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**Ruffins** · 07-05-2011, 10:08 PM

I used to brew a lot back in the late 1980's. The last time i brewed was in 1997 when i was trying to make this coffee brewer work. I gave it one try and quit. I now have a little more time and thought i would try to make it work. I needed to find a way to add more heat faster, and came up with my AUX heat. The first batch met all expectations. I'm back in it! This was a SN pale ale cone. I only made a 4 gl batch to see how much would fit in. I am pretty sure I can fit about 18# of grain(9 on each side). It has endless hot water for sparging.

What do you guys think?

ssf · 07-06-2011, 09:29 PM

looks good! i considered using one or two hot water kettles similar to that so i could set a timer and have my strike water ready when i woke up. way to repurpose!

brewyou · 07-25-2011, 12:45 AM

very cool setup, looks like a good alternative to someone who cant have a huge all grain setup with the usual stands alot of them have. I wonder how readily available one of those coffee machines would be on ebay or a site like that.

**Ruffins** · 07-26-2011, 10:04 PM

I believe (once complete) it will be as accurate, and far more easier to use that a traditional setup . Now that i have both side set up with false bottoms, my capacity to hold grain is about 18 pounds. I should be able to brew up to 10 gallon batches. I added a internal loop (runs through the hot water that surrounds the coffee holding pots) for the RIMS so that i do not need auxiliary heat. I am getting ready to install a digital temp controller this week which should make step temp changes very simple. I've done three batch so far, each one with improvements i realized from the batch before. I mash and sparge in the coffee maker, move it over to a gas burner for the boil, and the results have been great. The last batch took me 4 hours from start to finish, and since most of the process in powered by electricity (220) i can do it in my basement with no issues. I'll post the set-up and i get it modified.

**Revvy** · 07-26-2011, 10:09 PM

I think we need more details on the build.

**Ruffins** · 07-26-2011, 10:18 PM

This is a follow-up on the coffee brewer

brewingmeister · 08-05-2011, 07:00 AM

Interesting little system. I'd like to know more as well. You must have got a good deal on the urn though, those things go for like 2K new.

-cheers

**Ruffins** · 08-07-2011, 02:33 AM

The brewer is a lot bigger than it looks from the pictures. It can easily produce a 10 gal batch. I worked as a chef for many years. A country club i worked for switched coffee systems, and this one was going for the scrap pile. I've been hauling it around for a long time. I just put the didgital temp controler on, and it works as well as i could have hoped for. Holds temp to with-in +/- 1 degree. (i'll post a picture tomorrow) What do you want to know?

**Ruffins** · 08-15-2011, 01:34 AM

Just installed the digital controller and made my first batch with it. There's a 7to 8 degree difference between the water jacket temperature (where the temp probe is) and the mash temperature. If i put the temperature probe in the mash, it will over-shoot b/c of the lag time. If you want to maintain 152, you set it for 160. It held the temp very steady without having to adjust. The beer was an Irish Red i found off this site. Seems like it all went very well. My OG was a little light from over-sparging, I went 3/4 of a gallon over.

**deprecated** · 09-13-2011, 04:08 PM

You probably already have this?:
http://www.webstaurantstore.com/PDF/385FE100N.pdf

Cool setup, by the way!