Brutus 10 Rebuild (Lots of Pics)

[rsklhm10]

Awesome rig. I like how you kept both the gas plumbing and wiring extremely low key and organized.

 

[dos_perros]

That is a thing of beauty my friend, something to be proud of for sure. Love the low key and very clean gas and electrical routing as well, but that color and the blingmans really put the icing on the cake! Keep up the good work.

 

[HexKrak]

That's a pretty sweet rig.

 

[chapa]

Off topic, but do you go to the Garage Brewers Society meetings. I live 1.5 miles from Ofallon Brewery and have been thinking about stopping by a meeting to get to know some local brewers. Thanks for the reply.

BTW, awesome build. I want to do a BIAB 10. Basically a temp controlled brew in a bag set up. Anyway. Nice work and great color choice.

Cheers,

Did you make it to the brew meet last night @ O'Fallon? I know we had some new guys.

Sweet rig, keep the pics coming.

 

[ILOVEBEER]

Awesome!

I had one question for you....why didn't you use gas line sealant???? I saw you used teflon tape....maybe I am missing something

 

[psyphinx]

Awesome!

I had one question for you....why didn't you use gas line sealant???? I saw you used teflon tape....maybe I am missing something

you are. There is gas line pipe dope on the inside of the threads covering the teflon tape. My local hardware store conveniently ran out of gas tape. the combo of the pipe dope and tape works great though. No leaks at all.

 

[psyphinx]

So i have crossed the finish line. She is all set for a brewday. Here are the last few pictures highlighting the build. The next set of pics I take will be from a brewday and some notes on how well she performed.

The first thing you are going to notice is that the lids dont look like Blichmann lids and they arent. I picked up these perfect fitting stainless lids from a restaurant supply store for 6 bucks each new. I decided I would rather drill into them over the expensive ones that came with the pots. Its really nice because if I decide to run the liquids differently I can always drill into the Blichman lids for the changes.

This first pic shows the lauter collection/recirculation lid.

Here is a top view showing all the lid connections

Here is a pic of the Blichmann autosparge installed in the pot along with their louver button false bottom

 

[psyphinx]

Here are the last couple pics showing everything set up. The line coming off of the boil ketle is a siphon sprayer set up to aerate the wort after recirc and cooling is completed.

I have a blichmann hoprocket hopback on order but it is unfortunately backordered right now so that is the only thing that will be changing on the setup.

 

[psyphinx]

I took her out for her initial run on Saturday. Brewed a batch of Belgian Pale Ale. Well, it was supposed to be Belgian Pale Ale. I was intending to hit 1.052 @75% efficiency. I ended up getting 90% efficiency and hit 1.065. . So I upped the hops to correct the BU:GU. No biggie there. The paint held up fairly well. Theres a few places where I assume some dirt got underneath the paint and instead of curing to the metal it bubbled up. Nothing major though. They system itself was a dream. Even in the wind whipped parking lot behind STL wine and beer the mash never got outside of 1 degree of my set mash temp. I did a step mash just to try it and it performed beautifully. The temp rose just over 1 degree a minute. During cleanup I didnt find any concentrated wort scorches or burnt grain. The Blichmann Autosparge and False Bottom are truly things of beauty. The therminator was simply outstanding as well. It dropped the temperature from boiling to 68 in 11 minutes. I boiled off about 1/4 of a gallon too much but nothing that cant be corrected for next time. Propane usage was far better than before. Im not saying it sips the gas tank but it looks as though I will be getting about 33% more brewing time out of a 20lb tank. For anyone thinking about going with a brutus style stand I cant say enough good things about it.

 

[Rivenin]

great job! i love the color of it. now only if you could powder coat your kettles black... lol

 

[J-Malone]

Any chance we could get the measurements? I am in the process of gathering and drawing designs for a Brutus build of my own and this has become my new favorite!

