Hard Plumbing Suggestions for Single Tier Build?

I am starting to plan out the next stages of the single tier brew stand build that my brother and I are working on. Single Tier Build
We have revised our initial plans somewhat, and are now planning an all-electric HERMS system with elements in the HLT and BK, rather than the gas-fired system as we initially proposed. We will be running two pumps, fly sparging, and using a counterflow chiller for wort cooling. We plan to hard plumb the system with 1/2" stainless tubing and tri clover connections throughout.

I've been thinking of all the possible liquid transfers that might be carried out on a typical brewday and pondering how I might arrange the plumbing in the most efficient and least complex fashion. Does anyone have suggestions for plumbing my stand? I would really appreciate pictures of your hard-plumbed brewstands and/or diagrams of your plumbing arrangements.

Hi, my brother posted above, im helping him on this build, somebody want to chime in on a topic for me to ease his mind?

here goes

I will be machining all of the tri clover fittings for this and hard plumbing the rig with .50" od x .065" wall stainless tubing, all will be welded with no compression fittings, tri clovers only. I will be using 3/8" stainless 3 piece ball valves.... now many of you are saying.... 3/8" why? thats toooo small!! I say bull honky, a 3/8" full port ball valve is actually a pipe size not tube size! So the inside dimension of the smallest port in the 3/8" ball valve is .493" id, the 1/2" stainless tube has an inside dimension of .37" which is smaller than the port in the ball valve.

What i am doing is making my own tri clover ball valves, taking the 3 piece ball valve apart and drilling out the threads in the ends and welding in 1/2" tube to a tri clover fitting.

Ease his mind so he stops cussing at me for wanting to use 3/8" valves over 1/2"....

My single tier is in the works, but my plan is very similar to yours. I am going to use 3/8" SS ball valves with 1/2" SS tubing. I don't have a diagram, as we are still in the frame build stage, but I have used the same setup with waste water treatment setups I have done.

Depending on the layout, the 2 things I would want to work out if I WAS to use 1/2" ball valves would be the possible suction cavitation caused, or excessive vacuum creation causing grain bed compaction.

/great build btw guys, I enjoyed your build thread thoroughly.

makes sense to me... a whole lot of extra work, but it does make sense
are you going to rifle the inside of the tubing to improve flow? (just kidding)

Have you guys started the hard plumbing on your rig yet? I was looking at using the 1" tri clamp ferrules because they're cheaper than the 1/2" and their internal diameter is closer to 1/2" hose (using a 1/2" hose stretched onto a 1" ferrule x 3/4" hose barb fitting.) However I can't see any reasonable way of using them in a hard plumbed setup and I don't want to lose the diameter by using the 1/2" ferrules. 3/4" ferrules are An option, but even more expensive!

like....this guy??

http://www.winning-homebrew.com/recirculating-infusion-mash-system.html

We have not begun hard plumbing the stand yet. Unfortunately, the build progress has slowed due to a number of factors. Right now my brother is working on getting a stainless control panel enclosure fabricated. I have to buy a tremendous amount of parts before we are ready to start plumbing up the stand. Also, I currently live in an apartment and have nowhere to put the stand when it is done. The majority of this build will have to wait until I can find a house.

I did, however, find a very good source for tri clamp fittings. Check out jmesanitary.com. They have very competitive prices and high quality products.

motobrewer said:

like....this guy??

http://www.winning-homebrew.com/recirculating-infusion-mash-system.html

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We plan to do something very similar to this. It looks like 1/2" OD SS tubing, which is what we plan to use (1/2" OD x 0.0625" wall thickness, I think). I'm not too concerned with the reduced flow of the ~3/8 ID of this tubing versus 1/2" ID, but we shall see.

Unlike the picture which uses 1"-1.5" tri clamp fittings, we will be using the 1/2"-3/4" tri clamp ferrules, clamps, and gaskets to make all the connections. JME Sanitary has very good pricing on these fittings, and will allow us to weld the 1/2" SS tube directly to the ferrules to provide a nice, smooth inner contour in the plumbing.

doctorsbro said:

What i am doing is making my own tri clover ball valves, taking the 3 piece ball valve apart and drilling out the threads in the ends and welding in 1/2" tube to a tri clover fitting.
.

Click to expand...

Hey, doctorsbro, I don't know if you've seen the sanitary ball valves that Darrin carries at Brewers Hardware, but check them out before you fabricate your own. He also carries a very nice 3-way tri-clover valve which I'm deploying in my rig to simplify layout and allow for a cleaner design. http://www.brewershardware.com/1-Tri-Clover-3-Way-Ball-Valve.html