Brewers Hardware, All Stainless, Single Tier, BCS-462, Automated Rig

[andrewmaixner]

Wow! that's a most impressive rig

 

[ryanryates]

If it helps -- I use this and love it!
https://utahbiodieselsupply.com/brewingfilters.php#kegglefilteroutsidehook

I'll second brewApprentice. I've used a number of methods and landed on this little gem. So far, I am very happy with the results. Hop utilization is good, whirpool unaffected, and particles in the plate chiller are negligible. They can customize to fit larger BK too.

 

[decoleur]

I'll second brewApprentice. I've used a number of methods and landed on this little gem. So far, I am very happy with the results. Hop utilization is good, whirpool unaffected, and particles in the plate chiller are negligible. They can customize to fit larger BK too.

Arborfab also has some great prices on SS screens and will customize them to fit. I just got an eight inch diameter filter that has a half inch clearance on the bottom. Works well for me and cleans well with a hose.

 

[KennyM]

Impressive build Jon! I love the obvious attention to detail. I've been very happy with my Brewers Hardware gear. You'll love it too I'm sure.

 

[no_username_here]

How well do the m12 sensor wires hold up to heat? Mine are going to be similar placement to yours and I worry that they may get scorched.

What are you using for ignition?

I love the tippy dump idea. How do you think you're going to implement it here?

 

[crane]

I too have struggled with filtering hops. I started out using the same filter that Kal uses on his rig. Even with the large surface area I had to throttle the pump back to a trickle and continously scrape the hop debris off of it to prevent it from clogging. It was frustrating to have bought a dudadeisal chiller and not be able to take advantage of its high efficiency.

I had greater success with that filter when I stopped throwing the hops directly into the kettle and started putting them into 3" stainless steel tea balls. Not only are the tea balls expensive, but I wasn't getting the same hop utilization.

Since then I have ditched the filter over the dip tube and bought a nice large stainless steel hop spider from stainlessbrewing. This works much better as I can pump as fast as I want to without anything clogging. This time of the year with ground water in the 60's I can knock out 10 gallons in about 10 minutes with a 3 degree delta between the temp of the ground water and the wort exiting the chiller.

Hop utilization seems to be the same or close to throwing them directly in the boil kettle. Only complaint I can think of is that when you pull the spider out at the end of the boil the hop debris tends to clog the screen preventing the wort from draining out quickly. Rolling it around in the air above the kettle at an angle helps to drain it by getting wort up the sides where it isn't clogged.

 

[JonW]

How well do the m12 sensor wires hold up to heat? Mine are going to be similar placement to yours and I worry that they may get scorched.

What are you using for ignition?

I love the tippy dump idea. How do you think you're going to implement it here?

The M12 wires are just fine for where I have them running. All of my heat wash goes out the back, so no issues with the wiring on the front of the kettles. There is absolutely no heat on any of the lower wiring around the plumbing.

I'm using hot surface igniters. The BCS directly controls them and has options for setting warm-up time (time on before gas valve opens) and ignition time (time igniter stays lit after gas valve opens). This is the same setup on my last rig and works very good. I personally see no reason to do expensive Honeywell valves with flame detectors, etc. since I am always present when my system is running.

The pic below shows where I initially mounted my HSI's. I ran high-temp wiring through the top/front rail and down one of the legs. All the wiring is hidden. Unfortunately, when I did my first boil test, the stand tripped the GFCI outlet because the wiring inside the tubing melted! When I took the igniters out to inspect, I found that the short wire leads on the igniter had melted, but my high-temp wiring I supplied did not. The problem came down to the fact that there is no air flow inside that 2" frame tubing that holds the burner shield, so it gets just as hot as the shield.

The solution was to move the igniter just below the box tubing so the initial portion of the wiring resides out in the open air. If you look close at some of the pics in the first post of this thread, you can see the short sections of wire from the igniters. The remaining wiring is still hidden within the front rail portion and comes out the front right leg under the diamond plate shelf. All 3 igniters are wired together with wire nuts and a single 120V cord runs to the control panel.

As for the tippy dump, I have some ideas I'm working on. One idea will make it quickly removable so I can swap it over to the BK to dump left over trub.

 

[ceritz]

Awesome Rig. I greatly appreciate you sharing this setup. I am planning on doing something similar and this absolutely helps. I had a quick question, do you have any trouble priming the pumps since everything is hard plumbed? There doesn't seem to be any purge valves to get the air out of the lines to prime the pump.

 

[BeardedBrews]

As for the tippy dump, I have some ideas I'm working on.

Every time I'm at Harbor Freight I think how cool it would be to make my BIAB stand on an engine stand:

http://www.harborfreight.com/1000-lb-capacity-engine-stand-69886.html

When I'm done with the brew I could just wheel the thing out of the garage and hose it out.

