Help with building an automated keggle brewery

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southpawbrasserie

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In the past I've built a half ass electric brewery with a 10 gallon Gott HLT and MLT. The mash tun kinda works, but leaks out of the valve. I chose a 1/2" valve and had to drill out the cooler which caused problems. And the same goes for the HLT. I haven't used the heating element in the HLT and have had leaking issues. I currently have a 10 gallon turkey pot with a valve and 1/2" copper tee which clogs my chiller everytime. Also I have issues with my march pump and have to sit the receiving vessel on the ground for it to pump, when all this is doing is gravity feeding. I am getting very frustrated as I have spent around a $1000 to this point and have a half ass brewery. I have acquired a 1/2 barrel keg and plan on getting 2 more when I can find them. The only problem is I don't have very good, professional type plans. I would like to have a burner under each keggle, all stainless, with either a herms or rims. I want to keep it simple and do it right so I don't waste any more money. I saw a post on here about a cylinder stainless mesh hop filter for the kettle which is very nice. Other than that I'm very flexible. Can you please help! Thanks and hope I get a lot of input!
 
Hi there!

Others will write more in detail, but imho you should decide which route to follow as for the automation. Brewtroller, BCS or something else? My choice has been towards Brewtroller, but it depends on how many parameters you want to monitor in your system.
Uh, have you never taken a look at the Kal's website, The Electric Brewery? Take a deep breath and browse into the various sections, it's very helpful to introduce you to a sort of automation of the brewing process.
Then again, HERMS or RIMS? I've chosen the HERMS way, but others prefer RIMS.

As for the plans, what do you mean by "professional plans"?

For sure you will succeed, just matter of time! :mug:

gm
 
I really like the Brewtroller system. I've been looking at it and wondering how I will set it up, wire it, and how to plumb everything. I want to use the Brutus 10 plumbing design and the Brewtroller setup. And eventually have the volume measuring and other options from Brewtroller. With the Brutus setup, I will have a burner on each kettle, and I want to set it up for natural gas, as this route will be cheaper in the long run than propane.

When I say professional, I don't want to have the same mistake as last time where I tried going cheaper and ending with crap. I want a quality brewery and try to has all ss.

Thanks for the information and a start for me. I am currently going to take the Brutus 10 plumbing and the Brewtroller control schematics for gas from their website and try and draw up a blue print. This is fun, finding awesome gadgets and equipment everytime I look around on HBT!
 
Good choice!

I'd suggest you to take your time to read what the guys at the Black Heart Brewery have done with their build, especially on the control panel side
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/automated-herms-system-132119/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/automated-herms-rebuild-216077/

On the Brewtroller website use massively the IRC channel, JC and the other guys are always ready to suggest the best practice for any question you may have.

And for an outstanding Brutus 10 example of build, followed by many here in hbt, take a look at this https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/single-tier-3-pump-bcs-462-automated-rig-204705/

have fun!

gm
 
Thank you. The Brutus 10 example is down the path I want to do. Except Brewtroller, all ss, cam and groove QD's. I'm just not finding the plans I have in mind yet. I emailed Brewtroller and asked if they have any. What I want to do is use a separate keggle for the recirc coil. The reason is I already have a 1/2 barrel keg that I have no use for. So I will have a HLT, HERMS tank, MLT and Kettle. I want to Brewtroller it and like I said Brutus 10 plumbing and gas setup, all ss, cam and groove QD's, I have a plumbing design I have drawn, but I may have to change it now that I will be going with the Brewtroller. Just not sure since I haven't found plans for it yet, lol. But thank you, so far you've been of help!
 
So this is something close to what you have in mind

fbook_100416_77.jpg


Additional infos you can find here.

More suggestions would come from the community if you can show here your plumbing and flows design.


gm
 
Thanks for the help. I'm wanting to use brewtroller cause it seems to be a pretty professional design. I am building this brewery with the intention to start a nano with it. Do you have any suggestions to this route? Thanks!
 
Definitively I'd go with the opentroller dx1 (here)

To me it seems a great upgrade compared to the previous models, take a look at this setup sample

Direct%20Fired%20Cont%20Pilot.png


In a couple of weeks the new brewtroller 3.0 release also introduce the support for the fourth kettle, right what you will need for your build.

What about the sizes of the different kettles?
 
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