Brewery Re-Start

For those that missed my thread in the Introductions forum, I'm making a return to the hobby after a 10+ year absence. I finally got re-energized a couple of months back and started making plans.

I'll document my setup in this thread, though having seen many of the setups posted here, I don't for a minute claim to be doing anything earth shattering.

My eventual goal is to move to a half barrel setup. Some of what I'm doing now is with that in mind. In other words, of you see something that looks like overkill, remember that I hope to grow this rig in the not too distant future.

Now, with all that preface behind me...

Look what showed up in the mail today! (I felt like a 5yo at Christmas!)

Pretty sure that is my order!

I kid, unless you intercepted it at the post office...my order is supposed to arrive on Wednesday.

Welcome back!

It's dead sexy, isn't it? lol

Hopefully they can keep orders straight between North Central North Dakota and South East Michigan

I should get my false bottom today, at which point I can put the mash tun together. I've still gotta get out and pick up a coil for the HERMS.

IvanBrew said:

It's dead sexy, isn't it? lol

Hopefully they can keep orders straight between North Central North Dakota and South East Michigan

I should get my false bottom today, at which point I can put the mash tun together. I've still gotta get out and pick up a coil for the HERMS.

Click to expand...

It'll be great to see things come together and even better hearing of the great beer!

I made a little mid-week progress:


I also got the fittings swapped out on my other kettle and pump.

Hopefully the new burner and controller show up tomorrow. I'm wanting to get everything set to do a wet test next weekend.

Hey... I am following your steps here... and as Yeehaa Bob said from Walt Disney World... "Don't Mess it up!!!!!"

Awesome start... Do you have a knock out list that you are working from?

I am putting my plans together now... I still have some of my stuff when I did extract brewing, like you , over 10 years ago. 3 carboys, 2 5s and 1 6.5, 3 korney kegs... kegerator... and some other stuff... are all awaiting some beer in them....

I haven't formalized a knock out list, but I definitely have one.

I've got to:
Convert my previous MT to an HLT (major step is installing a HERMS coil)
Set-up new BK
Build a Stand (includes figuring out heights, plumbing, pump mount, etc.)
Buy/Build a ferm chamber (used to have a fridge and chest freezer, both of which have moved on)

There's lots of miscellaneous in there too. It'll be a busy week.

Thankfully I have all of my peripheral gear, i.e. hydrometers, sample tubes, thermometers, air locks, etc... Though I'm sure I'll want to change/fix some of that too...

That MLT is a thing of beauty but really, the Piece de Resistance is what appears to be a few shots of tequila sitting idle by in the background. Well played salesman, well played :rockin:

I'd love to tell you that's Patron, but sadly it's Red Stag... Still worked with a beer chaser! lol

I love my wife!

IvanBrew said:

I haven't formalized a knock out list, but I definitely have one.

I've got to:
Convert my previous MT to an HLT (major step is installing a HERMS coil)

Click to expand...

A HERMS coil in the HLT is awesome, you're gonna love it!

I'm pretty happy with this weekend's progress. I got a small storage shed set-up behind my garage to free up brew space in the garage.

Next up I cleaned my old mash tun which had an adhesive backed rubber heater on it. This kettle is becoming my new HLT and will be direct fired, so the heater had to come off. That involved a lot Krud Kutter, elbow grease, and swearing, but came out great.

I made some alterations to a heavy duty shelving unit I already had, built a base with casters for it, and reassembled the whole thing.

Finally, I got the new Blichmann burner and Tower of Power controller set-up.

Hopefully my new boil kettle will show up tomorrow and the fun will continue

Looking nice, that is one big stand!

I think my wife's about a day short of killing me for ignoring her Honey Do list, but the brewery is up and running! lol

I ended up replacing the burner under the boil kettle. I couldn't find a replacement orifice that worked, and after placing a 20 gal kettle on it, I'd started worrying the old one wouldn't have the BTU's anyhow.

Amazingly, everything ran pretty well first time through. I wet the system down for the first time today and ran a mock brew-day with water. I also ran PBW through the pump.

