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highland_brewer

Short Circuited Brewers
Joined
Mar 19, 2013
Messages
532
Reaction score
362
Location
Columbus
Hello everyone, I have been a viewer of this forum for quite a while but just signed up.

I have been brewing for about 5 years and have brewed with almost ever technique out there. (with BIAB) as the only exception.

I wanted to share and document my current project (which is already underway) with the other electric brewers out there.

My old electric system was a RIMS system with Propane burner.

Then after studying and studying Kal's sight I decided to go with a HERMS system.

Here is a photo of my previous system.

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I built the control box out of wood, and used PID's from Auber Instruments.
It worked pretty well but I found that I had a TON of steam coming from the kettle so much so that it would fill the garage. See photo...lol
(The mash paddle warrior is a brewing friend of mine over for the brew day)

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This lead me to look at ways to exhaust the steam. After some pleading with the wife to allow me to move my brewery into the basement..... The journey began...

Location of the basement brewery.

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With the raw site I had a few things that I wanted to have in the space.

1. A floor drain
2. A sink
3. A ventilation system

First thing is to install the floor drain. My plumbing was in a perfect spot to be able to tie into it. Here's how it went.

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Broke out the old skill saw with a masonry blade. (from a previous concrete project)

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In a somewhat vain attempt to keep the dust down I thought I would put up plastic around the construction site. (did not help much at all!!)

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Rough opening cut out completed. (note the dust hanging in the air!!)

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Being the DIYer that I am I thought I would use a cold chisel and sledge hammer and bust the concrete up by hand..... eeehhh not so much, the photo is about an hour and a half work... cussing, sweating, etc...

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So I called in reinforcements from the local Home Depot rental center!!

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Now that is more like it!!!

... to be continued!!
 
Good lord, you went at reinforced concrete with hand tools...brave man and now probably a pretty back sore man.
 
Good lord, you went at reinforced concrete with hand tools...brave man and now probably a pretty back sore man.
Yeah well I am a big guy... I was no match for the concrete... my wife finally forced me to give in and go get the jack hammer.. :cross:
 
So the hole was in the ground and plumbing could begin
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I had to dig about another foot down below the gravel under the concrete. Boy is the water table high at my house... no wonder the sump pump is always running!!
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not quite as much digging on the other end but still had ground water seeping up.

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Here I have the "p" trap installed and some pipe extending it up to near where the drain tile will be.

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Here is how the other end looks. Used a rubber coupling and band clamp aparatus to join to the main line. The other end is glued. Oh and the pipe at the top of the photo is the drain for my sink.

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Here is a photo of the complete drain assy.

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So here is a photo of the drain grate installed and the hole filled with concrete. Well partially filled.... of course I had about 15lbs too little of concrete... jump back in the truck and head back to home depot... ARGH

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There now it is completely filled!! :)
Floor drain is done!!

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Next 2 coats of drylock on the wall. Although I will be studding and putting backer board up I thought it was a good idea to seal the poured walls first.. what a PITA!!! about a gallon and a 1/4 to do the whole space
 
After using the wooden box, I wanted to make things a little more sturdy and professional looking, not to mention being able to ground everything.

I decided to go with the box that is sold by Auber Instruments. It comes with precut holes for 3 PID's and also a heatsink rated for up two 60 amp SSR's

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Here is the heat sink.

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Here is the bottom all my holes are drilled for the twist lock plugs, and RTD probe connections.

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Ready for paint

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Paint is completed!! looks snazzy.. I went with a hammered finish silver.
 
Go big or go home! You aren't messing around. Subscribed for what appears to be a great build!
 
I would have been satisfied just seeing a completed floor drain...even that makes me jealous. Subbed for the rest, looks great!
 
