Sorry all - haven't been on here in a while due to so much going on. And sad to say, haven't brewed in months. Hoping to put an end to all of that BS and get back to enjoying some homebrew in the next few weeks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kruuuger
mplutodh1,
i'm starting this build in 2 weeks. your thoroughness/elaboration gives me piece of mind that it will come out great. i think i'm going to extend the long surface square framing on each side 1-2 ft, to have built in shelves on each side...otherwise, sticking to your plan. if i get enough pics throughout the process, i'll post a new thread tied to yours.
Having said that, is there anything at all that you dislike or would have done differently. at this point, what is a flaw that you plan to upgrade in the future. i'd love to learn from your experience and avoid potential issues. How is the brewing height, flame size, dump system? does your control box get hot being rather close to the BK flame? etc...
thanks in advance...
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Shelves sound like a great idea. The only thing you'll want to keep in mind is the heat the burners generate. I often prefer to do any prep, etc away from the rig - less risk of something going wrong!
The biggest flaw in our design was the lack of ventilation for the burners. As noted in previous replies we've temporarily worked around this by sticking a bolt head in to prop up the tippy trays just a bit and this works fine. We're planning to cut off the trays and re-weld with a half inch or so of spacing between the top of the frame and the bottom of the tray. Brewing height has been great - we can see in just fine, use our mash paddle, etc without issue. Flame quality is the biggest issue as I noted with the ventilation. Dump system has been nice for ease of getting into the bottom from time to time but the reality has been - to clean the kettles out correctly we leave them unbolted and take them off the stand and hose them out. Partly because we have yet to paint the frame and don't want to add undue water to the unpainted steel and cause rust but also just to minimize the risk of hosing down electronics we might have missed sealing. No problems with the control box getting hot - it's far enough away.
As I'm writing this though realizing one other issue we've had. Our Tri-clover thermowells aren't cutting it - we need a probe RIGHT in the liquid we feel to get an accurate reading. We use our dial thermometers and a hand held to make sure our temps are in range and turn the pumps/burners on and off as needed.
Best of luck and hope your build is progressing! Keep us posted.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CrowbarKarl
Matt,
How is the brew rig working? Have you recirculated at all through the HERMS coil? I need to calibrate my Auber controlers to work with my system. I need to learn how to do it. Do you just use the "auto tune" and let it figure everything out itself?
I finished my build about 6 months ago, and it is well modeled after yours with a few changes. I'll posting pics hopefully in the near future.
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Working out for us so far - but we've been out of brewing for several months. Planning to get ramped back up soon. Every brew we circulate through the HERMS coil. However, we control all of it manually right now because of the issue I mentioned above - we're going to ditch the tri-clover thermowells and go for a more in-line.
We aren't using 'Auber' controllers - we have Love controllers and we just followed the instructions. A bit backwards in my mind from logical ways but then again we're using them in a slightly different way than intended. There are a bunch of posts on here about calibrating these.
Look forward to seeing how yours has turned out!
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