Cloning kal

[sils13]

Made up my temp probes today now just waiting on fittings
Hopstopper came today as well it's pretty awesome

 

[slakwhere]

if you haven't cut your kegs yet, might i suggest doing the bottom drain thing instead of a dip tube for the HLT and MLT. it means you always get every last drop out, never have to worry about a dip tube clogging or loosing siphon. it's less pieces inside the keggle to deal with, and makes getting the false bottom in/out easier.

Bobby_M makes bottom drain kits that fasten to the neck of the existing keg, and you cut the bottom out instead of the top. you'd need to cut a hole in your table/stand to accommodate the output, and they only work for electric rigs (can't gas fire the adaptors) but since you're electric it seems to be all win for me

ps: bitchin build.

 

[sils13]

if you haven't cut your kegs yet, might i suggest doing the bottom drain thing instead of a dip tube for the HLT and MLT. it means you always get every last drop out, never have to worry about a dip tube clogging or loosing siphon. it's less pieces inside the keggle to deal with, and makes getting the false bottom in/out easier.

ps: bitchin build.

have seriously thought about it I know I head read some issues on stuck sparge I think because of no swirling under the false bottom and up into the dip tube but idk for sure

I haven't cut my kegs yet so I'm gonna do some more research thanx for the thoughts
Thank u sir
I can't wait till its ready to go

 

[slakwhere]

http://www.brewhardware.com/valves/137-tcsanke

 

[sils13]

Hmm I have seen that and I do like it a lot I suppose I can always sell the stuff I already ordered ..........

Decisions decisions

 

[Hogcrewer]

Hey Sils, like you I am starting to pull the trigger on an Electric build. I bought Kals book for ref.
Have you been keeping a XLS spreadsheet or something of that nature that shows where you purchased your pieces from?
Great build so far. Keep it up.

 

[sils13]

Hey Sils, like you I am starting to pull the trigger on an Electric build. I bought Kals book for ref.
Have you been keeping a XLS spreadsheet or something of that nature that shows where you purchased your pieces from?
Great build so far. Keep it up.

Awesome congrats on beginning
I haven't kept very good track I bought my pids through auber and my switches, lights, and some electrical components through automation direct lot of it was freebie stuff from work temp probes were from kal and heating elements I pieced together from amazon for the elements and electrical stuff from Home Depot I bought my recepticles for the box from McMaster and the cord ends from Home Depot and they r pricey
One thing I wish I woulda done was gone with te 50a control panel but it was just becoming topic when I finished my build :-/ so I mite build a mini add on box mainly just an extra circuit so I can power 2 elements I think it would just b nice to boil water in hlt while doing my wort boil and use that boiling water for cleaning and or a second mash if I choose to do back to back beers
Hope this helps and thanx for the compliments I'm happy with my build so far just waiting on fitting for kegs now any other questions feel free to hit me up

 

[sils13]

I'm welding all my fittings and got them at stainless brewing I also got my germs cool there a couple things from brew hardware as well hop stopper was ordered through kal it's really nice false bottom for mlt getting at NorCal brewing
I think that about wraps it up I got my pumps from a lhbs

 

[sils13]

Got some goodies this week

Fittings and false bottom

 

[kal]

I don't see a false bottom in your picture so I hope you don't mean to use the Hop Stopper (stainless mesh filter in the lower left corner) as a mash tun false bottom.... it's for the boil kettle only. The weight of the grain would crush it.

Kal

 

[sils13]

I don't see a false bottom in your picture so I hope you don't mean to use the Hop Stopper (stainless mesh filter in the lower left corner) as a mash tun false bottom.... it's for the boil kettle only. The weight of the grain would crush it.

Kal

no no hop stopper is going in the BK false bottom came couple days later went with a 15' from norcal with a level 3 base and i am goin to bottom drain my HLT and MLT

everything is at my buddies to get to welding on everything, hoping to be ready to do the first brew day first weekend in feb only thing im waiting on is labels for the panel and all else is good to go

 

[sils13]

I have had some glitches come up buddy got busy with work so my welding hit the back burner finally 3 months later things r looking up and hope to be done with kegs by this week and then my brewstand in the next week or two thought I would get some thoughts

I plan on using 2x2 14 ga steel and maybe do some pricing on some 1.5x1.5 if its to pricy but ill play it by year
Gonna be a 68x18x24" 24" after casters are on plan to grind welds down so all is flush and then powder coat flat black
Here's some pics of my drawings

 