Thanks guys, Just to be clear all the progress in the photos has happened over the last couple of weeks... If I had time off I would be done already..lol
 
Ok so I am going a little farther back in time with this post. I wanted to go electric and wished I could afford 3 blichmann kettles... but not being independently wealthy I could not. (Let me say I am not hating on anyone that has blichmann kettles I am just jealous...lol)

So I scoured Amazon and found some King Cooker kettles (15 gallon) and they had 2 listed that were "used like new" so i rolled the dice and bought them. To my surprise the were simply new!! 2 fifteen gallon kettles for under $200 was a steal in my opinion. They were slightly thin walled for my taste, but I was not going to direct fire them so what the heck.

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Here they are with some hardware from Bobby in NJ store aka BrewerHardware.com. I have 2 kettles with sight glasses and 5/8 dip tubes.

Fast forward from these photos on to the installation of elements and herms coil....

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Sight glass was installed already. Hole drilled for element installation.

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The elements I am using are 5500 watt ULWD, here I am removing the stock rubber washer from the element.

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The outdoor boxes I used have some stand off nubs that have to be filed off before installing the back plate or it will not sit flush.

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Drilling a hole in the back plate, using the opening drilled in the box for approximate location.

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Element fits perfectly!

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The back plate is held on by screws and JB weld

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Back plate installed, now to install the element...
(you do have to drill and tap the outdoor box to accept the back plate and screws)

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Some installation goodies from Mcmaster Carr (love that place!!)

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Washer and o-ring ready for installation.

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Heating element installed, the o-ring sandwiches between the back plate and the outside of the kettle. The stainless washer prevents the o-ring from squeezing out.
 
Searching for a source of stainless tubing for my herms coil I found StainlessBrewing.com. Zach over there does an awesome job on the tubing comes pre-rolled to your specific diameter and 90 degree bends for the outlet and inlets on the kettle.

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That is a thing of beauty!!!

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Test fit in the HLT... this thing is gonna fit good!!

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Another piece of hardware from Zach compression bulk head fittings. High quality stuff the worked great!

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Holes drilled in the HLT and the compression fittings installed.

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What the outside looks like.

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Coil installed.

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HLT done!! Well for the most part, QD's installed the t-fitting and RTD probe installed, valve and QD installed. I am pretty proud of the work!! Wiring is also completed. All that's left is the recirculation port for the top to keep the water moving around in the kettle.
 
I was going to build something out of wood but started researching stainless tables and low and behold... I found a restaurant equipper that had an awesome deal on a 6' stainless table. I don't think I could have built a wooden one for as cheap as I bought this one. Besides it is much easier to clean than wood and looks great all the while.

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Here is the table in the brewery space... I will mount the pumps on the bottom shelf
 
Found an awesome deal on a 400CFM vortex fan on Amazon. This thing really moves some air and it is super quiet... Something that matters to me I usually brewing early in the morning and don't want to wake everyone in the house!!

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Sorry If I am all over the place on this thread... I just have quite a bit of photos to share... More soon!!!

BTW... Today is the day I get my stainless sink and pre-rinse faucet/sprayer assy!! I can't wait...
 
Thanks Bx, I did get some new additions to the brewery today!!

sink and faucet/sprayer assy

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But I digress... back to the build!!
 
So the paint was complete and I began assembling the switches etc.

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I was still waiting on my last PID to switch over to my new enclosure. (still had to brew using the original wooden box.)

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My third PID had arrived and I installed all my components to begin my wiring layout. (Tip: make sure to label everything on the back side of the box when you are wiring, it can get confusing looking at everything in reverse!!)

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Here I have my relays and SSR's installed, I drilled and tapped all the hole in the plate inside. Much easier to install and should something fail much easier to replace.

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RTD probe wiring installed.

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I did not take a step by step photo log but here is some of the wiring in progress.

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This is the inside wiring completed. I tried to keep everything nice and neat. (if you saw my first box you would definitely think WTF!!??)

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LOL SEE WHAT I MEAN!!!

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Finally all wired and completed, that is a shot of everything hooked up, labeled and power on.

