Chris Knight's brew rig

[5_Thumbs]

Chris - Where did you purchase the lids for your keggles??? Thanks! Awesome rig bud!

 

[chrisknight]

can I ask what the "trick" is?

Oh... You have to hold your mouth just right, and I believe Orions nebula has to be in line with the mayonnaise in your freg.
What?!?

Just be sure to always keep the pump head full of liquid, and if you get into a jam, lower the end of the output hose lower than the input hose.

You can also suck prime the pump. This wouldn't be so bad on the HLT drain or mash transfers, but, you'll want to be sure you're clean and sanitized after the boil. (duh) I don't do that method mainly because I have bad flashbacks from a bad gas siphon episode.

I always get started with setting up the pump early. I have an hour to kill during the boil so I know that the next time I use the pump I'll be going from the kettle, to the pump, to the chiller, back to the kettle to recycle the chill until I get down to correct temps. I'll get it all set up and prime up the pump then shut off the output of the pump and unplug it. Whammo, your set up to recycle the last 15 minutes of the boil, all you have to do is turn the pump on and open the valve. Then kill the output, and redirect it to the fermenter.

Really all I'm trying to say is don't wait till the last minute to get set up.

Oh, and I use a ton of rice hulls in my mash.

 

[chrisknight]

Chris - Where did you purchase the lids for your keggles??? Thanks! Awesome rig bud!

Thanks. I only have one lid. Its the lid that came with my previous 8 gallon SS kettle and almost fits correctly on a keg.

 

[Yambor44]

Chris - Where did you purchase the lids for your keggles??? Thanks! Awesome rig bud!

Whether you want the lid to fit on the top of the keggle (above the handles like Chris') or directly on your cut-out, try a restaurant supply place. My daughters bought me three lids for Christmas a few years back but they fit (perfectly) on the top-top. I wanted them to fit the cut-out so I took them back, traded them for the next size smaller and they fit perfectly in the cut-out. All cut-outs are different of course so YMMV.

 

[EarthBound]

Pimpin' rig, buddy!

 

[J-Malone]

Chris, Love the rig and I have watched your youtube vids also....great stuff...I am curious about the dimensions of the rig. What size tubing did you use? 2x2? I am currently in the planning stages of a similar brutus style rig (I agree with the automation thoughts kind of taking the fun out of it)...Can you give me a reason why you had the gas manifold tig welded and not mig like the rest of the stand? I am a welding tard...

thanks

JM

 

[skippyf16]

Chris, Love the rig and I have watched your youtube vids also....great stuff...I am curious about the dimensions of the rig. What size tubing did you use? 2x2? I am currently in the planning stages of a similar brutus style rig (I agree with the automation thoughts kind of taking the fun out of it)...Can you give me a reason why you had the gas manifold tig welded and not mig like the rest of the stand? I am a welding tard...

thanks

JM

TIG is more precise and provides a greater chance of no leaks in the NG manifold.

 

[gifty74]

It looks like it is made of nitrile? Maybe PVC? If so, good deal, those should work well with natural gas. I found that my first choice, EPDM rubber, which is common for rubber hose, has a bad reaction with natural gas.

Looking good! Have you tested it to see how long it takes to bring 5 gal of water to a boil?

Kind of reviving this thread. I am looking to do the same and actually ordered "general purpose" rubber hose to go from my gas outlet (yet to be installed) to my rig. I saw this quote above and started looking into it because someone else had recommended this hose in another thread. I guess they didn't do much research because if you do a search here you can see that if you select Natural Gas as the chemical, and EPDM (synthetic rubber) as the material, the reaction is "Severe". Not good. PVC has "Excellent" compatibility with NG so as you say, definitely the material to use.