Blue Crab Brewing Co. Brew Porn

Finally got the new heavy duty 50 amp power cord installed & new 4500 watt elements ordered. The heat shrink cord grip from mcmaster worked great. Now I just need derrin to stock up on his wonderful tri-clamp element adapters.

Brewed a belgium ale on Friday; everything went great with one exception. I found a bunch of mold growing in the tubing for the in-line aeration stone. Took it all apart, cleaned it & soaked it in star san solution for 2 hours. Going to have to add a check valve to the air line to prevent this from happening again.

EarthBound said:

Are those returns installed into the lids? I had lid returns and ended up uninstalling them because of the constraints they involved, so I suggest not using lid returns.

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I decided you were right on this one. They work fine with metal lids, but with the plastic getting hot & a large moment applied, they warped pretty badly. I moved the inputs to the kettle wall & its working much nicer.

Spent some time re-working the plumbing on the stand. I'm trying to minimize the number of threaded fittings, clamps, barbs, and silicone hose required.

I also added a second rims tub by splitting the first one in half, & adding a triclamp tee to each half.

These improvements should also mean less hoses to move on brew day!

NewBrewB said:

From what I can tell, those hole-cutters they reference are also crazy-expensive. Is that something that an automotive/electric shop would have and I can just ask nicely to use them for a day?

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I went cheap for this. I bought a 3/4" bimetal hole saw from Lowes for like $9. (I see they now have a 7/8" one...wish I'd seen that 2 years ago!). I punch out a 3/4" hole with the saw, then use my dremel to finish it off. For 7/8" holes, (1/2" fittings, 22mm switches/indicators), I usually just use a grinder bit. If I'm lazy, and/or if making bigger holes, (like the 1.2" hole for my BK element), I found that this drywall cutting bit can actually chew through stainless REALLY fast, so I rough it out with the drywall bit, then finish with a grinder bit so it's smooth.

The hole saw has cut 7 holes in keggles, 2 more holes in my stainless 5 gal pot, 3 holes in my aluminum 7.5 gal pot, and about 9 holes so far in my steel control panel, (which is, I think, 12 or 16 ga steel). It's showed no sign of dulling, and I treat it mean. No oil, no lubrication, and full speed on my drill. It punches through a keggle in about 5 seconds flat at full speed, (heats the steel red hot in the process!).

BigBobsBrews said:

I decided you were right on this one. They work fine with metal lids, but with the plastic getting hot & a large moment applied, they warped pretty badly. I moved the inputs to the kettle wall & its working much nicer.

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Sweet!

I love hybrid rigs. Mine's almost done - all I gotta do is install the elements!

Is that a HH140 I see? I love my HH140. It's what I used to build my rig.

I'm a little confused. How are you going to do the EHLT and the ERIMS?

EarthBound said:

Is that a HH140 I see? I love my HH140. It's what I used to build my rig.

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Close, its a HH175. Their great little machines aren't they?

EarthBound said:

I'm a little confused. How are you going to do the EHLT and the ERIMS?

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With 2 RIMS tubes, 2 pumps and 2 elements and 50 Amps of course.

All set for a double brew day tomorrow. Making my red ale & a stout that I'm working on. Got a big yeast starter going now,

BigBobsBrews said:

All set for a double brew day tomorrow. Making my red ale & a stout that I'm working on. Got a big yeast starter going now,

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Is that a 1 barrel brewery? How does that brute hold mash temps with the rims tube? I'm thinking of doing a similar set up to start my nanobrewery.

HellBentBrewCo said:

Is that a 1 barrel brewery? How does that brute hold mash temps with the rims tube? I'm thinking of doing a similar set up to start my nanobrewery.

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Shes on her way to 1BBL, but not there quite yet. The kettles are 30 gal right now, but I'm hoping to upgrade to full 55 gal kettles soon.

I'm actually using the Brute as an EHLT with the rims tube, but in any case it does a surprisingly good job of holding temps.

Half way through the first mash

Finally made some real progress on the serving side...

BigBobsBrews said:

Finally made some real progress on the serving side...

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Did you use chalkboard spray paint on the fridge?

scoundrel said:

Did you use chalkboard spray paint on the fridge?

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Yup, it works alright but you need to reapply it every once in awhile to keep it looking fresh.

Well, it's been awhile, but I'm finally back in action after moving to Indianapolis! The only drawback is that the detached garage where I'm brewing has some very old, very feeble looking wiring. I don't dare try and run a heatstick off of it. It could be a little while until I am able to upgrade the service to the garage, so it's a good thing this rig has a propane fallback option!

I've also reworked the plumbing hardware. I lowered the pumps for easier priming and added a Trub Filter to the mix, to prevent clogged pumps & protect my plate chiller.