Brunken Dastard's Big Bad Brewery! 10gal eHERMS

[onelegout]

What area would you be near?

I lived in the UK for a total of about a year in places around RAF Bentwaters, RAF Woodbridge, RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath. And yes, I've been to Sherwood Forrest. The last time I was in the UK was nearly 20 years ago. I always had a wonderful time there, even with the weather. Car boot sales usually had some goodies and pub crawls rock! A trip to the coast was always an eye opener. On a sunny day, the light reflecting off of the average englishman at the beach could hurt the eyes of a blind man.

Haha! Yeah seeing us lot at the beach always reminds me of that Bill Hicks line, "I just don't get the beach, man. I think it's just that I don't it in; everyone at the beach has tanned skin, white teeth... I've got tanned teeth and white skin!"

I live on the south coast, in Sussex; the weather here is a mix of 'miserable', and 'tolerable'... right now it's just warm enough to walk about outside comfortably, but if you do so you will get wet, as it's raining. They say that the British are never short of conversation, because they can always talk about the weather!

Talking of which, I hope it's sunny at the weekend 'cause I plan to BREW!

- Henry

 

[Photomask]

Haha! Yeah seeing us lot at the beach always reminds me of that Bill Hicks line, "I just don't get the beach, man. I think it's just that I don't it in; everyone at the beach has tanned skin, white teeth... I've got tanned teeth and white skin!"

I live on the south coast, in Sussex; the weather here is a mix of 'miserable', and 'tolerable'... right now it's just warm enough to walk about outside comfortably, but if you do so you will get wet, as it's raining. They say that the British are never short of conversation, because they can always talk about the weather!

Talking of which, I hope it's sunny at the weekend 'cause I plan to BREW!

- Henry

Best of luck to ya' then. The US is a young country in relation to the UK. As such, we don't have quite the concept of time. Here, 200 years is a very old and rare building. In the UK, many of the pubs I was in were much older than that. The ceilings in those old pubs were very low. It was not uncommon to see names carved into the beams from a few hundred years ago. The history that I ran into, daily, over there was very humbling.

As to the weather.... It does fog, mist and rain a lot but the countryside is beautiful, lush and green.

As an American GI in a UK pub, I sometimes ran into angry locals that had the misplaced idea that we were there to take over. Sometimes they were very confrontational about it, (usually some hot-headed, young lout trying to make a name for himself). I was always quick to reply, "Nothing could be further from the truth. I have seen what my government and businesses have done to the US and would not wish that on this place. No, I'm just here for a short time to drink a bunch of your beer and have sex with as many of your women as I can. Then I'll be headed back to the US." (Big smile... BIG SMILE!!!!). Seldom did this improve the situation.... But the results were often the source of great stories....:rockin:

 

[onelegout]

Hahah yeah we do have a lot of what we call 'chavs' who want to pick a fight with anyone possible, best part of England though is the beer

 

[onelegout]

Ok! I haven't worked on the brewery in ages, been super busy but back from holiday and ready to get back started. I've got a new PID controller, and have got it all working. The measured temp is now correct, and I'm running a test. Ramped to 66*c, set temp at 66*c, going to see how it handles the temperature hold for an hour. Anything within 5*c would be superb, but I'm expecting it to be all over the place as the PID settings aren't configured yet.

 

[AmandaK]

Well don't keep us waiting, show us some pics!

 

[onelegout]

unfortunately the weather took its toll on the brew stand and now it's all rusty and 'orrible! I can post pics but I won't be brewing on it in this state - It's just in prototype stage at the moment : )

 

[JetSmooth]

unfortunately the weather took its toll on the brew stand and now it's all rusty and 'orrible!

 

[onelegout]

SUCCESS! The brewery held 66*c for over an hour easily! The PID control is finally up and running the temperature oscillated by 0.3*c every 2 minutes, which is more than adequate for a brewery. I'm also expecting it to be much more stable when the mash tun is full of insulating grain
next job is to strip the whole thing down, shot blast and paint the frame, remove every trace of rust and clean every square millimeter down ready for brewing.

