Wort Chute

My brewing takes place on my back patio. I ferment in my tool/beer room downstairs. Each brew day, I lug my kettle with 10 gallons of wort into my house, run a 15 foot vinyl tube along the handrail of my stairs and feed my wort into my conical, which I then have to lug into my beer room. I estimate I move the wort about 70 feet.

About a month ago, I realized that my fermentor in my beer room is really only about 6 feet from where my kettle stands after the boil...6 feet down.

This revelation let me to this....

WORT IN


WORT OUT

are you just pumping sanitizer through it at the end of your brew day? any reason you went with stainless instead of just an easily replaceable silicone hose?

I haven't used it yet, but yes, I intend to run sanitizer through it before/after use. The stainless tubing was the cheapest part of the build. I went with stainless fittings because I did not want to worry about acidic starsan sitting on copper or brass.

bravo sir.

My other question is marital status. At my place I would have just done it and taken the wrath later. I cant see the conversation going well before hand. Me: "So, honey, Im going to drill through the exterior wall to install a wort port, It's genius!" Her:"What color flowers for your funeral?"

where'd you find the stainless tubing on the cheap?

-Matt

Funny you should ask. My wife loves my (and other) beer. She loves the look of the outside port. She did mention that this fitting looks too nice and we need to accelerate our plans to repaint the house, however!

Mellman said:

where'd you find the stainless tubing on the cheap?

-Matt

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When I said inexpensive, I meant in comparison to copper, or all the other stainless fittings I used. I got it at McMaster Carr, and intend to use the rest of the coil for a whirlpool immersion chiller.

My goal for both these projects is to speed up my brew day.

gotcha...yeah it's been on my list of things to do, along with the CIP fittings...Thanks for sharing! may just motivate me to actually buy the stainless and do it, i've got everything else for it already, even have the hole drilled (mine's in the garage to the basement)

Very nice. I would do this same thing if I had a basement...

arkham_razors said:

My brewing takes place on my back patio. I ferment in my tool/beer room downstairs. Each brew day, I lug my kettle with 10 gallons of wort into my house, run a 15 foot vinyl tube along the handrail of my stairs and feed my wort into my conical, which I then have to lug into my beer room. I estimate I move the wort about 70 feet.

About a month ago, I realized that my fermentor in my beer room is really only about 6 feet from where my kettle stands after the boil...6 feet down.

This revelation let me to this....

WORT IN

WORT OUT

Click to expand...

Great idea!!! :rockin:

I have about the same separation between my deck where I brew and my basement where I ferment. Don't know why I didn't think of this too as my least favorite part of the brewing is lugging the fermenter bucket or carboy down the stairs. I think I may do something similar, but with silicone tubing instead of the spendy SS tube.

BTW, if you replace that existing sillcock with a freezeproof one and add another for hot water right next to it you've got a great year-round brewday site. I replaced my cold water sillcock with a freezeproof one so I'd have brew and chiller water in the winter months and I planned on adding a hot water one right next to the cold to speed up heating my mash in infusion.

do you have water in the basement? If so you could hook up a handy in line plate chiller!!! be cool by the time it hit your fermenter

i thought about that but opted for brewing indoors. working on building an electric set up with ventilation so i don't have to brew outside during the upstate NY winters!

Great idea though! And cheers for getting approval and pulling it off!

starsailor said:

Great idea!!! :rockin:

I planned on adding a hot water one right next to the cold to speed up heating my mash in infusion.

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Unless you have a tankless water heater, not the best idea to use water from the hot water tank for cooking, drinking, mashing, etc

FarmBoy530 said:

do you have water in the basement? If so you could hook up a handy in line plate chiller!!! be cool by the time it hit your fermenter

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Sounds like an interesting idea. I'm going to be installing a sink soon just below that wort outlet, right next to my fermentation chamber. There's already a drain pipe and hot and cold pipes right there since I am under the kitchen.

Even if I don't go counterflow chiller, the sink will make cleaning/sanitizing the lines very easy...just let the hose hang into the sink bay.

CannibalAJ said:

i thought about that but opted for brewing indoors. working on building an electric set up with ventilation so i don't have to brew outside during the upstate NY winters!

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Yea. We've been lucky with a mild winter this year, though. I actually only boil and do cleaning tasks outside. My mashing/etc takes place in my kitchen which opens up onto my back patio.

That would be cool! A small flat plate chiller would really top it off for me! If you didn't want to chill it you could just leave the water off. And you also sani it by running a few gal of boiling water through it first! Good luck, what a great idea!

JeepDiver said:

Unless you have a tankless water heater, not the best idea to use water from the hot water tank for cooking, drinking, mashing, etc

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IMHO, they's no problem using the my hot water. I have great well water that's also a bit high in temp hardness. So, using the water from my indirectly fired Amtrol Well Mate is actually a bit better for lighter beers than cold tap water because the water heater removes a bit of the calcium cabonate, resulting in a carbonate level more inline with the style. This also means that I'm flushing out the water heater a couple of times a year too to get rid of all that calcium carbonate. Aside from that maintenance task the heated water is fine for cooking and brewing.

I know water with high bacterial levels or high sulfate levels could be problematic, but that's not my case. What specifically are you concerned about?

I like that idea very cool. However instead of an internal chiller I would suggest a counter-flow gravity fed since you have the drop to your basement.

FarmBoy530 said:

do you have water in the basement? If so you could hook up a handy in line plate chiller!!! be cool by the time it hit your fermenter

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Damn, another great idea. This is exactly why I love this site!

FWIW, I use an IC though.

Starsaillor, I agree Believe me, I don't have a wort chute. But when I look at it, a chiller is what I see. I'm sure others see something else. That makes this a collaboration of great minds!

This is genius!

Inaugural use of Wort Chute...





Sanitizing process after brewing:

1. Run a few gallons of very hot water (recycled from my immersion chiller).
2. Run about a gallon of StarSan solution.
3. Drain then cover with end-caps.

I also run a little StarSan before using the next brew day.

Glad to hear it went well. You know how I can tell you live in Upstate NY? Its the end of March, we've had a week of 80 degree days and you still have your snow shovel out!! Its never too late for more snow!

I always wanted to do this too. If you chill in-line with the CFC or Plate down at the bottom right before you hit the fermenter, you never have to sanitize the wort chute.

Bobby_M said:

I always wanted to do this too. If you chill in-line with the CFC or Plate down at the bottom right before you hit the fermenter, you never have to sanitize the wort chute.

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I think I would do it anyway. I already have about 3 gallons of StarSan used to soak various items every brew day, and I just use that. Besides, I don't use a CFC, I use an IC.

The big improvement, coming soon, will be to put a sink in my beer room right under the outlet, which will save me from having to run up/down with buckets. I can just drain the water and StarSan directly into my sink.

CannibalAJ said:

Glad to hear it went well. You know how I can tell you live in Upstate NY? Its the end of March, we've had a week of 80 degree days and you still have your snow shovel out!! Its never too late for more snow!

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Yea, putting it away would mean an immediate snow storm. I just recently enjoyed a very warm and sunny St. Patrick's day up your way, in/around Empire Brewing.

Bobby_M said:

I always wanted to do this too. If you chill in-line with the CFC or Plate down at the bottom right before you hit the fermenter, you never have to sanitize the wort chute.

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Well you would because you need to rinse the lines out after you use them, then they need to me sanitized.

That is brilliant. Simply awesome. Cant wait to have my own place to be able to do stuff like this.