Anti-Bling High Lead Chinese Brass Dirty Cheap Build

[The Pol]

Looks can be deceiving


Crap! I'll have to remedy that by plumbing it with old garden hose or something.

Garden hose, would be awesome!

 

[klyph]

Here's a shot of the Hot Liquor Tank and Mash Tun

Sight glass/thermos from bargain fittings.

Here's some shots of the Mash Tun. I used an old colander for the "false bottom" The holes are 1/8 inch, which seems a tad large, does anyone know if this will be too large, or will it grab the husks?

And here's a shot of the Hot Liquor Tank with the Thermometer probe.

 

[Bigscience]

I think most false bottoms are 3/32 so 1/8 may be too big. You may be able to let your bed settle and then recirculate to set it up but it also looks like you need way more holes as well. You could add some at 5/32 on center.

 

[The Pol]

Interesting falsie idea. I used to have a folding steamer basket as a falsie, it worked REALLY well. This looks much like the same idea. Should work fine, I mean, people get away with SS braids. I am curious about how the geometry will affect the lauter.

 

[klyph]

I'll at least be adding holes around the bottom to avoid it pooling up around the lip. I'll use it as is during the test run.

 

[patrck17]

How is the build coming Klyph?

 

[klyph]

Waiting on my orders from Mcmaster Carr and Bargain Fittings. I still need to order the bits for the control box. Been lazy lately.

 

[patrck17]

Cool. My "build" consists of 7 tri-clover fittings that swagman made up for me earlier in the month. That saturated my budget for the build for this month. Though next month I think I will be purchasing another 200 dollars worth of fittings from McMaster and Bargain fittings.

 

[chrisrush]

Do you think the thermometer will be affected by the burner since it is fairly close to the bottom of the kettle? I need to drill out my kettle for a therm/sight glass and have been wondering where to drill the hole.

 

[Bobby_M]

I always recommend fashioning a simple heat shield under a sight glass.

 

[Bigscience]

I always recommend fashioning a simple heat shield under a sight glass.

+1 on a heat shield. I would boil wort in the glass and it would shoot out the top like a volcano. Not fun.

 

[klyph]

Do you think the thermometer will be affected by the burner since it is fairly close to the bottom of the kettle? I need to drill out my kettle for a therm/sight glass and have been wondering where to drill the hole.

It would be if I were using gas heat, and if my kettle had a thermometer. Fortunately, neither of those are the case.

 

[android]

sweet build. that's the tightest coil roll i've ever seen. looking forward to seeing it complete...

 

[klyph]

Not a lot of progress, as I'm pretty broke, but I managed to get the element mounted. The spot to the right that looks like rust is actually a drop of blood from when I pinched the side of my hand between the file and the keg.

So once I add the wires to the element, the Hot Liquor tank is complete.

 

[MrShake]

Wait Wait Wait!! I see a stainless T on that therm/sight glass setup... THATS BLING!! No fair, false advertising!!

But really, good job man!! I like the dip tube between the element legs... nice

 

[patrck17]

Really clean looking system. Keep the updates coming. No new toys for me this month as my "build" fund was absorbed into a "save for car downpayment" fund. Looking foward to updates.

 

[klyph]

Well I managed to get the control box wired up and it actually works!

Wonders never cease.

I still gotta add another hole for the thermocouple, this HLT is starting to look like swiss cheese.

Let me know what you think, all comments and criticism is welcomed.

 

[zymurgist66]

Love the ammo can. I went with the same thing. Not done yet though.

 

[MacBruver]

Looking good. Just goes to show how much craftsmanship contributes vs. spending lots of money on hardware.

 

[klyph]

Well, it's far from being "finished", but we made ten gallons of hefeweizen last weekend. Sorry about the dark pictures, spaced out turning the flash on, and I was a bit

Heating the strike water.

Recirculating the mash

Mashout.

Sparge.

Sweet Wort

Boiling the wort.

Here's a shot of the mash tun. I "nipped" the colander around the edge to eliminate the deadspace issue. Free false bottom FTW!

Using the HEX coil to single pass cool the wort and go straight into the carboys.

 

[klyph]

Sampling OG right before pitching.

 

[Gwitz]

Ah, no fair, i always end up with not enuff wort in 2 carboys when i do 10 gallon batches, 50L keggle v 58 i guess :\. Looks good though, did your 1/8 holes work ok? I made my false bottom with 1/8 ish holes and i get a fair amount of free flowing debris when i recirculate. Im planning on adding some fine SS mesh in somewhere to help with that.

 

[klyph]

We were running really clear, but we used a bit of rice hulls since it's a weizen.

 

[zymurgy101]

Klyph,

Is that a Scout or TravelAll in the background? What year?

 

[klyph]

It's my buddy Phil's International Scout. I'm not sure what year, but I'll ask him.

 

[mnadamn]

I noticed that you do not have a heat sync for the SSR... how hot did that ammo can get during brew day?? Im supprised it didnt die on you

 

[Walker]

You clearly have no idea what "anti bling" means.

 

[klyph]

I noticed that you do not have a heat sync for the SSR... how hot did that ammo can get during brew day?? Im supprised it didnt die on you

The can gets pretty warm but it's enough of a heat sink that the relay hasn't failed yet. I might put the sink on the outside if it becomes a problem.

 

[klyph]

You clearly have no idea what "anti bling" means.

That's a mighty fancy stand you got there. Wish I was high falootin enough ta 'ford one o dem. :cross:

 

[Walker]

Steel frame table that used to be in a lab at the company I worked for 10 years ago (still has the inventory tag on the back of it, too). They went out of business and sold all the furniture in 2001. Spent $5 on that table.

It sat around essentially unused for the past 5 years and just happened to be sitting in the garage when I started working on the system. Without really thinking about it, I just started bolting and screwing things to it.