Purpose Built-No Sparge Brewery

[Brew52]

Hello All,
I thought I would share a PIC of the project I have been working on for a long time now. I have designed and built a 100% hard plumbed and CIP Electric Brewery for the sole purpose of making easy drinking session beers. I could not have built this without everyone at Home Brew Talk. I would have to say: Kal inspired it, PJ wired it, and Home Brew Talk built it. At this time I have not brewed on it, but have wet tested and heated water several times. I don't anticipate brewing until Fall 2014 as I still need to plumb in the cooling water to the plate chiller and I am working on building a Fermenter from a Half Barrel. Thanks to everyone on this Forum for all the designs, trials, and errors that have helped me with my design. Cheers! :rockin:

 

[jweez]

That setup is sexy. Nice work.

 

[NathPowe]

No way I could wait until Fall to brew on that thing.

Really nice work man. Update us after you've pumped some wort out of that beast. Brew day pics or it didn't happen.

Cheers.

 

[gotbags-10]

Damn!


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[sumbrewindude]

I want it.

:rockin:

 

[jeff13]

Looks good! I could try it out for you and let you know haha


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Brew52]

Thanks for the great comments. I almost forgot, here is a shot of the back.

 

[theashman661]

Oh Snap! Take video of your first brew! It will be like a soft porno!

 

[Weezy]

Kudos on the shout out, hard plumping and especially session ale brewing!

Now give us a run own on how this rig runs. What's the process? What are each tank. No heating element on the left one? trub filters on both?

 

[Brew52]

Kudos on the shout out, hard plumping and especially session ale brewing!

Now give us a run own on how this rig runs. What's the process? What are each tank. No heating element on the left one? trub filters on both?

Sure! The kettle on the Left is the Mash Tun with a false bottom and the in-line strainer under that has the standard holes that are smaller than the false bottom. The strainer is dual purpose. It will catch any grain husk that get past the false bottom and it serves as a "grant" so that the pump suction is primarily in the strainer and not on the grain bed. This is a RIMS setup so the heat element is in the center just below the site glass and the RTD is in the Tee just below the dial thermometer. I installed a 3-way valve on the right so that I can back-flush the chiller (in place) and can also re-circulate the boil through the chiller and control the flow with the ball valve located below the 3-way valve (you cannot use a 3-way for flow control) due to the multiple ports. The in-line strainer below the boil kettle has a “Fine" mesh screen to catch the Trub and Hops. This will be trial and error as the filter may plug up and if it does I will simply use a hop spider. Basically this Brewery is designed as a BIAB Brewery without the bag! and I certainly could Batch-Sparge with it if I decided to. I have designed it so that the clean water fill for the mash tun flows through the plate chiller so then when I Chill the Boil, the warm dis-charge water will collect in the empty mash tun and will be used as the CIP water after adding PBW. About 10 gallons of water will be collected.

 

[Brew52]

The entire brewery is assembled and dis-assembled completely with Tri-Clamps and wing nuts. Even the pumps and bases are not mounted. The pumps are held tightly in place with the Tri-Clamps. Takes about 15 minutes to tear down the entire system and about 25 minutes to re-assemble.

 

[Weezy]

Ahh! Didn't notice the rims tube. Slick. The plumbing doesn't seem to be there but can you heat your strike water via the bk element and recirc through rims at the same to speed things up? Or likely not enough amps available for both at the same time anyway?

 

[kevreh]

That is a thing of beauty. What background do you have that gave you the mad skills to build your system? Also, if its CIP why so many disconnects?

 

[Brew52]

Ahh! Didn't notice the rims tube. Slick. The plumbing doesn't seem to be there but can you heat your strike water via the bk element and recirc through rims at the same to speed things up? Or likely not enough amps available for both at the same time anyway?

Ahh Yes, you noticed my design flaw or two. I really wanted to minimize the amount of ball valves so I did not install a ball valve just below the Cross fitting under the dial thermometer, but if I had I could certainly transfer strike water from the boil kettle directly into the Mash Tun, however I still can transfer from the BK to the MT by connecting my silicon hose to the Camlock fitting after the BK pump and hold the hose end in the MT. I'm actually hoping that someone will copy my design and improve it so I can take notes. Yes I do have enough power to run both pumps and both elements at the same time. The RIMS is a 2000watt/240v ULWD element and the BK is a 5500watt/240v ULWD element. I have 50amp service to the brewery.

