SS plumbing

Hi guys,

I wanted to ask a quick questions out before I move ahead with this plan. I have kals electric brewery setup (www.theelectricbrewery.com) and would like to hard pipe everything. I've used the silicon hoses and camlocks (he uses quickconnects) and have found them to be one of the minor frusturations. I stress minor cause I've been very happy with his design. Fortunately for me I'm a pipe fitter by trade and have access to a pipe threader. So my question is I've priced our Schedule 40 1/2" SS pipe and fittings and they are WAY cheaper that tubing and compression fittings. My only concern is the fact that its threaded which could cause more buildup in the piping. Is this something I should worry about. Its all on the hot side of the brew and I can CIP onces its all installed. I'll plumb it right into the domestic so I can flush all the lines and then put some sanitizer in to clean it. Cleaning is the main reason I'm wanting to hard pipe everything along with less hoses running from my sink to tanks. Do any of you see a problem with the threaded SS piping?

Matt

bump

Even without hard plumbing, there's threaded fittings throughout a brewing setup. From the valves, to the chiller, pumps and connections, so I can't see why having threaded hard plumbing would be any different than anything else that's already running throughout the system.

I say go for it.

I agree, as long as you keep up with flushing/cleaning the setup straight away and not letting wort dry inside the pipe there should be no issues hardpiping. One thing I do suggest and it might make things easier is to consider how you are going to connect equipment that may need to be moved: kettles/mlt, pumps, etc.
It might be less work (especially if you already have the hose) to run some of the "straight" runs in silicon hose (with everything plumbed that no hoses have to be moved on brewday).

I mean if you're a pipe fitter your costs should be low. I got away from threads because of the crap that can build up in them, but that's up to you

If it's all hot side then in theory you should be killing most of the bugs that may grow over time, but the threads will accumulate stuff over time and grow stuff. Sweatting everything up in copper would give you a cleaner system, but you would have to be careful of the cip chemicals used. Even if you did do caustic/acid washes and it ate the copper you may be ahead of the cost of ss and it would be quite a while before major degradation happens. CIP with PBW and you should be plenty clean and have no crevices in the copper

You could, in theory, do quick disconnects with the piping and instead of CIP, you could just take them apart, quickly clean them out and reconnect. That's something I am planning on looking into in the future.

can I hijack your thread and ask what you spent on the electric setup? I have been kicking around whether I want to go electric or not...building a house and put in 220 service to the brewery but waffling back and forth. I have just never seen a nice electric build in-person

crosamich said:

can I hijack your thread and ask what you spent on the electric setup? I have been kicking around whether I want to go electric or not...building a house and put in 220 service to the brewery but waffling back and forth. I have just never seen a nice electric build in-person

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Honestly the best place to start and finish is right here at The Electric Brewery. Equip, set up, it's all there...

@crosamich. SilverX is right, the best place to start would be going through www.theelectricbrewery.com. Kal has done an excellent job of building that website and laying it out in a way that's easy to understand. In the FAQ he has a breakdown of the costs to build his system. I was on the cheaper end of this. I'd say around 4-5k for my system. I haven't installed a hood fan system yet and I went with 2 SS chugger pumps instead of the march pumps due to cost. Ive been very happy with this and they were half the price. I did get the 30 gal blichmans but difference was only a few hundred bucks.

There are many electric systems out there and this is just one of them. Its definitely not the cheapest but as a complete system I've been very happy with it. I don't have a lot of electrical experience so I couldn't design and build my own control panel. I did the kit and was able to wire it with the website walk through. Now that I know a bit more about electronics could the control panel be built cheaper... yes but it all depends on what your looking for. Kal built this panel to be on a standard with any commercial electronic panel. Thats not usually how home brewers build things. We usually don't put in safe start interlocks or build our components to meet those standards cause were all cheap. Does it work...yes. As for brewing on an electric system vs gas. Its awesome! Its -2 all this week and my brewery is warm and clean.

Here is a pic of my setup shortly after I finished it.

Matt

Fireguy94 said:

Here is a pic of my setup shortly after I finished it.

Matt

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Matt,

That's a sexy setup. Nicely done!

I am sure you have already moved forward on this by now but I will ask my questions anyways.

Have you looked into maybe using a tri-clamp setup, maybe getting weldable tri-clamp fittings so you can take the whole thing apart in sections to run a bottle brush through for a thorough cleaning?

Is the pipe threaded all the way through or just at the ends? If at the ends could you not just trim it and either flare the ends or weld the clamp fittings?

I personally would not want the hazard of threads collecting crap in them and potentially causing issue. I know it is hot side but being a home system it will sit for days (possibly weeks) with unknown quantities of gunk in the threads, in a moist environment, heating and cooling, growing who knows what. So personally I would look for a way around that.

If it is just the ends of the pipes then I would probably trim as close as I could and go for it.

@ Nightshade. No I haven't moved ahead with this yet. I'm not in any hurry to do this project. I'd like to do it properly and am still researching and pricing everything.

I've looked at doing tri clamp fittings. I can get them in tri clamp/NPT but that kinda defeats the purpose of eliminating threaded fittings. I have a friend who can weld stainless but that makes this job much bigger. That might push the "favor" envelope. Secondly its a huge cost difference. Its 6 more valves, 13 tees, 19 90s, 1 cross, 2 45s, and several different sized nipples. That gets very pricey in tri clamp fittings. As for the threading I can probably make sure when I fabricate the threads I keep them very short so that it doesn't extend into the female threads past the bend in the fitting. I can make sure all the fittings max out so that the male and female threads match inside the fitting. This should reduce the amount of threads exposed to the fluid so that only the very end of the pipe is exposed.

As for the buildup in the piping. I was thinking of 2 ways to deal with it. First I'll CIP with PBW after a brew and let it sit for a while then flush it with clean water. Once its flushed I can either leave clean water in the piping between brews or I can charge the piping with 5-10 PSI of C02. With no oxygen in the lines your not going to get any buildup between brews. Secondly. I will use 3 piece ball valves. It I take them apart they will act like unions. I would be able to take sections of pipe out at the valves if I need to stick a brush in the piping, say once a year.

Right now I'm leaning towards all intake piping will be in 3/4 and all discharge piping will be in 1/2". This should give me good flow and doesn't push the cost to high.

Matt