my basement brewroom build

[TomRep]

Not a huge update, but I got bored and wanted a place for towels at the table, so I made a towel rack. Fits the industrial/contemporary look I'm going for in the room and was dirt cheap.
tom

 

[milldoggy]

You plan on spilling stuff I got three like 3 towels, sometimes more, depends on the level of consumption.

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Home Brew Talk

 

[Hoppopotomus]

Looks absolutely amazing......your build has been a big inspiration for me and I should start rolling on mine shortly!

You have to let me know how the bounce house blower works out for ventilation. I have 2 of those blowers laying around from inflatable crap that my brother has bought my kids over the years. I may try to use one it it works out for you. Any concerns about the moisture going through one of those? Again, fantastic work!

 

[TomRep]

The blower shouldn't have any issues with moisture, atleast not mine. On mine, the motor is completely sealed off from the actual air side. They are made for outdoor use and "moderate" moisture contact. Heck, even the switch cover on mine has an oring on it to keep it sealed! I'm just hoping i can move enough air with it at approximately 1/2 speed. Full speed and it sounds like your in the middle of a twister in the brewery!
Tom

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[Hoppopotomus]

Sweet! One of the blowers I have is identical to yours. It was from some Bonzai Falls water slide that my brother bought my kids. Last summer during a birthday party, the entire corner ripped out of it and I almost pitched the blower along with the slide. They are loud, but if it will do the trick it will save another $150 compared to the vortex fan that Kal uses. I may try to incorprated some soundproofing around the actual motor part of it to quiet it down a bit. Let me know how it works out!

 

[TomRep]

Another gift from FedEx.

 

[psutimmah]

yet again tom..u amaze me. so awesome. lmk when i can come check it out

 

[TomRep]

Anytime you want to come up is cool Tim! Going to be a bit longer if you want to see it all in action though. No real updates as of now. Been busy with the holiday and all. I did get my plate chiller mounted and have a medical O2 tank on the way thanks to milldoggy. When I order my next round of fittings I am going to be making and inline O2 system for this rig.
tom

 

[rsklhm10]

I also built a Kal clone awhile back, but only did a 30amp. I have to admit the 50amp is sweet and I kind of wish I went that route. On a side note, the towel bar is awesome and I am totally stealing your idea. I was standing in the brew room the other day scratching my head on what I could do to my stand.

 

[TomRep]

It's all good rsklhm10, steal away! Thats why I'm posting the build, to give, and hopefully get, some ideas from other brewers.
tom

 

[Lunchtime]

That room is amazing...You are an inspiration!

 

[TomRep]

Small update without pictures (for now). I have the plate chiller all mounted. I wanted to be able to connect my water hose easily for swapping between chilling and cleaning so I got quick disconnects for all my water hose fittings. I found some on amazon that were all brass and not the crappy plastic ones. I'm quite happy with the whole thing even though I didn't use the system yet. I also got my first pump yesterday, a March 815. Fittings from Bargainfittings should be here tomorrow so I plan to do some flow testing this weekend and see if I am going for a March 809 or a March AC-3B-MD for the second pump. When I get some things setup with the new fittings and such, I will get some pictures up.
tom

 

[TomRep]

Time for a couple pictures. Looks like I'll be able to go with an 809 for my water pump. the 815 seemed to whirlpool just fine. Thats a bonus for saving some cash on the project. Turns out Wayne at Bargainfittings forgot to throw my 1/2" tees in my order for my O2 setup. Not a huge deal, all the stuff I've ordered from him in the past and this is the first issue I've ever had. You may also notice the "spring" looking things on my hoses. I really dislike the street 90 fitting with the threads ground off so I found something to take the place of that. Initially I was looking for some stainless springs but couldn't find any. i could have had some made, but I didn't want any more cost then I needed. I ended up finding these at a computer store online. They are made to go around cooling hoses within a computer to stop them from kinking. Best part is, they were $3 something for a 40" tube worth which did quite a few hose connections. I wasn't pumping boiling liquid so I can't confirm that they will work perfectly yet. however, the water I was pumping was probably 120ish degrees and in the picture you can see the angle of the hose with absolutly no signs of kinking. I also have a picture of my chiller and some rough shots of the garden hose quick disconnects I got.
tom

 

[milldoggy]

What are those water connecs? Think I want to get a set of them. Looks good. Like the springs.

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[TomRep]

I got the disconnects here

 

[TomRep]

Long weekend and kinda warm for this time of year so I'm hoping to get my power down there.
Tom

 

[mux]

Ouch, that cable looks expensive!

 

[TomRep]

Yeah a bit pricey! $215 a roll!

 

[TomRep]

Line is run, hook up will be tomorrow. That stuff is a pain to run!

 

[TomRep]

Unfortunately I never got my wire hooked in, so no power for the panel yet. Too much stuff going on today. I hope to get it wired up some night this week. I did get a couple other projects done so I figured I'd snap some pictures of that. The oxygen stone I was looking for from Morebeer was on back order and I wasn't sure how long, so I made a stone up. Morebeer, in the meantime, emailed me and said they were just waiting for adhesive for the stones and that they should be available very soon. I will try out the one I made and decide if I am going to order one. Basically I took a 1/2" MPT x 1/2" nipple and cut the nipple off. I had an old stainless stone that was about 4" long and cut that down. I then took a flare assembly nipple (for tap lines) and just used the nipple part. JB Welded everything in place and I think it should work out fine. That was the last piece of the puzzle for my outlet manifold for my chiller. I basically have a hookup for my temperature which I'll be able to read off my PID in the control panel as the wort is coming out and my inline O2 all in one piece. I want to find a cap for the electrical side of the temp probe, but the idea is the whole thing can be dropped into Starsan if I feel the need and won't have to worry about water getting into a dial thermometer. I also set up the tubing and check valve for my oxygen cylinder. I extended the wires on my pumps and added sheathing and plug ends, but didn't take pictures of that.
Tom

DIY inline oxygen stone

Assembled manifold

How it will be hooked up while chilling

Oxygen setup

 

[TomRep]

Actually, in the last picture you can see the sheathing and plug on one of the pumps in the background.

