My Stuff - Rig through Pub

I've gotten a couple questions on how i did certain things that I've mentioned in threads and i also figured maybe by posting a bunch of pctures i could give someone an idea or two or get suggestions on how i could improve something.

It is a ton of pics so excuse the post whoring for the next few minutes.

ahh... also... you'll have to excuse what I'm sure will be a constant "Oh i gotta fix that" or "that's not 100% finished yet". I seem to have the phenominal ability to complete all projects up to about 98.9%...

anyway...

Here's what i got...

brew day starts with grabbing grains and getting them crushed.



i just started buying grains in bulk and need to come up with a better storage method before the weather gets warm and muggy.



that's my oldest son... he's a bit too pysched about the crush

I wish i new how to imbed the pics so they weren't links

then it's out to the garage where the rig is.

it is a single teir HERMS set up. I then have nine 1 inch solenoids underneath and two march 809's that control all of the flow of liquid through the rig with flips of switches.

The way the whole process works is...

-fill MT and BK to desired levels and punch in temps for each.
- Once each has come up to temp, I pump my mash water from the BK, into the MT (I don't have any heat at the MT so I gotta get it from somewhere0
- Once mt is filled, I add my grains and start circulating
- It circulates through a heat exchanger suspended in the HLT (should have taken a pic of that) in order to maintain/adjust temp.
-Once mash is done, i pump into the BK again and then sparge from the HLT.
- In order to do that, i have to stop circulating for the last 10-15 minutes of the mash in order to bring my HLT up to sparge temp.
- Sparge... circ... pump into BK and then boil away.
-Once I'm boiling i can break down teh HLT and MT and clean them.

it has a quick connect for a hose on one end and a water filter for incoming water and then a spicket on the other end where he chilled wort comes out.





The control panel is pretty ugly and will be replaced soon. I ended up with two more switches than I originally though.

Everything is flip a switch. "Fill Mash tun"... is switch 4. fill hLT is switch 3... so on an so on

The PIDs control the burner under the HLT and the burner under the boil kettle

I have the rig plumbed into the natual gas line in the house.

i simply take the hose off the wall and with the bigass brass quick connect, just plug it intp th back of the rig and I'm good to go





yeah yeah yeah... the garage is a mess. I know.

My Mash tun is a 20 gallon aluminum pot mounted inside a 30 gallon aluminum pot with spray foam insulation sprayed in between to insulate it. the top ridge looks a bit ugly but the lid seals it out from my mash and i don't think it's a problem at all.



I went with a copper manifold cut with a hacksaw and then a false bottom over it. I like this double filter because I can stir my mash if i feel like it, even though it's a herms set up and not get cloudy wort flowing since the manifold is still filtering quite a bit.



the false bottom doesn't fit exactly so I have the food safe/temp safe tubing acting as a gasket

this is a saison I did this past Sunday with about 28 pounds of grain



how the rig circulates (I need to get a freakin sparge arm). right now I just have it spraying into a aluminum sriving tray that sits on top of the grains with a ton of holes popped it in. You can also see in this pic how I doubled up the lids to make one lid. The bottom one fits the inside pot and the top one fits the outer pot



and then my initial boil and once i skimmed it off

Once I'm boiling, i toss a sanke up on my HLT burner.

I hit it with some hot water, some pbw and a carboy brush and make sure I get every inch inside, rinse it well, put some water it in and let it fire away with steam.





then post-boil, i use a plate chiller. It'll chill 10 gallons of boiling wort down to 70 degrees in ten minutes flat using hose water.

Once done, I'll drag the fermenter down to the basement. I have a fridge set up with dual controls (one for heat and one for cold) so I can set it for all ranges of fermentation. Right now I have my saison at 80 degrees through one of those thermostats in the fridge and a heating pad mounted on the side of the fridge on the inside. Next to it is my little DIY walk-in cooler



You can see to the right of the cooler two PVC pipes... those carry six beer lines to the bar. One carries the lines and other other is an air return to create a closed air loop between the cooler and my coffin box on the bar.





If I can ferment at 68... I juts pile 'em up in the pub. It stays a perfect 68-69 degrees down there constantly.

and then this is the pub... I've had some pics of it in my gallery for a while and not TOO much has changed. Still working on a ton of little tiny things like small pieces of molding here or there. Ehhh, it'll get done someday.

this is the front door as you're walking down the stairs into my basement



and then this is looking through the "front window" into the pub



the lighting isn't exactly picture-friendly... or at least i'm not a good enough photographer to take a good pic

Cape Brewing said:

Once done, I'll drag the fermenter down to the basement.

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No, you call babalu and he carrys it down with you tearing his pants in the process

Drill some holes and get some tubing before you fall down the basement steps carrying a fermenter you ninny

The bar...





the coffin box has six taps... five regular perlicks and then a stout tap. I freaking really need some nice tap handles.

babalu87 said:

No, you call babalu and he carrys it down with you tearing his pants in the process

Drill some holes and get some tubing before you fall down the basement steps carrying a fermenter you ninny

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blah blah blah... you carried ONE. I've carried the rest solo and didn't rip my pants because i'm not a little sissy girl

TV and toys...

that's a 109 inch DLP projector. Crappy pic... the picture on that screen is better than that.


it's sacreligious to put a ping pong table on that pool table. it's a 100+ year olf Brunswick... ehh.. i like ping pong.