[sils13]

some updates counter flow chiller is basically all complete except for a few more sweats but ill wait till my stand is ready, im gonna support some of the piping with some straps to help support it. hope to post some more pics of kettles at the end of the week! im told they will be done so im keeping my fingers crossed and hoping at that point my buddy will be able to tackle the stand other then that i have one more order from stainless brewing and some misc. stuff coming in this week and i will be all set. i ended up setting up boil kettle for whirlpool im gonna do some test with cooling either i will chill and whirlpool or just whirlpool and then chill to fermenter im usually not to picky about that stuff but i figured while they are welding may as well have all the bells and whistles i also had him install a bottom drain in my boil for cleaning only i figured itd be the easiest way to clean whithout having to get to dirty i plan on just flushing boiling water starting at hlt and so on through all the kettles using the hot water coming out of the chiller so i shouldnt have to do much heating and can recycle some water anywho here are some pics of the chiller and hope to have more coming soon

 

[sils13]

Some updates should be a great week for this guy lol! Kegs finally started to get welded on tonight he's thinking those will be done by the end of the week! Also started tacking the stand together tonight so here's some pics I took



















Thinking we are gonna do all the final welds tomorrow also need to get the 45 degree cuts done for under the pots umm and some plates welded on for caps pumps and chiller etc. hope everyone likes any questions or concerns I'm here
Cheers!

 

[LandoLincoln]

Nice work! I bet the DIN rails and wire channels were also free right...? (Some people have the best jobs)

bagpiperjosh: Keep an eye out on ebay - sometimes used enclosures come up for pretty cheap. The problem is that often they already have holes punched however (which never end up working out where you want them of course).

Kal

True. I snagged a really nice 16"x20"x8" steel box for only $56 shipped. No holes punched in the cover, but there were some big square holes cut in the side.

I remedied that problem by buying some cheap 24 gauge steel for ten bucks, cut it to size, and then used some JB Weld to glue it over the sides. After painting it's going to be really difficult to tell that those panels are add-ons.

So yeah, even if you buy a panel with holes cut in the front, that doesn't mean that you have to modify your layout to fit where those holes are.

 

[alien]

I got a big Hoffman enclosure for $20 which came with half a dozen holes that were exactly the same size as 1/2" knockouts - they must have been cut with a conduit punch. So I glued in the knocked out discs from my garage panel and various other junction boxes, then hit them up with a wire brush, sander, and 2 coats of hammer effect paint. Looks good enough for me.

There were also lots of little drill holes on the back. I glued pennies over the holes and filled in with epoxy putty.

 

[sils13]

Stand is about 90% complete just gotta finish up panel mount and then off to powder coat
Got 2 of the 3 kegs back today so focus this weekend will b cleaning and polishing welds and rest of the keg should get 3rd one back later in the week miss counted welding spuds so I got one coming all that's left for welding
Hoping to start pushing some water around by the end of the week mayb and hope for a brew day in 2 weeks if not next weekend just play it by year getting excited its been a long project finally seeing light at the need of the tunnel

 

[sils13]

1 keg down 2 to go just gotta clean out inside and leak test

 

[sils13]

Off to get powder coated in the morning

Finished it up tonite and mocked up the panel super happy with it next pictures should be putting it together

 

[sils13]

Back from paint and assembly begins

 

[Abhitchc]

That is SEXY! What are you going to brew first?

 

[sils13]

First brew was a citra pale turned out awesome and then a arnold palmer kinda beer was way off on that but both are practically gone plan on brewing again this weekend and next week over the holiday same beers about 75% dialed in on my volumes a d such

 

[sils13]

That is SEXY! What are you going to brew first?

Ahh thank you

 

[Kian]

Nice rig man! Im currently in the final stages of planning my Kal clone, just waiting on some final parts. Would you mind giving me a high level overview of where you have the sight glass configured within the design. Does it go CFC-->Sight Glass-->Fermenter (or BK if whirl pooling). I'm having a tough time telling by the picture, and always wanted to incorporate one into my build. Also, if you happen to have any additional
pictures showing the sight glass setup that would be awesome. Thanks in advance.

- Kian

 

[sils13]

Thank you

Ya I can take some tomorrow and post them up

It's CFC / sight glass / fermenter wish it was smaller diameter it kinda gets fussy with1/2" hose and 1" sight glass but they are pretty cool and works well for what it is big reason I got it was for inline oxygenation stone just before it to see bubbles but now I have a flow regulator which will help getting consistent oxygen levels

 

[sils13]

Sorry this took so long

Coming out of the chiller I get to see temp and also online oxygen option sight glass is for show and is attached to the tri clamp fitting








Flow meter to regulate oxygen

 

[Kian]

Awesome, thanks for the pics. Much appreciated.