 

[milldoggy]

Tom, which pid are you using to montior wort temp going into fermentor? I like that idea

 

[TomRep]

Hey Mike! Planning to use the HLT since it's on that end of the table. When you get back, e-mail me. Hate to bother you while your away.
tom

 

[TomRep]

240 line is finally hooked up. Marked my sight glass in my HLT and am currently ramping the temperature up to a boil to condition the pot. Hoping to do a full out water test on the system tomorrow night and possibly another one night this week, then might do the maiden voyage this coming weekend. Whenever it is that I do the first batch, I am planning to webcast it. I will post a link in this thread whenever it happens. So far everything is working beautifully, including the ventilation system.
Tom

Spa panel next to the main

It's alive!!

HLT with the March 809 circulating

 

[Holter]

Looks great Tom. I love the oxygen system, I am going to need to rig something like that up in my system eventually. Hope that DYI stone works out well.

 

[Schnibbz]

Awesome looking build! I just started my CP build and can't wait to finish it.

Why the 125' of 6/3? Did you install a sub panel in the basement, pulling from your main somewhere else and then put the spa disconnect panel next to it?

 

[Boar Beer]

Tom
could you tell me where you got those springs

i could have had some made, but I didn't want any more cost then I needed. I ended up finding these at a computer store online. They are made to go around cooling hoses within a computer to stop them from kinking. Best part is, they were $3 something for a 40" tube worth which did quite a few hose connections.

Thanks

 

[TomRep]

The DIY stone seemed to work good, no leaks and was pumping oxygen. As for the 125' of 6/3, my run to the main panel was with rough measuring, 90-95'. I did pretty much the whole building myself and trying to measure 100% accurate for the wire by myself just wouldn't have happened. I'd rather have extra and either keep it for future use or sell it rather then come up short. For the springs, i will try to get you the link for them sometime at work today. Now on to my results. Most eveyhing worked great. The vent fan cut out on me part way through. It has an overheat protect switch on it and apparently running it half throttle heats it up pretty good. I may end up having to get an inline fan anyway now. Also, the chiller didn't cool to fermentation temps in one pass like i was hoping. The pid readout (which worked awesome by the way!) On a single pass was about 95 degrees. Circulated back into the kettle and brought the whole volume down to about 130 then ran it through and got a steady 63-64 degrees into the fermented.
Tom

 

[TomRep]

Boar Beer- I can't find the site that I bought my coils from, but if you do a search on Amazon or Google, they pop up all over. Just do a search for "anti kink coil". As a warning, the ones they say are red are more like hot pink!
tom

 

[Boar Beer]

Tom
Thanks I one clicked it on Amazon. Never would have searched for it correctly without your direction.
You have a fun project going. Keep us posted.

 

[milldoggy]

Tom,
No worries. I am back on the 17th. Down in Melbourne right now. Beer cost soo much. System looks good. As for your chiller, did you try to throttle the flow back? On my CFC, I get 90ish on the first pass at full bore, but if I slow the wort flow, I can get 70ish.

 

[TomRep]

Melbourne, that must be horrible this time of year. What is it, 85-90? I have names for you but I can't use them, against forum rules! I did have it throttled back to just a bit more then a trickle. The recirculating part should actually work okay beings I'm looking at whirlpooling post boil anyway.
Tom

 

[milldoggy]

I whirlpool, but have been thinking about just going right into the carboy. I think I might try to whirlpool to get it down below 140 then into carboy. I have been using a drill and a red paint stirrer after chilling to get a huge vortex and it seems to work pretty good.

Ha it is a little cold in melbourne. Windy today. Heading out for the great ocean road. Our first attempt at driving on the other side of the road. Sydney was HOT. Pretty cool new years. Watched the fireworks from our hotels roof. Pretty amazing.

 

[TomRep]

New fan is ordered and should be here Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. looks like to brewing this weekend.

 

[Hoppopotomus]

Hey Tom....your system is turning our fantastic and is very helpful in my build. I slowed down over the holidays, but plan on getting my project back up and running soon. A quick question: Should I nix the bounce house blower idea that you came up with? I was going to go that route for my exhaust, because I have two of them laying around, but I would hate to have to re-do that portion of my system if I'm going to run into similar problems. What do you think? Your thoughts are appreciated.

 

[dallasdb]

I love the drip tray on the floor! Great idea for no spillage.

 

[TomRep]

Hoppopotomus-. Not sure what to think of the fan, honesty. I think the thing killed mine was the fact that I ran it on a dimmer switch. I fired up up lastnight with no switch and it still quits kinda like it's fried. I would say if you have a smaller one that you can run full throttle, give it a shot. It cost me about $40 to hook up the bounce house fan and won't cost me anything additionally besides the cost of the new fan.
Tom

 

[TomRep]

New fan is installed and first batch is happening today around noon. I will try to get some pictures of the fan setup. I'm hoping to do a live feed of the brew. If it happens, I will post a link here and probably a new thread in the general forum.
Tom

 

[Hoppopotomus]

Cant wait....have fun and good luck with that awesome new system!

 

[pinback]

New fan is installed and first batch is happening today around noon. I will try to get some pictures of the fan setup. I'm hoping to do a live feed of the brew. If it happens, I will post a link here and probably a new thread in the general forum.
Tom

This sounds awesome. I will watch if at all possible...