 

[JonW]

Awesome Rig. I greatly appreciate you sharing this setup. I am planning on doing something similar and this absolutely helps. I had a quick question, do you have any trouble priming the pumps since everything is hard plumbed? There doesn't seem to be any purge valves to get the air out of the lines to prime the pump.

So far, no issues. One of the things that helps is just removing the fitting inside the return at the top of the kettle so that when the valve first opens, the air does have a high point to escape. I always did that on my old rig to help prime, but so far (with only 1 brew day/2 batches) I didn't do that on this rig and the center inlet pumps primed just fine. I did have a slow-flow issue on my BK on my second batch, but that was because the kettle screen is too small for the volume and had got somewhat clogged.

 

[bradleybiscuits]

Beautiful work Jon.

My wife dislikes you already!!!!!

 

[ceritz]

Hi Jon,

I had another question if you don't mind. From what I can see, your system is a closed system. How are you transferring to a fermenter after chilling and how are you draining any left over junk wort and such? There must be a place that allows you to drain and transfer wort.

Thanks

 

[JonW]

Hi Jon,

I had another question if you don't mind. From what I can see, your system is a closed system. How are you transferring to a fermenter after chilling and how are you draining any left over junk wort and such? There must be a place that allows you to drain and transfer wort.

Thanks

Each kettle has a disconnect on the inside at the top. I disconnect the whirlpool arm on the BK and then attach a hose that runs over to the fermenter. I actually put the hose in place a before I start chilling so that I can recirculate through that hose to ensure there are no bugs there.

 

[kwhizr]

Amazing rig! Really a top notch design and build. I really like the fixed stainless piping. Excellent job!

 

[JonW]

Doing a little update for the weekend brew day.

On my older Blingmann 20G kettle, I used one of the old style Blingmann kettle screens. When I moved to a 30G Brewers Hardware kettle (on my old stand), I still kept using that screen. I always used it in conjunction with either individual paint strainer bags that each had a hop addition or with a hop spider. The combo of the two units has worked pretty well. The only real issue I've had though is that the screen gets plugged because the amount of hop and break material in the 30G kettle is just to much for the little surface area of the screen.

Enter... the mega-hop-dam! This is a prototype unit that I had Brewers Hardware fashion up for me. It uses two 10" long screens and an SS shield to keep the hop/break material at bay. You can see from the pics that it dwarfs the old screen. This should work much better!

 

[BrunDog]

Nice. I assume you don't whirlpool then?

 

[JonW]

Nice. I assume you don't whirlpool then?

Yes, I whirlpool. Why would you assume not?

 

[cod3ck]

Yes, I whirlpool. Why would you assume not?

Isn't the screen and wall overkill for whirlpool? Can't you just wait for the trub to settle then run a pickup tube against the side wall?

 

[JonW]

Isn't the screen and wall overkill for whirlpool? Can't you just wait for the trub to settle then run a pickup tube against the side wall?

With 10 minutes left in the boil, I start a recirc. At 6 minutes left, I bring the plate chiller into the loop to sterilize it and the hose that is used to transfer to the fermenter. I don't want to recirc through the plate chiller without filtering the trub out.

 

[cod3ck]

With 10 minutes left in the boil, I start a recirc. At 6 minutes left, I bring the plate chiller into the loop to sterilize it and the hose that is used to transfer to the fermenter. I don't want to recirc through the plate chiller without filtering the trub out.

That makes a lot of sense. I use an IC so didn't even think about the clogging issue.

Still, that filter setup is pretty sweet!

 

[JonW]

Used the new boil screen today for two batches and it worked great! The thing was caked with hop and break material but it didn't affect the flow. It also cleaned a lot easier than my old screens. I just hit it with the pressure from the garden hose and it blew the gunk right off. Wort going to the fermenters looked pretty clean.

 

[BrunDog]

With 10 minutes left in the boil, I start a recirc. At 6 minutes left, I bring the plate chiller into the loop to sterilize it and the hose that is used to transfer to the fermenter. I don't want to recirc through the plate chiller without filtering the trub out.

I have wrestled with my whirlpool timing. Currently, I recirc through the chillers with 5 minutes left in the boil to sanitize them (and bump duty cycle up to keep a rapid boil). Then I start a fast whirlpool (no chillers) for 10 minutes, then back through the chillers for 5 minutes to clear the hops/break out of them. These 15 minutes the temp is maintained at 205 because I don't want the wort boiling creating convective currents which will disrupt the efficacy of the whirlpool. I also have an option built in to begin reducing the kettle temp to 180 by enabling the chiller flush water to perform a hop stand.

In your cycle above, do you stop the boil? I suppose I could let the temp come down and hold near boiling, do a fast whirlpool, then a slow whirlpool like you do (through chiller). I suppose 208 would still sterilize the chillers. But how would you do a reduced temp hopstand? Turn the chiller flush on at the end or the chiller sanitization?

