First Sigle Tier Brew Rig

[de3isit]

So I finally started my very own single tier brew rig and wanted to chronical it to get some feedback as I went through it.

Keggles
My keggles were welded by a friend who builds cryogenic systems for a living. A very impressive welder if I do say so. He also motivated me to try my hand at welding, so I bought a cheap welder on CL for $60.

Two of the three kegs welded. I ended up settling on four couplings on each keg.
-valve
-sight glass
-thermometer- I got 3 Ashcroft thermometers for $23 total. Killer Deal!
-recirculation

I even decided to try my hand at polishing a keg. The result is really cool, but it took about 3 hours. Still haven't decided if I'm going to do the other two.
All of my connections are stainless steel cam lock fittings from Pro Flow Dynamics.

Rig

I am going to have 3 Banjo burners with two of them controlled by two Honeywell Y8610 kits. I do need some advice on how and where to mount the Y8610 modules. There will be a panel with all the switches to control the burners and pump that can be automated at a later date.

Here is the metal I picked up at the local scrap yard for $100. It is 2"x3" steel that is just over 1/16" thick. I know it is way overkill, but is was super cheap!

I got all of the metal cut with the help of a friend who let me borrow his chop saw.

 

[de3isit]

Here is the top level welded up. The welds are pretty crappy and require a ton of grinding. That what you get from formal training from Youtube.

Here is a mock up of what it will look like once completed.
I haven't decided on if I am going to paint it or not. Any suggestions on a cheap solution would be helpful.

 

[rlroberts]

<img src="https://www.homebrewtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=41820"/>
Here is the top level welded up. The welds are pretty crappy and require a ton of grinding. That what you get from formal training from Youtube.
<img src="https://www.homebrewtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=41821"/>
Here is a mock up of what it will look like once completed.
I haven't decided on if I am going to paint it or not. Any suggestions on a cheap solution would be helpful.

Great start, I will be starting one this spring. Polish the other two kegs they just look awesome that way.

 

[bmunos]

sick!! How the hell did you get a welder so cheap?? is it a mig welder?

 

[de3isit]

It's a cheap harbor freight mig welder someone was getting rid of. A piece of advice would be to replace the wire with a high quality wire. All wire is not created equal.

 

[de3isit]

The welding is just about done. I have a few welds to touch up and grind down. Doesn't look too bad for a first time welder.

Next I need to go pick up wheels and figure out where I want to run the gas lines. Does anybody have any suggestions on how I should mount the Honeywell modules?

 

[de3isit]

Update

My in-laws have been in town so I spent more time drinking beer than working on my rig.


I finally got the burner brackets welded on. They have one adjustment hole that can move the burners down one inch. The top hole is set to have the burners at 4.5" below the top rail. I may need to add another once I get them fired up.


Today I took the grinder to all the welds and sanded the whole thing down. I went to Autozone and picked up some manifold paint that is good up to 2000 degrees. I decided on flat black to give it an industrial look and figured it would hide some of my crappy welds.


I went to the scrap yard and picked up four brand new swivel wheels with two of the locking for only $12 bucks. Awesome score! I put a nut on the top and bottom so I can adjust the height to compensate for the slight pitch of my driveway.


Here it is with the burners mounted. It looks pretty cool in the flat black.

Hopefully I will get the gas lines plumbed this week. I could still use some suggestions on how and where I should mount the Honeywell ignition modules.

Comments and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[saintdog327]

This is really awesome! I can't wait to make/get a setup like this at some point in my brewing life!

 

[brewman !]

Nice work !

 

[de3isit]

So I finally got around to mounting the main gas line and the Honeywell valves.



I am using 2 Honeywell valves to control the HLT and the MT. The BK will just have a shut off valve to control the flame.



I found these really awesome pipe hangers at Lowes.

Next I need to mount the ignition modules in a waterproof box and the power cord and control panel wiring.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks for looking.

 

[de3isit]

I don't have an update, but need some help.

I am struggling to find a suitable enclosure for the Honeywell ignition modules. If anyone has a suggestion and possibly a picture of one that would work it would be much appreciated. My pilots should show up this week so I can get the power ran this week and do a run test next weekend.

 

[de3isit]

Update



I finally got my Honeywell spark ignitors mounted. It took a little creativity to come up with a mounting system that worked well.



I went to the scrap yard and found a control panel that is 16"x12"x4" that was brand new and still in the wrapper. It only cost me $5. Great score! It's a bit bigger than I was originally going with, but couldn't pass it up.

Initially the controls will all be manual, I bought DPDT switches so I can add temperature controllers later without changing the switches out. The switch on the right will control the pump.



Next weekend my friend is coming over to help with the final gas hook up and dial in the flames. We will run it through a test boil as well.

 

[ekjohns]

dude what scrap yard are you going to! wal-mart? lol

 

[brewman !]

Very nice work.

I like how clean your stand is.

I think you made a good decision going with the automated burners. I'm doing the same, but mine use standing pilots instead of electronic ignition.

 

[de3isit]

It's a really awesome scrap yard that sells the good scrap stuff.

 

[de3isit]

Update

So it is finally finished!!

My friend came over with his manometer and dialed in the gas valves. We had to adjust the spark ignition down to consistantly light the burners.

On Saturday we rolled it out to the driveway to do a boil test. First the wheel height was adjusted to compensate for the angle of the driveway. Really nice feature!



When we started the boil test we found a few leaks that need a little more teflon tape. The biggest finding from the boil test was that the burners were too low. I drilled new holes and raised them 1.5". The new height is 3.5". With the new height the temperature rise is about 20 degrees in 13 minutes.

The other issue we found was that the pump would cavitate when we first connected the hoses, so a bleed valve was added.



This weekend we are brewing a brown ale as the inaugural brew. Super excited!

 

[de3isit]

UPDATE



Well the first brew went pretty well. All of the plumbing worked great! We achieve a brewhouse efficiency of 78% on the Luke's Brownie Brown Ale. That was much better that I anticipated. I believe a lot of that was due to the recirculation in the MLT.



Here is the final product sitting in the newly built fermentation chamber. The yeast became very active in about 6 hours.

Now for the single issue that came up. The BG-14 burners are high pressure burners that I hooked up to Honeywell gas valves, which are low pressure gas valves. So the problem was that I could not get the correct BTU's out of the burners. I ended up having to drill out the high pressure LP orifice with a 3/32" drill bit to get the flame to go from about 1" high to a whopping 6" high.



The new burner set up is 3.5" from the bottom of the keggle. A test boil went from 60 degrees to a rolling boil in an hour. That's 2.5 degrees per minute.

 

[SafariJack]

Nice build!