As you can see it is not an exact replica of Kal's design, however I made it suit what I needed from a control panel. For timers I use my brewing software app on my android tablet, so I found it unnecessary to have a timer. I also nixed the amp and volt meters. I am really not conerned with how much of either of those I am using. Quite frankly if something goes wrong the breaker will trip and that's that.
 
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Right wall framed in.

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Both walls framed in.

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220v electric run and terminated into the dryer plug.

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Rough plumbing in place.

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Vortex fan in its proposed mounting place.

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Looking up from under the fan, wound up having the perfect place duct the fan out of the house.
 
Looks good, can't wait to see the first batch roll out! Given any thought to what that may be?
 
not sure what I'm going to produce out of it first will see... been thinking about doing a Black IPA or a American IPA with a Abbey Ale yeast
 
So as part of what I wanted in the build I decided that I needed a curb of sorts so that water, wort, etc. would not get all over the rest of the basement.

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So I decided I would use a 2x4 and tile up and over it.

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One of the best tools I ever got..works great for fastening into concrete.

As most of you probably know, basement floors are NOT level... Well we can't have that in the brewery space no can we?!?
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Primer
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2 sacks of self leveling concrete

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Primer applied... and yes those are kitty cat tracks in the cement ...lol our cat thought she would inspect the concrete work on the floor drain!!

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Self leveling conrete down and spread.. now time to let it do its thing...

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After a few minutes it looks pretty level. I did go back and trowel out the section around the floor drain so I can slope my tiles around it when I install them.

Not to bad for a couple hours work this morning...
 
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200+ sq ft of tile for the brewerey

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Got my sink all assembled so I could locate where the upper brace for the sprayer needs to be.
 
I followed Kal's example with my hood. To test everything out I used some 1-1/2 inch foam insulation panel to mock up my hood.

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Easy enough to work with, the foil backing kind of matches the rest of the stainless in the brewery..

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There is the fan attached and in place.

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There is the other end of it where it exits the house.

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Testing the outlet with the fan on... that thing really puts out some air!!

(side note: My neighbors were probably scratching their heads trying to figure out why I was cutting a hole in the side of my house in the middle of winter!!)

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Did add a speed control for the fan... Low the fan barely turns, medium is perfect for mashing .
 
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Here is everything pretty much complete as it will be except for the mash tun. I will be replacing it soon.

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Recirculating water in the HLT

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There it is in action... no leaks. (well except for the fact I got a little anxious and forgot to teflon and tight a few hose barbs on the hoses..:drunk:)

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Kettle about to come to a boil

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Hard to see it but the steam is staying in the hood.
 
The floor is good, but you should have slopped it to the drain. I did that and couldn't be happier...

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Looking good! I like the sprayer... Wish I had one.

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highland_brewer said:
200+ sq ft of tile for the brewerey

Got my sink all assembled so I could locate where the upper brace for the sprayer needs to be.

How high off the floor is the horizontal mount on the sprayer? I have a window above mine, but would like to get one of these!
 
You can mount the too mount anywhere from 48" - 62" on the main upright shaft... It is adjustable. Oh and i did slope the floor around the drain right before it was setting up
 
Had a goal to complete the walls in the space.

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Had to put some ledger boards in for the top sink mount and for holding the sink to the wall

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Decided to go ahead and insulate the walls.

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Since I am tiling the walls i went with wonderboard

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ALL done except for that little piece ran out of board!!
 
Thanks Rick!!!

Got a little lighting done last night...

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3 35watt Ikea lamp... great lamp for cheap

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Just a basic hanging lamp over the sink... had to go with the nickle to match the stainless.

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There is the brewery area lit with only the 2 lights... rest of the basement was dark. Can't wait to see all the stainless sparkle under those things!!
 
Checking this out is waaaaaay better than working on my homework project! :) Someday when I move out of this condo...
 
Looking good so far...so what is your time split? I'm guessing 50-50 between actually working and stumbling around Lowes looking for and then deciding on what to get :).
 
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