I'm just so glad to have the herms working properly after months of struggling with it - big thanks to walker who helped me out a lot with the PID side of things
Pics tomorrow once it's cleaned.
- Henry

 

[onelegout]

So now that the brewery was functional, it's time to disassemble it, clean every square millimeter of it., and get it brew-ready.

First job is to strip down the rusty steel frame, and paint it with good thick rust-proof hammerite. I decided to use hammered finish paint as it shouldn't show bumps/scratches as much as smooth paint would.

Before:

First coat done:

Tommorow I'll paint the second coat, then get to work cleaning up the kegs.

Anyone got any tips on cleaning out 10 gallon kegs and pumps?

H

 

[onelegout]

Just got one of these on ebay for £15 ($23 USD)
The PID won't fit depth wise, but I'll either fix that by spacing it out with some sort of control panel fascia or I'll mount the PID in the side of the box. Not sure which way I'm going to do it yet

 

[onelegout]

Control panel is getting there Just got to work out how best to mount it! I might mount it in a way that it can have a clipboard bit on the top of it for brew day notes

 

[onelegout]

I think it will be mounted like this, with some decent labels (the current ones are just to remind me which switch does which while I wire it all up).

It feels great to finally be able to get things done properly without cutting corners - now the prototype is done I'm on a mission to create my dream 10 gallon brewery and won't be cutting any corners if I can help it

 

[Layne]

Nice!

 

[brrman]

lookin really good so far! I'm enjoying the build thread.

 

[onelegout]

Cheers I'm sure I'll have loads more pics soon Only problem is I've run out of money for the rest of the month!

 

[onelegout]

IT LIVES!

Just need to get 2 28mm (PG21) cable glands to fit the bigger holes. The pump cable and PT100 temp probe cable will go through one of them, and the other is just a spare used to plug the hole

H

 

[onelegout]

Fitted the casters the other day, which was a nice simple job. I was worried that only having 3 bolts in each would be a problem, but it's more than strong enough to hold the kegs full of water

Today I ordered some aluminium tread plate for the top and shelf of the brewery - having it cut to size with a lip folded over the front so It's easier to clean.

I'll probably fit that next week but first job is to brew the first batch! Will be brewing a batch of ordinary bitter on it on saturday - will probably just do a 5 gallon batch to start with, anyone got a recommendation for a good recipe using east Kent goldings? H

 

[onelegout]

Just heading off to pick up the aluminium tread plate which has been cut and folded to size, really looking forward to seeing if it fits

 

[onelegout]

I had planned to just have shelves on the top two bits but they've given me the offcut from the sheet I got, and it's big enough to do the two bottom shelves too!

 

[CoalCracker]

That's pimp. Awesome work!

 

[android]

looks great! nice work.

 

[bendavanza]

Looks great! How about an ESB?

 

[shroomzofdoom]

That doesn't look bodgered at all, quite superb actually! Great work!

 

[Walker]

looking good! I'm jealous.

 

[onelegout]

Thanks guys : ) It's been a real learning experience making this, and I'm not sure I'd attempt it again without a workshop to build it in. Doing the whole thing outside in british weather is a right pain, and it's taken a whole lot of trial and error to get a working brewery. I'd love to give it a go building a new one but this time use stainless, with stainless pots instead of kegs, welded fittings and no copper. I'm still a big fan of the electric aspect though and I've had no electrical faults yet. One thing I do want to get sorted is a fixing point for a water supply and drain point on the side of the frame. I'll be sorting this next month or in the new year.

 

[onelegout]

I've taken the first steps in adding to the brewery this year, by fitting an outside tap next to it as a water source, and by buying a new fermenter. I've also worked out how to go about chilling the beer in a sanitary way.

Today though, I spent my lunch hour making this; a guide to how the system works. It's kind of written for my friends who know nothing about brewing, but I like it so I thought I'd share