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resslerk

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Joined
Dec 19, 2009
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Location
SE Wisconsin
Long story short this is a cart mounted all electric automated recirculating mash setup. There is a control panel just like brewkart has on the RH side you can't really see. Everything is hard plumbed and it only uses one pump, requires no pulling or reconnecting of any lines. It is very clean and easy to use. If you time from taking it out to putting it away it takes me about 4-5 hours to complete a 6 gallon batch. The setup does everything from the mash to the boil to cooling my wort. Cools my wort down to 80 degrees in about 15 minutes. To keep things easy to clean I have screens over both kettle drains and I use bags for everything (grains, hops, additions, etc). You can see this in the 2nd picture. You can also see the heat exchanger coil. The element is buried in there underneath a stainless screen to make sure the bags never contact it. That picture is what it looks like after I've cooled and drained to my fermenter. I've been using this for a few months and have made a dozen or so beers. Took me about a week to make it and it was pretty darn affordable. I love it. In case you care, it has been named Attobrew.

Basic brewday is as follows, I'm sure I'll miss something but you get the idea;
1. Take out setup, fill boil kettle with light starsan solution and recirculate for 10-15 minutes and drain (clear tubes on bottom of kettles)
2. Fill boil kettle with clean water and heat it up, recirculat for 10-15 minutes and drain
3. Fill boil kettle with brewing water, set PID, and heat to mash temp
4. Crush grains, put in bag, put in mash kettle (on left)
5. Drain some of the heated water into mash kettle and recirc via pump (water is kept at temp via boil kettle heat exchanger)
6. Mash for X time and X degrees or steps, then turn valve to transfer to boil kettle
7. Set PID to boil, once boiling complete your boil
8. Fill mash kettle with ice and top off with water
9. Turn on pump and recirc ice water to chill wort
10. Pull off clear tube and sanitize in starsan solution
11. Put clear tube back on brew kettle and drain wort into fermenter.
12. Clean system

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Uh that looks awesome and your camera rules.. what is that? Not to get off topic.
 
I didn't think star san was effective as a cleaner... why not a light oxyclean solution and then water... or pbw?

Can you post more pics and details on this - it looks like a really cool setup! I'm interested, anyway. :)
 
I do both steps because starsan tends to foam when run through a pump and agitated. I do the quick rinse to just make sure I get rid of the suds.

You might want to take a look at Saniclean. It is basicly foamless StarSan.
Great for use with a pump. I use it as a final acid rinse.

Ed
 
On the second photo, what is the top weldless bulkead connected to? What do you use it for?

I like the cart-kit idea; it looks great.
 
On the second photo, what is the top weldless bulkead connected to? What do you use it for?

I like the cart-kit idea; it looks great.

The pump is connected to a T, the two lines from the T go to weldless bulkheads with valves in the boil kettle. The one on the bottom is obviously connected to the copper coil and recircs back to the mash tun. The other one goes to the one on top that you asked about. So depending upon what valve is open/closed I am either recirculating, or filling my brew kettle with wort.

Hope that makes sense, I'll add some more pics later.
 
Added a couple more pictures to my original post at the beginning of the thread. One shows the boil kettle with nothing in it. You can see that I kept things on the cheap by protecting the element with a stainless strainer. It works! Also, the other picture shows the back of the boil kettle. The lower valve goes to the recirc copper coil heat exchanger, the top goes just into the kettle, and the other thing is my element encased in PVC that leads to a right angle elbox with an access cover.
 
That's the bees knees, very nice. Must make the brewday go fast and painless.
 
Just a few more pictures from my latest brewday;

This is what the boil kettle looks like when I'm getting my mash water ready, and what it looks like when I'm mashing. The only difference is the volume of water in this kettle. This picture is during mashing, so it is just acting as the HERMS by exchanging heat to the coil.

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This is the panel. The yellow knob is for the pump, green is for the heating element and controller. I took my design from the Brewkart.
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This is what the mash tun looks like during recirculation.
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Are there any issues/concerns with using copper instead of stainless? I'm building a single tier rig myself and am having trouble finding reasonably priced stainless pipe and fittings. Why wouldn't I want to use copper?
 
Are there any issues/concerns with using copper instead of stainless? I'm building a single tier rig myself and am having trouble finding reasonably priced stainless pipe and fittings. Why wouldn't I want to use copper?

For the SS vs Cu discussion, try searching the forums and Google, you'll find what you are after. Personally with my brewery, I haven't had any issues.
 
Awesome system! Very well put together.

However, that is not a ditches. DITCHES has two coils (Dual Immersion Thermal Coil Heat Exchange System) that cross circulate at cooling. What you are doing is closed system cooling and is wicked awesome.

Brew on!!!
 
Awesome system! Very well put together.

However, that is not a ditches. DITCHES has two coils (Dual Immersion Thermal Coil Heat Exchange System) that cross circulate at cooling. What you are doing is closed system cooling and is wicked awesome.

Brew on!!!

You are absolutely right, not really a ditches. But the three systems I mentioned are the three that inspired me to put together my rig. Thanks!
 