 

[JonW]

In your cycle above, do you stop the boil? I suppose I could let the temp come down and hold near boiling, do a fast whirlpool, then a slow whirlpool like you do (through chiller). I suppose 208 would still sterilize the chillers. But how would you do a reduced temp hopstand? Turn the chiller flush on at the end or the chiller sanitization?

I keep the boil going while I recirc. With the old kettle screen, every once in a while I would lose prime on my pump with a vigorous boil going. However, I can tell just from the two batches yesterday that the new kettle screen is helping greatly as my flow was way better than it was with the smaller screen.

I have mine set to chill to 180 also. Even at that temp, you are still sterilizing the chiller.

 

[marc777]

I'm a complete newbie and brewed my first 5 gallon batch yesterday. I used two sawhorses and a couple of old 2X4s for my stand. WOW, is this what I have to look forward too??

What a beautiful work of art.

I've found these forums to be a terrific wealth of knowldege, very glad that you pros are here.

 

[cod3ck]

I've found these forums to be a terrific wealth of knowldege, very glad that you pros are here.

+1

I wish I could easily find this wealth of knowledge in some of my other hobbies

 

[BrunDog]

OK looking for some guidance... and this may take some careful reading to make sense... Not meaning to hijack the thread, so please let me know if you'd rather not discuss here.

Currently, I have no filtering in my boil kettle. My BCS boil process is set up to boil countdown for time, then for the last 5 minutes, pump through the chillers to sanitize them. Hop material is free to flow through them (since they are CFC, I don't sweat it). The return is via the whirlpool arm, but since the boil duty cycle keeps going, he boiling continues and with boiling bubbles, there will be no efficacy to the whirlpool.

Then, I turn the boiling off and begin a whirlpool sequence. One of two things happens: Either a three state sequence loops to perform a kettle temperature drop for a hopstand (where the chillers remain in line, flush water is turned on/paused to mix/temperature checked for <=180), or it that sequence is skipped goes into "fast" whirlpool (fast means chillers taken out) for 10 minutes. I do this because the whirlpool really gets cranking without the restriction of the chillers inline.

Then I put the chillers back in line for 5 minutes to clear them free of hop material in a "slow" whirlpool.

With this setup, I have perfectly clear wort. I am very happy with the performance of my chillers, but would someday like to upgrade to plate chillers, if for no reason other than more of a "professional" setup. My concerns are the propensity for clogging doing this. So I could turn the boil off (or go PID 208 degrees) and whirlpool first, then bring the chillers inline (and the remaining sub-boiling temp should be OK to sanitize as you mentioned), but then how would I do a hopstand? I have a silly goal of not using filtering (I like the challenge I guess?), so any ideas how this could be accomplished? Probably more of an academic discussion, but what the heck.

 

[cod3ck]

Hmmmm... What if you cut the power to the boil (without cooling), and just run the 'fast' whirlpool for 10-20 minutes, then did a slow flow through the counter flow chillers?

I haven't done this, but I would think as long as the whirlpool coned up correctly, you shouldn't get any hops stuck in the plates?

 

[JonW]

With this setup, I have perfectly clear wort. I am very happy with the performance of my chillers, but would someday like to upgrade to plate chillers, if for no reason other than more of a "professional" setup. My concerns are the propensity for clogging doing this. So I could turn the boil off (or go PID 208 degrees) and whirlpool first, then bring the chillers inline (and the remaining sub-boiling temp should be OK to sanitize as you mentioned), but then how would I do a hopstand? I have a silly goal of not using filtering (I like the challenge I guess?), so any ideas how this could be accomplished? Probably more of an academic discussion, but what the heck.

My process is quite similar to yours and I do an automated chill to 180 cycle as well for hopstands. If you're not doing anything to contain your hops other than the whirlpool, then yeah, you may have a propensity for either clogging, or at a minimum, you could end up with stuck hop material hanging around in the chiller. You'd likely need something to contain the hops. That's why I use individual strainer bags for each hop addition and the kettle screen. My wort also runs clear to the fermenter and the other straining activities keep it out of the plate chiller.

The only potential way around this that I see is if you were to do your whirlpooling for a long enough period with boil off and get everything to drop out, then bring the chiller online to sanitize and to drop to 180, add hops and recirc again with the hop stand and then no chiller inline. Once everything drops out again, you would then need to bring the chiller inline once again to finish chilling. It would probably add some extra time for the additional whirlpoolings to get everything clear, but probably doable.

 

[Whalewang]

An incredible setup. Pro. Very complicated. I'd absolutely love to stand on your shoulder and replicate something close to this system.
Any chance for a partslist?

 

[JonW]

An incredible setup. Pro. Very complicated. I'd absolutely love to stand on your shoulder and replicate something close to this system.
Any chance for a partslist?

Not really that complicated - it just looks that way. Take a look at the Visio diagram for liquid flows and it's actually pretty straight forward.

I do no have a complete parts list, but all the major items are covered in the first post or two.