I still have lots of little things to do, like paint, plywood skins over the wire shelves, a couple drips here and there, etc...

Here's the glamour shots:

Phew! It's official: I'm back in business. I put 10 gallons of Zombie Dust clone into fermentors today, and overall, I'm pretty happy with the day.

I had one major (relative) issue with my pump. It ran fine for recirc and lauter, but refused to prime when I started transferring to fermenters. It took almost 20 minutes of messing with it to get things moving, and frankly, I have no idea why.

I also undershot my target OG by about 5 points (1.060 vs. 1.065), but for my first batch in ten years, I'm ok with that.

I have some tweaking to do to the setup. I definitely need to figure out the issue with the pump, but I also want to adjust heights for my HLT and BK.

All-in-all, a great day! Can't wait to taste the results.


(forgive the sub-par photo. My phone was handy, and I really didn't feel like digging out the DSLR)

I'm guessing that there may have been air getting into the pump/hose system that was futzing with the pump in regards to priming. Either that or your input vessel wasn't in the correct position in regards to the pump. Just a shot in the dark though.

donshizzles said:

I'm guessing that there may have been air getting into the pump/hose system that was futzing with the pump in regards to priming. Either that or your input vessel wasn't in the correct position in regards to the pump. Just a shot in the dark though.

Click to expand...

I'm really at a loss to explain the issue with the pump.

I recirculated wort (at a full boil) through the chiller without cooling water for 10 minutes to sanitize it. I had no issues. Then I shut down the burner, stirred to whirlpool for 5ish minutes, and let everything settle for another 5.

At that point, I fired the pump back up to fill the fermenters, and... nothing.

The boil kettle is to the right and above my pump by about 18-24 in. Since it worked fine for recirculation, though, I'm at a complete loss...

What type of chiller? Plate? How are you filtering prior to running through the chiller?

sch21c said:

What type of chiller? Plate? How are you filtering prior to running through the chiller?

Click to expand...

I'm using a plate chiller. I've got a HopBlocker in the boil kettle, but no other filtration.

I think the issue is/was my hose routing and lack of a bleed valve. I found another thread on pump issues with the OP having almost identical symptoms. In his case, as in mine, the hose configuration for this circuit puts my hoses on the ground and then coming back up to the pump.

I've ordered the stuff to reconfigure my pump. I'll be adding a bleeder to the outlet. I'll also be changing hose lengths to keep them off the ground.

You've got me curious with the filtration question, though. I've never given thought to a filter pre-chiller (or pre-fermenter, for that matter).

I used my plate chiller for the first time on Wednesday and it got clogged. Didn't use a hop spider or other filter, but didn't think I'd need it given the low hop bill (2.5 ounces), and a good whirlpool. Got clogged pretty quickly.

I brewed today with a similar hop bill but used the hop spider (PVC / muslin bag) and had no issues at all.

I strongly suspect my issue was with hose routing and the lack of a bleed point at the pump, but I'll let ya know on the next batch...

This was my first use of the HopBlocker, so I don't have enough faith in it just yet to dismiss a clog as an option, but since my problems started immediately on trying to pump to the fermenters, I lean away from that as my main issue.

maybe if you changed the position of the pump, so the in-let/out let were pointing north south instead of east/west. they are alot easier to prime that way.

+1 on repositioning your pump. The intake should be facing down & outlet up to insure proper priming.

govner1 said:

+1 on repositioning your pump. The intake should be facing down & outlet up to insure proper priming.

Click to expand...

I'll be changing orientation (as suggested) and adding a bleed valve either this weekend or next. Hopefully that'll nail it.

One other item you might want to keep an eye on. I have a similar configuration with my cooler mash tun. (False bottom connected to the ball valve with a rigid pipe.) I was having issues with gain getting past the FB. After three brews I realized that the weight of the ball vavle with a hose was causing the FB to lift up in the back of the MLT because the cooler wall was flexing and acting as a fulcrum. I wound up cutting the rigid pick up tube and inserting a small section of flexible tubing to all account for the flex. Works great now.