out every time I brew.

As for the weight issue, some slide out stabilizer arms from the brew side would fix that. Even around 3 feet extra on the brew side should take the balance of the grains hanging off the arm back to normal. They would slide in and out and lock with ball-detent pins just like the grain arm.

In that case I'd have to go with the tubular steel, but thats that better option anyways.

itzkramer

Recipes 

Im leaving next month for my 1 year vacation to Afghanistan, so maybe somebody will build this first and let me know how it goes. At least I'll have plenty of money to drop on the project when I get back.

Catt22

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I would not advise milling the grain anywhere near where you plan to fill the fermenter. Milling the grain creates a lot of very fine dust and the dust will be loaded with lactobacillus and friends. The risk of contamination is very high even with a dust shield of some kind. The fine flour dust will be floating around in the air for a long time after you mill the grist. I actually take the mill outdoors to do the milling for just this reason. Sometimes weather conditions prevent this, but when that happens I do the milling in a separate room. I don't even like to do that, but sometimes it is unavoidable.

itzkramer

Recipes 

I'll be brewing outside, and I'm not going to buy into the "dont mill where you boil" stuff.

The same can be said for hot-side aeration, leaving beer on the yeast cake will give you off flavors, doing full boils with an extract kit will mess up your hop utilization, ect. Obviously, there is a shred of truth in all of it, but with proper technique any off flavors can be avoided. There will always be some room for mistakes, and you can still have great beer. If you accidently splash some hot wort around, it's not immediately cardboard-beer. Leaving the beer on the yeast cake for 5 or 6 weeks instead of 4 wont give you dead yeast-beer.

This is a good thread: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/bacteria-grain-dust-105517/index3.html

Anybody who says they've had an infection due to grain dust is usually reluctant to describe their chrushing/brewing technique, where as people who crush/boil in the same room can describe exactly what they do(and it usualy involves good sanitation and common sense).

As others have mentioned, of course there is tons of bacteria in grain, but I bet theres a lot more floating around outside while im brewing, or in my garage if I brew in there.

Keeping a clean, sanitized fermentor closed and sealed untill the moment before you siphon wort, clean tools, and a clean CFC will mitiagte almost all risk of infection.

On my first all grain I actually milled my grains directly into my fermentor, then just rinsed it with clean water and a good rinse with Star-san before racking. Great beer! Will I do that again? No, but it definately didnt hurt anything.

Sorry for the rant on bacteria, but im a fan of RDWHAHB.

gunner65

Recipes 

What I wouldnt advise is milling near an open flame. Now that is a bad idea.

__________________
Single Vessel BIAB is all I need....Until we figure out the no vessel technique.

Catt22

Recipes 

You know this how? Sounds to me like you just made up that statement out of thin air. Do you skip washing your hands after you use the bathroom as well? I mean if you have no concerns about infection, then why bother. I prefer not to tempt fate and so far, it's been working out very well.

63belair

Recipes 

Wait...wash your hands AFTER using the bathroom? It makes so much more sense now!