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BCS 2 Vessel No Sparge Garage Brewery Build

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poptarts

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Joined
Mar 29, 2013
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Location
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Before we get started I would like to say a few things. First off, I suck at spelling so brace yourself and lets hope some spell check can get us through this. Secondly, I love me some pictures, so be prepared for that. My build is what I will consider a giant combination of lots and RAD from the HBT community so thanks to everyone else out there that has posted pictures and explanations of their brewery, it really helps and I hope I can return the favor and do some brew systems out there justice. With that, lets get this train moving. :D

My current system is ugly but works and makes great beer, but Im tired of slumming it with propane and figured I'm defiantly in this hobby for the long haul so its time IMO to clean it up and make it easier to brew on. However im still stuck in the garage, without plumbing so its still going to need me to move RO water and drag a hose in for cleanup.
This is the new location for my Electric BCS System.
q3dnPZx.jpg

Lots of work needs to be done, including but not limited to getting 30 amp outlet to the garage, building stand, making some bottom drain keggles from yet to be sourced kegs, building a full control panel and probably waiting on 100 orders from china to show up to my door. I have already started electric work and will get some pics of that up in the next post. I hope you guys enjoy. Here is proposed design for the new system for those who want a glimpse into the future.
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Cheers. :mug:
 
Looks like this is gonna be awesome. Sub'd.

Enjoy the project poptarts.
 
Old burn your house down panel
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Nice new load center with way more circuits and breakers that will actually work, along with a porch light since I had everything opened up already.
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New sub panel in the garage to accommodate my 30A service and now I have grounding so thats a nice safety feature that should have been there about 50 years ago.
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For the system itself, managed to find 1 decommissioned keg, gonna hit up a recycle center tomorrow that claims to have some so might have both sourced. Has a decent size dent on the bottom but other than that its in decent shape. And with an hour or so on some scotch bright pads on my drill it cleaned up decently enough for me.
Before:
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After:
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Got some bling bling from the slow boat.
Float switches: for pumps and or elements, I only got 2 so i could do some testing before I bought all 4.
GPAOH5b.jpg

Some 5500W elements SS
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Not from china but a eBay find, 22 and 35mm carbide saws
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Some pre painted, water tight single gang boxes that I plan to use to house elements in a "kal" style.
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And a nice score on a twist lock 30A cord for bringing power to my non existent panel
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Mucking around with panel layout, leaning toward this style but still debating if I need switches for my valves or not... Gonna need at least one but maybe a few momentary inputs
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Just got back from the scrap yard with an awesome find. Found a keg with a giant cut and dent in the bottom but otherwise perfect condition, and since I'm cutting the bottom off to allow for bottom drain its a perfect score.
So not only did I save a poor keg that previously spent a life in slavery holding budweiser, probably got trashed by some stupid frat kids, and had no hope in becoming a keggle, I spent only 15$ and was able to do the whole reduce reuse recycle thing so that's awesome. Just figured I would post for like the 10th time in a row for the 1 person reading this thread. Cheers Nath :mug:
 
Woke up to find I scored on an eBay panel. 20*24*8 NEMA 4, not gonna have to worry about room in this bad boy.
 
Got some 2" tri clover caps and some gaskets. And also 4 thermowells. Still waiting on the tee fittings and Clamps from China. Panel is on the way alot with more SS fittings. Waiting on 462 to be in stock at ebrew. Still waiting on sign on on electric before I patch up the wall. Moving at a decent pace though.
 
Caps and thermowells
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The goal is to mount float switches through the caps on the tee fittings off the bottom of the pots to kill pumps when the pots are empty, drilling a 7/8 hole in these is gonna suck though, they ware way thick and heavy duty.
 
Got a hole in one of them cut over lunch break, as expected, that sucked. off centered to allow for the float switch to have a bit more play... the drill bit did not walk or anything like that.
q0RWZE4.jpg
 
Still waiting on random electrical stuff to arrive for panel and still waiting on ebrew.supply to get bcs462 in stock. This weekend I plan on finishing up the polish on the kegs and getting a stand in made up.
 
Poptart,
In the fourth pic, what float switch is that mounted in that keggle? How did you mount it in the wall of the keggle? Was it threaded and you used a standard bulkhead?
 
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