My New Homebrew Setup

After using plastic for a couple of years I took the plunge to stainless using a better than expected tax rebate. I hope you like my setup, I have used it three times now and just working out how it likes to work and how to hit my temps etc. With fine tuning hear and there I'm pretty much sorted.

I have a 50 litre setup with stainless HLT running down to the Mash Tun and then boiler. The HLT and boiler are both equipped with 3kw elements which work brilliantly. I use food grade reinforced hose to run off the hot liquor and the wort from the MT.


I used JG Speedfit to create a sparger, no need for the watering can anymore!!


My mash tun struggled to regulate the temperature, I was losing nearly 10 degrees in an hour mash so I built a insulated false lid out of insulation board and foil to remove some of the deadspace in the MT for temperature to get lost. I also made an insulation jacket from standard hot water tank insulation. I have found by adding boiling water to the MT to prime before brewing and leaving for 30 minutes and then mashing in with you treated liquor the MT now regulates excellently, losing about 2 degrees at the most over the hour.


The wort runs off to the boiler through gravity. The boiler has a hop strainer which is a copper pipe with drilled holes. Inside the pipe I have inserted a fine steel mesh filter. This works better than I was hoping for. The strainer and pump/chiller system easily cuts 30 minutes off a brew day.


The boiled wort is then run out through the counterflow chiller via a 12 food grade motor, this works fantastically well and chills from boiling to under 25 degrees in about 5 minutes, its the best piece of kit I have and would highly recommend.


I love my new setup and have a renewed passion for brewing. I no longer use muslin bags or filter bags, everything is now more efficient and I believe Ithis will result in better beers. Hope you enjoy looking and feel free to ask any questions you may have!

 

Looks sweet man! I like the creative setup

 

This is the 3kw heater used in my HLT & Boiler


This is my hop strainer with mesh


And a couple more of my brewery setup

 

Very nice setup! Keep up the great work.