 

[Brew52]

That is a thing of beauty. What background do you have that gave you the mad skills to build your system? Also, if its CIP why so many disconnects?

It is CIP, however I still do not feel comfortable letting the brewery set unused for long periods of time because not all liquid is drained from all pipes or pump heads when finished so I simply un-clamp the pumps and dump out the trapped liquid. There is also water trapped in the bottom of the RIMS Tube that needs to be drained. There are so many disconnects because all parts are standard “Off the Rack" purchased rather than custom welded. My background is Food Safety Inspection so I understand a lot about sanitation, but I cannot weld so I used a local fabricator to do all the Tig and Mig welding. I did sweat my own copper pipes (and it shows) my lack of knowledge there too, but no leaks!

 

[DSorenson]

Man... If I had any sort of money this is something I would love to do.

Although no sparge 'wastes' some sugars, it does save you from extra steps and space and heating of water... etc.

Out of curiousity, let us know what your efficiency is on this bad boy!

Congrats on the build!

 

[hammis]

DUDE!!!!! this is amazing!!!!!!

 

[orangehero]

Great rig, looks like you put a lot of thought into everything!

 

[Brew52]

Great rig, looks like you put a lot of thought into everything!

Thank you. I spent about 3 years and $3,800.00 all for the love of real beer. As nice as it is, I definitely would do things a little different next time such as: Invert the kegs and use the existing openings for bottom drains rather than TIG weld concentric reducers on and I would use an infinite control for the boil kettle instead of a PID. I would also use two swivel casters on one side and two non-swivel on the other side as it is a bit difficult to move around as is. Other than that, I'm pretty satisfied with the results. I will post pics and efficiency's once I get around to brewing. Cheers!

 

[Brew52]

I thought I would post a better explanation of each piece of the brewery and what is is meant to do.

 

[spkguitar]

 

[Brew52]

Good News / Bad News: So I finally brewed on this system about a week ago. It was a Disaster! Worst brew day ever. I designed the system to be BIAB only without the bag, but I failed to remember that with such a thin mash, a standard false bottom will not work. Within 2 minutes of re-circulating the mash through the RIMS tube the pump stopped pumping! By the time I caught the problem (let's all) say it together, Scorched Mash! I stopped everything and went to Lowes for a paint strainer bag and filled it to continue mashing just to test the rest of the system. The rest of the mashing was flawless with an exact hold of 152 degrees. I then set PID for 168 to mash-out and within 1 minute POP! Went the GFCI breaker. Shut off all my power and checked all connections. Turned everything back on and set to 168 degrees and POP! Again with the breaker (I burned up) the element in the RIMS tube and it is toasted. Ok screw it. I pumped the mash over to the boil kettle with no issues. Started the boil and hop additions (used hop bag) and this was flawless. I opened the drain to recirculate the boil and then begin to chill and within a minute No Flow! I opened up the strainer and I can assure you that it will filter out Trub ,but too well because the screen was plugged tight. Ok screw that. I took out the screen and chilling through the plate chiller was perfect! I pumped everything into the fermenter and pitched the yeast starter. Great Fermentation of 6 Gallons of Blonde Ale with an aftertaste of Ash! Gravity was 1.044 (not bad). I have no real numbers to provide at this time because of my disaster. Bottom line after testing: I put the brewery back into "dry dock" and decided to use my RIMS Tube as an "on-demand" hot water heater to recirculate hot water through a Chillzilla counterflow chiller ultimately making my brewery a Hybrid BIAB-HERMS via a RIMS Tube. I plan to order a BIAB Bag from wilserbrewer and a 25 amp breaker from e-brew supply to increase the element size in the RIMS because I already have a new element I can use for that. I debated myself a long time when building this system whether to go HERMS or RIMS. One scorched batch of $30.00 worth of Ingredients made me a true believer in HERMS. I hope to have my modifications done by Christmas 2014. I will certainly post PICS of the "new look" along the way. P.S. I fully intend to bottle and drink my "Chain-Smoker Blonde" ,but will not share with Friends and Family (I'm not) a cruel person.

