About to wet test...pointers?

[technicoloraudio]

After a year of stealing money out of my wife's purse while she's sleeping, my brewery is complete.

Set-up is as follows:
20 G. Stout BK
20 G. Stout MT
15 G. Stout HERMs HLT

BK and HLT are on 220k burners
MLT is on Blichmann burner

2 chugger pumps, SS center inlet with butterfly valves on the output side.

Butterfly valves on each kettle outlet and the tangential. (Somehow I ended up with an extra valve, I know it's a little unnecessary to have one on the pump outlet and tangential).

Silicone hose and TC's between errthing.

My plan is to do a wet test Saturday, just heating and circulating water to monitor temps. Is there anything that I should do before hand? I don't feel the need to sanitize everything since I am only making steam, is that a mistake?

Thank you in advance for talking me through an event that will take precedence over losing my virginity...




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[acidrain]

If your pots and everything is brand new, I would thoroughly wash and rinse everything first.
Go though your entire processes...
liquor heat
mash temp control
drain to BK
sparge to BK
Boil/whirlpool/chill
Check that all your sight glasses are accurate, thermos are calibrated... everything.
It will really help the flow of your brew day, and you will probably find some things to tweak.

 

[BadWolfBrewing]

Record dead space, boil of rates, pump and hose volumes, stuff like that.

 

[PLOVE]

or just wing-it like the day you actually lost your virginity

But seriously, all good suggestions, but realize that your system doesn't exist unless we have pics!

P

 

[technicoloraudio]

It looks like this for now, everything still shiny and new.


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[technicoloraudio]

The "entire" system.


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[acidrain]

You have a really nice brewery! Do you brew indoors, or do you wheel it out?
Also, what badwolfbrewing said.

 

[technicoloraudio]

Thank you very much acidrain, I've been working on it for a while and I finally got the last fittings this week.

I (will) brew outside, up until this point I've been doing all grain batches inside using an immersion circulator and few 5 gallon pots. This about to be a huge step for me and I am nervous, but committed. The plan is to have the burners and kettles in the same configuration on a short and long table, and the pumps on a smaller wheeled cart so that I can move it piece by piece, which is necessary due to a lack of storage space and a few stairs out both doors.

I know I am about to learn a lot about the system, I just want to make sure that I take full advantage of the experience before I go millin' any grain.

I will post a lot more pics Saturday.


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