my 50 gallon brewrig photos

3 54 gallon kettles, 2 march pumps, a switch panel for the pumps, 2 185000 BTU burners, 1 55000 BTU burner, some scrap steel, and a bunch of DIY...
[/IMG]

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

I ran it for the first time on National Homebrew Day with pretty good success...75% efficiency and 45 gallons of wort.

Wow, thats pretty much all I can say. The rig looks great. Congrats at making something so epic, and please tell me that those are not just March 809s and if so, how long does it take to pump 45 gallons? Also, what was the first brew on the rig.

Chormados

Thats just wrong! I am envious. I thought I had an awesome rig. My rig pales in comparison. Are you compensating for something?LOL Cheers

chromados said:

Wow, thats pretty much all I can say. The rig looks great. Congrats at making something so epic, and please tell me that those are not just March 809s and if so, how long does it take to pump 45 gallons? Also, what was the first brew on the rig.

Chormados

Click to expand...

yup, 809's. About an hour to pump that much. I got them cheap about 15 months ago. should upgrade and use those for my 15 gallon system.

First brew was a 1.057 pale ale with magnum, summit, citra and centennial.

I filled 8 fermentors, kept 3 for myself and gave away 5 to some of my homebrew club members. Each fermentor is going to get a different treatment, be it yeast, dry hopping, etc. Think of it as a homebrew Iron Chef. Then, in July, we'll get together and share 8 "different" beers.

Very coo idea, be sure to keep us updated on what ends up being brewed on this system.

chromados

and here I sit, having 15 gallons on tap, feeling slightly guilty about having that much beer ready to go.... NICELY DONE!!!

Go big or go home!

You only brew 4 50 gallon batches a year, right?

That is awesome!! LOT of beer though...lots of grain...lots of hops...lots of $$$!~ I guess as long as they are tried and true recipes and you have lots of people to share with! Pretty cool to be able to have a group brew and let some of the club members bring home a carboy...especially if they can contribute to the ingredients it takes to make 50 gallons!

Where the heck did you buy those kettles? I must have some. Do you have a closer pic of your pump setup? I see you are running 2 march pumps, how do you have them running? In parralel or series? What size pipe is your CFC made from?

How long did it take you to boil this and were you able to get a good rolling boil? I have trouble on my standard turkey fryer burner with 18 gallons. Definitely net 185k BTU, but still curious if you were able to get it going at a good boil rate and how long it took to do so.

Randar said:

How long did it take you to boil this and were you able to get a good rolling boil? I have trouble on my standard turkey fryer burner with 18 gallons. Definitely net 185k BTU, but still curious if you were able to get it going at a good boil rate and how long it took to do so.

Click to expand...

very curious about this as well. pretty awesome build. i might chime back in here with some more questions.

Love the pots.. also interested in where you picked those up at!

KillerKellers said:

Love the pots.. also interested in where you picked those up at!

Click to expand...

I got the pots from a local scrapyard. I bought 5 total for $130. I sold 2 for $470 combined. The profits pretty much paid for everything else.

Randar said:

How long did it take you to boil this and were you able to get a good rolling boil? I have trouble on my standard turkey fryer burner with 18 gallons. Definitely net 185k BTU, but still curious if you were able to get it going at a good boil rate and how long it took to do so.

Click to expand...

From 150F to boiling, about 1.5 hours. I started the flame after I collected about 20 gallons. Pretty good boil. not enough to boil over, but definitely rolling

djsethall said:

Where the heck did you buy those kettles? I must have some. Do you have a closer pic of your pump setup? I see you are running 2 march pumps, how do you have them running? In parralel or series? What size pipe is your CFC made from?

Click to expand...

I have the pumps plugged into outlets that are mounted in a control box with switches to turn each one on. power wire from the box plugs into a GFCI outlet. Safety first!!!

3/8 OD for my CFC. Its good for my 15 gallon setup, but a bit small for this one(as are the pumps)

annasdadhockey said:

From 150F to boiling, about 1.5 hours. I started the flame after I collected about 20 gallons. Pretty good boil. not enough to boil over, but definitely rolling

Click to expand...

I would imagine you go through propane pretty quickly with this setup??

I was really asking about series and parallel for the inlet and outlet sides of the pumps. If they are in series, which it looks like, there may be a way to get more flow outta those bad boys

riored4v said:

I would imagine you go through propane pretty quickly with this setup??

Click to expand...

I went thru 1 20lb cylinder on Saturday. I usually get 3 ten gallon brewdays out of one tank, so it would seem that I made out better this way.

djsethall said:

I was really asking about series and parallel for the inlet and outlet sides of the pumps. If they are in series, which it looks like, there may be a way to get more flow outta those bad boys

Click to expand...

Oh, I see. I was using 1 pump per application(sparge, lauter, etc) You may have something there.

Holy Mother of Gawd my man! Well if you only get a few days a year to brew... Brew big!!
Very nice system.
Are the kettles tri clad bottoms?

So for the guys out there thinking..Hmm must be nice. How much did you spend on the batch of beer, do you think? I'm just going to guess $250+ after yeast and dry hops...