 

[Minbari]

"...........when they opened disney land, none of the rides worked!..."


you are a better man than me, that would have been watering the garden. you will get it, I havent even brewed with mine yet and it has about 4 changes to it, lol.

 

[Wacki]

How hard were you running the pumps when the mash stuck?? Were they full bore or throttled back a little??

 

[Brew52]

How hard were you running the pumps when the mash stuck?? Were they full bore or throttled back a little??

I had the ball valve for the mash re-circulation at about 1/4 open or maybe just about half-way. I had great flow until the strainer prior to that pump clogged up tight due to lack of straining bag in the mash tun.

 

[Minbari]

so it was the opposite of stuck? it flowed right through and into your filter/grant?

 

[Brew52]

"...........when they opened disney land, none of the rides worked!..."


you are a better man than me, that would have been watering the garden. you will get it, I havent even brewed with mine yet and it has about 4 changes to it, lol.

Thanks. I'm kind of glad it didn't go well in a way because now I will be able to make Wheat Beers in the future as well. Something I hear can be difficult to achieve with a RIMS. Scorching is more likely (from what) I have read.

 

[Brew52]

so it was the opposite of stuck? it flowed right through and into your filter/grant?

Yes. I had flow through the grain bed and false bottom, but the strainer/grant plugged up tight and stopped the flow. When I put the grains in the strainer bag, everything flowed perfectly.

 

[Minbari]

Thanks. I'm kind of glad it didn't go well in a way because now I will be able to make Wheat Beers in the future as well. Something I hear can be difficult to achieve with a RIMS. Scorching is more likely (from what) I have read.

that is my understanding as well......that and Rye. I designed mine with a HERMs from the get go avoid this problem.

 

[Brew52]

Ok. So here is the design I came up with to avoid any future issues with scorching. I already made some of these changes and will post a PIC of the actual system when I get a chance (hopefully) tonight when I get home from work. Please feel free to make any comments on whether or not you think this will work. The yellow arrows are mash and the black arrows are hot water only. Cheers!

 

[Minbari]

what is the HE exchanging heat with? usually you have that in a tank with water that is heated and controlled by a PID. the outpuut of the HE would be where the PID temp sensor would go to tell the Tank heater to come on and off.

 

[Brew52]

what is the HE exchanging heat with? usually you have that in a tank with water that is heated and controlled by a PID. the outpuut of the HE would be where the PID temp sensor would go to tell the Tank heater to come on and off.

I plan to put water in the Boil kettle and recirculate through the HERMS coil while maintaining water temperature via my RIMS TUBE. The little Red square in the picture just below the sight glass is the RTD mounted in a 1inch Tri-Clamp instrument tee.

 

[Minbari]

So does that coil have like a counterflow setup?

 

[Brew52]

So does that coil have like a counterflow setup?

Yes. It will be a copper counterflow chiller. I'm basically going to copy the setup like this one I found on Youtube.

 

[Minbari]

ok, clears it up

looks like that will work perfectly well and no posibility of chain smoking blonde ale again, lol.

 

[Summerland]

To simplify things, why not use the boil kettle with PID as a "rims tube" like the BrewEasy or other 2 kettle systems? It would eliminate a lot of the plumbing and need for so many parts, which is almost always a good thing when the goal is for it to "just work." it will also thin the mash out a bit to prevent the problem with your strainer.

 

[Brew52]

To simplify things, why not use the boil kettle with PID as a "rims tube" like the BrewEasy or other 2 kettle systems? It would eliminate a lot of the plumbing and need for so many parts, which is almost always a good thing when the goal is for it to "just work." it will also thin the mash out a bit to prevent the problem with your strainer.

Thanks for the feedback. I definitely thought about just putting an immersion chiller in the BK submerged in water and recirculating the mash through that (HERMS). I guess I just don't like the thought of tossing my RIMS Tube "In Stock" since I spent a lot of time building it, but I also like the idea of being able to raise my mash temperatures more quickly and more efficiently than large volume submersion just in case I ever want to do a Step Mash. Here are some updated PICS. Thanks again for the suggestion.

 

[Brew52]

Another shot.

 

[Brew52]

In this pic you can see the mini ball valve on the back side of the RIMS where the heated water will exit and go down into the HERMS coil (to be purchased) at a later date.

 

[Brew52]

Close up view.