Added a couple more pictures to my original post at the beginning of the thread. One shows the boil kettle with nothing in it. You can see that I kept things on the cheap by protecting the element with a stainless strainer. It works! Also, the other picture shows the back of the boil kettle. The lower valve goes to the recirc copper coil heat exchanger, the top goes just into the kettle, and the other thing is my element encased in PVC that leads to a right angle elbox with an access cover.

Missed this thread somehow. Looks like a nice clean setup!

Note if you're using the strainer to keep hop bags, etc. off the element, there's no need. Heat transfer between the element and the wort is so efficient, there's no risk of hop bags melting. Mine rest right on top of the element for an hour or more and I'm still using the same hop bags I bought over 5 years ago.
 
I plan on using saniclean once I use up my starsan.

FYI, finally ran out of Starsan. My latest brew I did PBW to clean before I started the brewday, then rinsed. Used saniclean after to sanitize. I like the saniclean a lot better than the starsan.

One thing that is really nice about the Attobrew is how easy it is to clean. After I transfer the wort to the fermenter after chilling I just toss turn a valve so some of the cooling water pumps into the BK and heats up, which in turn heats up the cooling water. I then toss some saniclean into that cooling water and let it cycle for a while, then hit a valve which dumps it all into the BK, let it sit for a while. Then dump that water into a 5 gallon bucket and use to sanitize other odds and ends before putting into storage. Pretty efficient.
 
Missed this thread somehow. Looks like a nice clean setup!

Note if you're using the strainer to keep hop bags, etc. off the element, there's no need. Heat transfer between the element and the wort is so efficient, there's no risk of hop bags melting. Mine rest right on top of the element for an hour or more and I'm still using the same hop bags I bought over 5 years ago.

Thanks for the tip, I decided to leave it in place for my latest brew and pay attention to how much junk it caught during BK to Fermenter transfer. It actually caught quite a bit, so I think I'm going to leave it in place for now, but it is great to know that the elements won't melt the bags.
 
Thanks for the tip, I decided to leave it in place for my latest brew and pay attention to how much junk it caught during BK to Fermenter transfer. It actually caught quite a bit, so I think I'm going to leave it in place for now, but it is great to know that the elements won't melt the bags.

Indeed, there's definite merit in that. I let my wort rest for 30 or so minutes post-chill while I'm cleaning up. Transfer to the fermenter is one of the last things I do brewday but even so, some trub still makes it in.
 
Excuse my ignorance if this has been answered. How is it that you are able to boil 6+ gallons with a single 120v element? I was under the impression that it was impossible to do so.

Nice setup, by the way!
 
Excuse my ignorance if this has been answered. How is it that you are able to boil 6+ gallons with a single 120v element? I was under the impression that it was impossible to do so.

Nice setup, by the way!

When I set out to build my system I planned on 5 gallon batches max because I had read all of the same statements about not being able to boil over 5 gallons. I picked my kettles so that I had adequate boil over space. Long story short, after brewing many 5 gallon batches I decided to try more because I was having no trouble getting the 5 gallons to a boil quickly. Well, 6 works just fine. I haven't tried more than that because it gets too close the top of my kettle. All I can say is that it works!
 
Remember he is starting his boil from mashout temps probably 170+ temps before the boil is started.

That is typically the case. I'm not sure what bearing that has on the brand and size of element he is using in his system, please explain.

I'm not questioning his statements, just curious about equipment choices. I'm considering all my options.
 
Where did you get that cart? Looks like a cafeteria cart. This is a no-sparge system correct? I really like this system! Simple and compact. It would be great in my basement!!!
 
Where did you get that cart? Looks like a cafeteria cart. This is a no-sparge system correct? I really like this system! Simple and compact. It would be great in my basement!!!

Northern Tool, they stock them in the stores. I shopped around a lot and this one was the correct dimensions to work with my Polarware kettles. Plus plastic is a heck of a lot easier to cut than stainless!!!

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200344167_200344167

And yes, no sparge, just continuous recirculation. Usually I do about 60 minutes at 152-154, then ramp up to 170 over a 15 minute period and transfer to the BK. Seems to be working good for me.
 
What kind of efficiencies do you get from your mash? The no lauter bit and the bags point my guess toward the low end, but the recirculating might make up for it. So until I do more reading, I just have to ask.
 
Wow, very nice setup resslerk! I built a cart-based system heavily inspired by jkarp about a year ago and I love it!
 
I meant to ask in my last post about the size of your kettles. You menioned they were polarware. I have a 20 qt. Stainless pot and a pony keg that I might use for a system like this.
 
What kind of efficiencies do you get from your mash? The no lauter bit and the bags point my guess toward the low end, but the recirculating might make up for it. So until I do more reading, I just have to ask.

I've never run below mid 70's. My last batch was an 83. However, as I've said before I don't really go for mash efficiency. Grain is so cheap I'd rather go for brewday efficiency.

With that said I'm getting good efficiency. Possibly it is the good temp control, my pH management, my milling, and recirculation combined.
 
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