Critique my single tier pump plan

[Skrimpy]

Bobby! Absolutely amazing. I've only done a few batches, and not being all that mechanically inclined, your crazyness has inspired me! I've already got a bead on an 8 cf freezer to convert!! For some reason, your vids being as informative as they are (which is that they are very informative), make me laugh so hard (in a good way) that I wet myself. Well, maybe that's the brew porn making me wet myself. The system is awesome. I will no doubt be using it as a model when I finally have the funding and time to make one. I probably will avoid as much of the welding as possible though. Post the sparge arm when you finally fabricate it and hook the sucker up! cheers buddy. drink some brew b/c your hard work deserves it.

 

[beerthirty]

Hey Bobby I love your keggles. I know that you frequent McMasters-Carr and was wondering if you got all of your keggle parts there. Couplers, fittings, siteglass protectors and glass. If so, have you ever made a parts lists? I want to make a single purchase for lower shipping and the problems with diff suppliers making their thread cuts different. I'm doing most of the work myself except for the SS welding and once again want it on one work order for price and so its all welded by the same guy(so all welds will look uniform, one great weld will make the rest of the good welds look like A$$ if they are done by several welders)
I thought I saw a thread that pictured your MLT with a recirc nozzle but cant seem to find it. was that yours?
Man I sure wish I had your tap temps for cooling. Ambient today was 106 and tap temp was 85. Even recircing the air was heating the kettle back up. Came up with an idea, I will post it in your city pressure driven precooler thread in a couple days. It might make single pass, no recirc, 10 gall cooling possible in under 20 min. but maybe I'm dreaming. Hope you'll put your 2 cents in on it.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

I thought I saw a thread that pictured your MLT with a recirc nozzle but cant seem to find it. was that yours?

You thinking of this? I've got these in my MLT and BK.

 

[beerthirty]

cool, wouldn't you want it below the liquid level for less areation?

 

[Lil' Sparky]

1) I brew both 5 and 10 gal batches. In my MLT, every recipe has a different grain bill. So where exactly is that liquid level?

b) I can swivel the return up and down - enough for me anyway. You could build it long enough so that you can always swivel it down below the liquid level.

iii) The QD on the outside is open. If it was below the liquid level, guess what would be running out of the tun?

4) HSA = Sasquach

 

[Bobby_M]

I could see maybe putting a foot of silicone tubing on the end of that so that it would be somewhat self adjusting.

 

[Bobby_M]

Sorry to resurect this old dog of a thread but I just wanted to mention that I finally upgraded to silicone tubing on the rig and I wish I had done it from the start. If you think $2.20 a foot for 1/2" ID silicone is expensive, add the cost of whatever you think will work instead because you'll eventually go there anyway. I had the reinforced PVC tubing previously and it got terribly yellow after about 6 batches and I had leaks just about every time from the softening. Cheaper means doing it right the first time.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

I'm still using the braided tubing I started with. No problems yet. I'll probably look at the silicon tubing when it finally gives out. Where'd you get yours at?

 

[Bobby_M]

Are you circulating boiling wort through your chiller for sanitizing? That seemed to be the killer of the PVC. I got the silicone at USplastics when they had the free shipping special which beat morebeer and austin at that point. If you're already ordering something, either one of those are cheapest. I ordered 20 feet but ended up using about 12'. The input/output lines on the March are 4' each and I have another 4' on the output of the CFC to run back into the kettle during sanitizing. If this step wasn't necessary, I'd have cheap PVC to run into the fermenters.

 

[olllllo]

I love silicone tubing. I have 2 burn marks where the hose got too close to the flame for- I don't know a solid minute- and it's still fine.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

Yes, I recirculate at the end of the boil to sanitize the CFC. I can see how the heat cycles probably do a number on it. You probably brew more often than I do, which is why yours wore out sooner.

 

[bull8042]

This is what I am using and with 3 brews through it so far, I love it. I also recirc boiling wort and the tubing has seen no ill effects whatsoever.

Search Results

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

This is what I am using and with 3 brews through it so far, I love it. I also recirc boiling wort and the tubing has seen no ill effects whatsoever.

Search Results

That's what I use as well. I love it.

