Finally built my 200l (52 gallon) rig

[ramloese]

So, after months of consideration, planning and shopping, I finally built my 200 liter (52 gallon) rig.

I started by wanting to get 3x 200 liter kettles, however the supplier was running low, so I settled with a 150 liter (40 gallon) HLT.

I then installed one 10kW round heating element from BrewPi in my HLT and one in my BK. I am controlling them with MyPin controllers. These controllers are still causing me some headache, and I'll be spending some time configuring them over th course of this week.

I put a Blichmann ball valve at every exit and added a Blichmann whirlpool kit on each kettle as the input. I have an anvil diptube and filter on the mash kettle and the BK.

Pumping the wort are two Blichmann RipTides.

My first brew as you can see in the short vid is an "Ambered" Pale Ale. I made this run mostly to test out the system and figure out the kinks:

1. The pumps require a very low fixture to not cause dry runs.
2. Ventilation is a HUGE thing. All my walls have gotten a drip-surface now.
3. Silicon tubes are fragile.
4. I need MASSIVE advice on simplifying my cleaning rutine post-brew.


If you guys have any thoughts on my learning points or other advice, please pitch in.

Thanks for a great community.

 

[BLL]

You must be throwing some pretty substantial parties pretty frequently to necessitate so much volume. I brew a 1/2BBL at a time and it's more than enough.

My advice regarding cleaning is to buy yourself some spray balls, a bigger pump, and start running CIP cycles.

 

[day_trippr]

Dead video link

 

[angrybits]

What are you doing for packaging?

 

[ramloese]

Corny Kegs

 

[angrybits]

Corny Kegs

Fair enough, heh. I've been looking for a way to make 1/2bbl sanke doable before I go big. The jaybird setups look pretty freaking nice, but I'm not sure I trust the pipe-with-holes solution for cleaning.