rcbishop
Well-Known Member
Sorry the pics are kind of weak.. I'll take better ones once I get this thing built!
This project has three new goals -- to stop using propane, to have no metal fittings anywhere other than 304 stainless and to make it easier to do 10 gallon batches, as my old kettle was barely big enough for that. It is also designed to cut down on setup / cleanup time as much as possible, so I can be as close as possible to the theoretical 2 hour brew day. Not that I don't enjoy brewing beer.. I just don't have the kind of free time I did when I got into this hobby!
Anyway, I just ordered a new brew kettle last night from Brewers Hardware. The idea is to install a 5500W heating element in the 1.5" tri-clover port that it comes with, using an NPS -> TC fitting from the same vendor. I ordered Derrin's new fitting for the valve (it has 1/2" MNPT outside and 1/2" FNPT inside for a pickup tube), and another NPT port for the thermometer -- both to be welded into the kettle. After the valve, the fittings go back to 1.5" tri-clovers.
The brewery will consist of that kettle, a rectangular cooler MLT, and a little RIMS brew-cart that the cooler sits on top of. The brew cart is probably worthy of its own thread, but in a nutshell, here's what it consists of:
-Brewers Hardware RIMS tube
-March 809 pump
-Plate Chiller
-Mag-meter (electromagnetic flow sensor)
-Valves so I can backflush the chiller in place
-Electronic control panel
Since the kettle isn't here yet, I only have pictures of the brew cart. One pic shows the cart itself, and the other is the control panel. I'm going to redesign the board in the controller, because it needs some improvements, but it controls the temperature of the mash by adjusting the amount of power going to the element (it works like a light dimmer, instead of just being on or off). It also senses flow to give better temperature control and prevent dry-firing. The user interface is a little LCD panel with two buttons underneath, plus a rotary encoder and an "active" light. You can see how rough it still is from the pic of the display! The encoder makes it easy to enter numbers (you just spin it), and each of the two buttons always has its function displayed above it, in order to tab through the menus quickly. I think there may be a couple more lights and buttons by the time I'm done, but I haven't gotten that far on it yet!
Hopefully I'll get all this stuff up and running over the next month or so (most of the delay is in having the boards made). I can't wait to brew some beer in it!
This project has three new goals -- to stop using propane, to have no metal fittings anywhere other than 304 stainless and to make it easier to do 10 gallon batches, as my old kettle was barely big enough for that. It is also designed to cut down on setup / cleanup time as much as possible, so I can be as close as possible to the theoretical 2 hour brew day. Not that I don't enjoy brewing beer.. I just don't have the kind of free time I did when I got into this hobby!
Anyway, I just ordered a new brew kettle last night from Brewers Hardware. The idea is to install a 5500W heating element in the 1.5" tri-clover port that it comes with, using an NPS -> TC fitting from the same vendor. I ordered Derrin's new fitting for the valve (it has 1/2" MNPT outside and 1/2" FNPT inside for a pickup tube), and another NPT port for the thermometer -- both to be welded into the kettle. After the valve, the fittings go back to 1.5" tri-clovers.
The brewery will consist of that kettle, a rectangular cooler MLT, and a little RIMS brew-cart that the cooler sits on top of. The brew cart is probably worthy of its own thread, but in a nutshell, here's what it consists of:
-Brewers Hardware RIMS tube
-March 809 pump
-Plate Chiller
-Mag-meter (electromagnetic flow sensor)
-Valves so I can backflush the chiller in place
-Electronic control panel
Since the kettle isn't here yet, I only have pictures of the brew cart. One pic shows the cart itself, and the other is the control panel. I'm going to redesign the board in the controller, because it needs some improvements, but it controls the temperature of the mash by adjusting the amount of power going to the element (it works like a light dimmer, instead of just being on or off). It also senses flow to give better temperature control and prevent dry-firing. The user interface is a little LCD panel with two buttons underneath, plus a rotary encoder and an "active" light. You can see how rough it still is from the pic of the display! The encoder makes it easy to enter numbers (you just spin it), and each of the two buttons always has its function displayed above it, in order to tab through the menus quickly. I think there may be a couple more lights and buttons by the time I'm done, but I haven't gotten that far on it yet!
Hopefully I'll get all this stuff up and running over the next month or so (most of the delay is in having the boards made). I can't wait to brew some beer in it!