... and I think that's about it

Good god man. I just bought a house with a massive unfinished basement. If I can make it look anything like yours, then I will have succeeded in life. Well done!

WOW!

That looks like a great place. Did you build the bar?

spitfire said:

WOW!

That looks like a great place. Did you build the bar?

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I built every single thing you see in every single picture. thebasement was bare concrete when I started. I did all electrical, plumbing, framing, floor, ceiling, the entire bar and then the entire rig, the walkin cooler, etc etc.

Looks awesome! I'd love to have a basement bar like that.


When you attach photos to a post with the
button they'll show up in the list when you hit the down arrow beside that.

As you are typing your post and you want a picture here just click on the down arrow and click on the picture title.

Great job. Is that Waterfall Bubinga on the panels? looks great.

Cape Brewing said:

I built every single thing you see in every single picture. thebasement was bare concrete when I started. I did all electrical, plumbing, framing, floor, ceiling, the entire bar and then the entire rig, the walkin cooler, etc etc.

Click to expand...

damn. just....damn, dude. damn that's awesome!

spitfire said:

Great job. Is that Waterfall Bubinga on the panels? looks great.

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It is... not really "irish Pubby" but I thought it would look nice

I don't think it matters where you put Waterfall Bubinga. That stuff is amazing. I have a couple small pieces of veneer laying around waiting for that special project to use it on.

Dude, I think I speak for most of us when I say...WE ARE NOT WORTHY
That is nicer than most bars/pubs I go to..holy moley.

I'd give my left nut for your set up

whoaaaa...did I just say that? I meant my right.

AWESOME!!!

That. Is. Just. Awesome. People are lucky to be friends with you and hang out down there.

What? All that and no pics of the hot dog machine? That's the one thing that ties the whole room together.

I know... That thing is key.

I want to go to there

How do you keep the beer lines cold up to the coffin?

Im not 100% on what a closed air loop is I tried googling it but cant seem to figure it out.

brewjunky said:

How do you keep the beer lines cold up to the coffin?

Im not 100% on what a closed air loop is I tried googling it but cant seem to figure it out.

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He has the two pvc pipes going from his diy walk-in cooler to the bar. I believe the closed air loop is created by blowing cold air through one pipe(from cooler to bar) and sucking presumably less cold air back through the other pipe(from bar to cooler). I would imagine the beer lines are encased inside the pvc which has cold air blowing from the cooler to the bar, and this is what keeps them cold. That's how I understood it anyway...

DrinksWellWithOthers said:

What? All that and no pics of the hot dog machine? That's the one thing that ties the whole room together.

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Stop it.

You must be pasty as hell, because I would never see sunlight if that were my basement.

pizzaman said:

He has the two pvc pipes going from his diy walk-in cooler to the bar. I believe the closed air loop is created by blowing cold air through one pipe(from cooler to bar) and sucking presumably less cold air back through the other pipe(from bar to cooler). I would imagine the beer lines are encased inside the pvc which has cold air blowing from the cooler to the bar, and this is what keeps them cold. That's how I understood it anyway...

Click to expand...

Yup... that's exactly it.

I have a 3 inch PVC pipe that carries the lines and a 2 inch PVC pipe that is the return... both are wrapped with pipe insulation. Plus, they go behind a basement wall and they a foot or two off the basement floor so even on a hot day, those pipes stay pretty cool naturally.

The pipes both come up from under the bar, through the bar top, and into the coffin box. The coffin box is then insulated and sealed pretty much airtight with silicon and weather stripping around the lid.

The lines are somewhere between 30-35 feet long and to be honest, i shut the fan off a while ago and haven't used it since. Out of habit I draw the lines clear before I start pouring beers. If it's been a few days, I think the beer in the line just goes a little flat so I dump it. It's just barely half a glass so it's a waste but I don't think it's the end of the world... and then just by pulling beer from teh cooler, the lines chill and stay chilled.

So while I have a "closed loop", I don't actively circulate air through it. I just don't think it's needed.

Incredible. I just showed the SWMBO against her will b/c she "doesn't care about all that stuff." - she finished off with a satisfied and inquizitive "hmmm." Too bad we don't have a basement. PS, I showed her b/c she thinks I have a lot of stuff.

Anyways, just incredible.

Joe C said:

AWESOME!!!

That. Is. Just. Awesome. People are lucky to be friends with you and hang out down there.

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One word

BAGGAGE

LOTS too

Laundry list of pros
Laundry list of cons

NO NO NO!!! See!! He said it Babalu!!!! You are LUCKY!! You're lucky that we're such good buddies and you get to hang out down there.

It was written on the interwebs so you know it's true!!!!

That's it... NOBRATSFORYOU next time.

Cape Brewing said:

That's it... NOBRATSFORYOU next time.

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Thats cool, I dont like to eat after midnight anyway :cross:

I'll be your friend

... that's creepy