Help me improve my new system

[steveo929]

Hey all. I think I finally finished getting my system up to a respectable level. It cost some serious dough but it should pay off with some serious beer.

Anyway, please tell me what you think about my system and let me know how I can improve!

Equipment:
*All converted keg system
*Mash tun is fully insulated (didn't put the insulation on for the pic) and has a nice false bottom
*Just purchased a March pump, thanks ebay dude you rock :rockin:
*Also put together a sparge arm
*I don't have any quick disconnects yet so I'm working with lots of tubing

Procedure to be used for the next brew:
*Bring strike water to appropriate temp for mash
*Mash in at 152 degrees for 60 minutes (on the burner stand)
*Turn on burner lightly and circulate mash until I reach 168 degrees
*Remove sparge arm and drain wort into boil kettle
*Add 170 degree sparge water slowly to maintain water level above grains while draining wort
*While boiling hook up pump to kettle and plate chiller to sanitize equipment while recirculating boiling wort
*After boil hook up chiller to water hose and recirculate wort back into kettle until pitching temps are reached

Keep in mind I just wanted to throw everything outside quickly to take the picture, not everything is the way it will be on brewday. For instance, I know the Liquor tank should be higher and the tubing is too long.

Please help me perfect this system! Thanks everyone for all the information I've gather on here so far.

 

[Budzu]

It looks pretty solid, good job with it! Your process seems fine, but as with any, it will just take a few goes at it to figure out the small details you need to pay attention to.
One suggestion I would make for your convenience's sake (if you haven't already done this) is to put a switch on your pump box to turn it on or off. It will make priming and dealing with it much easier than plugging in and out. A cheap easy way to do that is to plug it into a power strip and flip the strip switch.
Good luck and grats!

 

[sycotik]

What will you insulate your Mash tun with?

 

[dstar26t]

What do you have in the kettle to keep hops out of the plate chiller?

 

[steveo929]

Q:"What will you insulate your Mash tun with?"

A:I've been insulating my Mash tun with a double layer of hot water heater insulation on all sides and top, it does a great job maintaining temps. Obviously I will remove it when I start heating the Mash.

Q: "What do you have in the kettle to keep hops out of the plate chiller?"

A: Currently I have been using a homemade hopsack and for my next beer which is very hop heavy I'll be making individual hop bags for each hop addition. Think of it as lots of hop tea bags to throw in. They will be pellets and just maybe an ounce of fresh. Good question though, I totally forgot about the cloggage factor using a pump/plate chiller without a hopsack. To be honest with you I was going to fourgo the hopsack for my pellets on this one but now I remember why we use them! Thanks

Any other tips, especially on my sparge technique? Would this be considered a fly sparge or a combination of batch and fly sparge?

 

[steveo929]

So everything went perfectly on the new system yesterday....except:

After whirlpooling with the chiller I forgot to let the sediment settle and just started pumping right into the fermenter. Needless to say I have about 1 1/2 inches of trub in the bottom of the fermenter. Not a big deal though.

I hit really high Preboil marks and only added 1/4 gallon to lower it, thinking I would overdo it. I should've used Beersmith to get the correct adjustments b/c I ended up with a really high OG and had to add Distilled water to get it down. I really should've done it in my boil b/c It was a really hoppy beer and I know this will affect it. I had to add 1/2 gallon to a 5 gallon batch in the fermenter.

Lost a lot of wort to the boil, I have to re-adjust my numbers!

 

[bad67z]

Looks great Steveo, congrats on the first run threw. And big props for you and running a 10gal system on a balcony in NYC.

Cheers...