Thanks,

JM

 

[psyphinx]

Any chance we could get the measurements? I am in the process of gathering and drawing designs for a Brutus build of my own and this has become my new favorite!

Thanks,

JM

Which measurments do you need?

 

[J-Malone]

I am literally in the infant stages of this, so anything about the basic dimensions would be great.

What size and type of steel did you use?

I am planning to use the same burners (BG12) and wondered how you hard plumbed them? Any special orifice required or did you just pipe it into the elbow?

Thanks again,

JM

 

[psyphinx]

I am literally in the infant stages of this, so anything about the basic dimensions would be great.

What size and type of steel did you use?

I am planning to use the same burners (BG12) and wondered how you hard plumbed them? Any special orifice required or did you just pipe it into the elbow?

Thanks again,

JM

Ill get all that info for you this upcoming Sunday and post back. I keep my brewstand at the local homebrew shop I work at part time but I dont have another shift until Sunday. More than happy to help out a fellow brewer/brutus builder.

 

[J-Malone]

Ill get all that info for you this upcoming Sunday and post back. I keep my brewstand at the local homebrew shop I work at part time but I dont have another shift until Sunday. More than happy to help out a fellow brewer/brutus builder.

Thanks! I appreciate it...

 

[jaredwhite]

I have those same burners for my build. I haven't actually started building yet...just collecting everything to do so. So I have a couple questions: How far away from the kettles did you mount the burners and about how long does it take for them to bring your wort to a boil?

 

[psyphinx]

I have those same burners for my build. I haven't actually started building yet...just collecting everything to do so. So I have a couple questions: How far away from the kettles did you mount the burners and about how long does it take for them to bring your wort to a boil?

They are about 6-7 inches from the bottom of the kettles. I've only done one batch on it so far and I didnt take notes on how long it took to come to a boil. That said I didnt notice it being any longer or particularly shorter than any other batch Ive done. Next time I brew (this saturday) Ill try and remember to time it.

 

[Steelers77]

Do you have a pilot on the burner? If not are you manually lighting the burneres when needed?

 

[psyphinx]

Do you have a pilot on the burner? If not are you manually lighting the burneres when needed?

The mash tun burner and hot liquor tank burner have standing pilots that are lit throughout the brewday.

 

[Dirty]

Sooo. What ever happened to those keggles after you went high-end? Sure hope there not laying around feeling neglected. That would be terrible.

Rock Chalk

Chris

 

[psyphinx]

Sooo. What ever happened to those keggles after you went high-end? Sure hope there not laying around feeling neglected. That would be terrible.

Rock Chalk

Chris

Nope, I sold them to a couple of fellow homebrewers.

 

[user 67973]

Wow! Amazing build! I am starting to purchase all the products to build a copy-cat of this system...any last minute advice to a novice builder? I have my bro-in law helping me...he is the handy one, I am the rookie who can't cut anything straight. Any modifications you would have done differently now? I have purchased BRUTUS 10 plans, but I think your model is actually better!

Great Job!

 

[psyphinx]

There really isnt anything that I would change about the design of the system. My only advice is to really take your time and measure anything and everything 3 times. This will save you countless time returning the wrong size pipes, nipples, and buying more wire. Good luck with your build!

 

[bbarr21]

psyphinx,

The build is sick, Ive got a much less elegant set up but I would definitely like to steal some ideas from you.

How did you connect the temperature probe to the front of the control panel?
What were the green things behind the switches? Heat sinks?

It looks like the whole panel runs 115Vac is that so?

Thanks
An envious brewer

 

[joetownhound]

psyphinx,

The build is sick, Ive got a much less elegant set up but I would definitely like to steal some ideas from you.

How did you connect the temperature probe to the front of the control panel?
What were the green things behind the switches? Heat sinks?

It looks like the whole panel runs 115Vac is that so?

Thanks
An envious brewer

Bump

 

[bbarr21]

Finally got the control panel labeled