Cheers
Jay

$.63/lb for grain x 90 lbs=$57.37
Hops average $11-12/lb x 26 oz=$19.50
4 of the 8 fermentors received recycled yeast=$0
2 received dry yeast(2.99 ea.)=$6
2 received liquid yeast(7.99 ea)=$16
Propane- one twenty lb cylinder=$9.95
Total batch cost...=$108.82

Not including water, sanitizer, etc.

As far as tri-clad bottoms go, I don't really know. I don't think so, but I don't know as they were scrapyard finds. No scorched wort, though, so I'm happy with them.

(bookmarked for when my wife tells me that the 80qt pot I want is too big.)

howabouttheiris said:

(bookmarked for when my wife tells me that the 80qt pot I want is too big.)

Click to expand...

Haha, nice!!!

That's pretty rad. I was going to jealously criticize as to why you needed that much beer but you quickly refuted that. No one can hate on a guy that gives carboy's of beer away. Super nice dude. Kudos.

If you give away the beer before its fermented I imagine you get around the max volume of beer legality, right? BTW, thats a ridiculus setup.

as soon as my 55 gal boilermakers and 42 gallon ferminator show up i hope to join you in that caliber of brewing. man that set up is cool

joe22 said:

as soon as my 55 gal boilermakers and 42 gallon ferminator show up i hope to join you in that caliber of brewing. man that set up is cool

Click to expand...

Good luck with your setup Joe. It sounds awesome.

Have you tried running those pumps in parralel yet?

djsethall said:

Have you tried running those pumps in parralel yet?

Click to expand...

Not yet, as I have not used the system since NHD

djsethall said:

Have you tried running those pumps in parralel yet?

Click to expand...

are you talking about hooking up the out of one to the in of the other? What would be the point of that? The pump can only flow so much and you would be limited by the hoses, the ball valves and the first pump anyways.

FSR402 said:

are you talking about hooking up the out of one to the in of the other? What would be the point of that? The pump can only flow so much and you would be limited by the hoses, the ball valves and the first pump anyways.

Click to expand...

That would be in series. On my dual head pump, i got 1/2" split into 2 3/8" to go to each side of the heads and then the output back into 1/2" to maximize flow. Series and parralel are two opposite things.

Pumps In parrelel

djsethall said:

That would be in series. On my dual head pump, i got 1/2" split into 2 3/8" to go to each side of the heads and then the output back into 1/2" to maximize flow. Series and parralel are two opposite things.

Pumps In parrelel

Click to expand...

Got it. Now he question would be would the pick-up tube and ball valve be able to feed the two pumps? If not then no gains.

FSR402 said:

Got it. Now he question would be would the pick-up tube and ball valve be able to feed the two pumps? If not then no gains.

Click to expand...

FSR402 said:

are you talking about hooking up the out of one to the in of the other? What would be the point of that? The pump can only flow so much and you would be limited by the hoses, the ball valves and the first pump anyways.

Click to expand...

For similar centrifugal pumps with similar plumbing, whether in series or parallel, no matter the size of the the input and output, there would be flow gains (as long as the head height is below the max head of a single pump). Maximizing the flow gains is a different matter.

Pumps in series can yield a higher pressure, and pumps in parallel can yield higher flows. If you don't need pressure (low head height), the parallel pumps will give more flow. If you need pressure, the series pumps will provide more flow. Picking which setup to use is system dependent based on comparing head height vs. flow- as head height increases, the flow rate for the pumps in parallel flow rate will decrease below the flow rate for the pumps in series.

The input/output restrictions are a separate but related issue. Basic principles of decreasing flow restriction on the input and output apply to both series and parallel, but are more critical on for parallel. To maximize the parallel setup, the outputs should remain separate until termination or be combined into a larger pipe. The effect of increasing restrictions in the lines is similar to increasing head height.

What are the valves at the top of middle pot and middle of the right pot for? I'm guessing the one at the top is for sparging, but I can't guess what the other one is for.

Anywho, I think I just got motivation to hit the local scrap yard!

Fighthouse said:

What are the valves at the top of middle pot and middle of the right pot for? I'm guessing the one at the top is for sparging, but I can't guess what the other one is for.

Anywho, I think I just got motivation to hit the local scrap yard!

Click to expand...

The valve in the middle of the boil kettle is to recirculate back into the kettle after running through the counterflow chiller. It is a 3 way ball valve, so once the temp of the wort going back in hits pitching temps, I turn the valve and start going to the fermentors.

That is so awesome. My dad got some cool things from the local dump/scrap place when they allowed you to pick through it, like a stainless steel sap pan (for maple syrup) that my brothers used to make syrup. I wish my habits had me frequenting places like that

I am also in awe of the price. That's just amazing. I'm so impressed.

annasdadhockey said:

I filled 8 fermentors, kept 3 for myself and gave away 5 to some of my homebrew club members. Each fermentor is going to get a different treatment, be it yeast, dry hopping, etc. Think of it as a homebrew Iron Chef.

Click to expand...

I did this same thing again yesterday, only with a stout. I hope it comes out well.