 

[Bobby_M]

Yup, I almost went for the thermoplastic too but I wanted to retain my ability to see wort flow through it. Silicone isn't clear but it's semi-opaque. It was worth extra buck a foot for me.

 

[dubs1856]

Bobby,
Thank you for helping to inspire me to build my own sculpture. Here are some pics of my progress.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

Looks great! I think your build deserves it's own thread. Keep it updated w/ new pics.

 

[Bobby_M]

Yeah, I agree. Start up a thread in the DIY section for your build and include LOTS of pictures. I kinda wish I dropped a few bucks and made mine out of square stock. I do like how my kegs sit in cradles though, but that could easily be replicated just by tacking a couple stops to the top area.

 

[dubs1856]

I was trying to think of what I should use on the top to help cradle the kettles...I'll start a thread and appreciate your help.

Ken

 

[Lil' Sparky]

Mine don't sit in cradles, but they don't slide - even a little, so I don't really worry about it.

 

[explosivebeer]

Another thing I want to add to my setup is a couple of "U" hooks to the stand so that I can have them hold my hoses up when I don't have them connected to anything. Since the female disconnects I use are non sealing, I can't just dangle them on the floor or I'll drain the pump head.

Hey Bobby,

I was curious why you decided to go with non-sealing disconnects. I'm about to buy all my stuff from McMaster so if you have any sage advice, it would be much appreciated.

 

[explosivebeer]

Also, how does the single tier work out with only one pump? Do you find it's pretty functional?

I was previously planning on having my HLT elevated and using gravity to feed the MT (both for strike/sparge water, and for draining the recirc so there's not wort left in there).

I have the space for the second level but was just curious if the single-level design was so functional with one pump that the second level is unnecessary.

 

[Bobby_M]

I never felt that sealing the disconnect was necessary since I'm literally swapping them from one vessel to another at the same height. I usually close down pump's output ball valve completely, close the vessel valves, move the connections and reopen the pump valve. Disconnects that have self sealing valves are really highly restrictive to flow so if I did use them, they'd have to be upsized to 3/4".

Single tier plans with one pump restrict you to batch sparging. If you think of that proces, you only have to move one type of liquid at a time. If you want to fly sparge, the elevated HLT is a great solution to save a pump.

 

[explosivebeer]

I prefer batch sparging anyway so that's no problem. I did not know that the disconnects that had valves on them inhibited flow. That is very good to know. I'll have to take a look at my design again before I build the stand for it. Going single tier is sounding more appealing. Thanks for the info.

 

[nathan]

Now that I've fly-sparged for almost a half-dozen batches, I'm considering doing some batch sparges again.
Fly sparging for me is a bit of a pain to get the levels set right, and I worry that the top of the grain bed is just going to end up getting astringency extracted (tannins) as it's spending the whole sparge getting sprayed with more alkaline water, while the grains on the bottom see very little, getting that slow gradient of dissolved sugars decreasing.
With the batch sparge, it's homogeneous in there.

If you batch, you need to vorlauf for each batch, but once it's running clear you can drain out at almost full throttle.

I'm kind of torn between the two.

I may do another fly sparge and keep sampling the outflow with an eyedropper to test on the refractometer, use the brix-to-Plato table, and stop it at a plato higher than 2. Then I can compare by doing the same recipe as a batch sparge and see what happens.

 

[Brewme]

It would be possible to use copper as the gas/propane line, correct? I am thinking that will alleviate the issue of standardized pipe length. I have seen another brew stand that used copper, but can't remember with thread.

If copper was used, what size would work do you think?

 

[Brewme]

Thanks to recommendations from Bobby, my QD's were waiting on my front porch today. The 90 degree angled female sockets are awesome. I can't wait for everything to come together.

Progress so far: Single tier stand: 80%

http://twitpic.com/5lhfe
http://twitpic.com/5ibfq

I am planning on using some diamond plating for the bottom and pump cover (I found a place that has scrap diamond plating that is 40% off full price.

I have silicone tubing, couplings, and QD's from McMaster.

I am planning on having the gas plumbing done by end of next week and maybe I can brew that weekend! We'll see. It takes about 5 times longer than you think it will

 

[Surly]

Hi

I also would like to thank Bobby for this thread and his on-going support.

I am planning to begin this process as well and will have some questions to ask of all with experience and opinions.

I started out with my March pump purchase. I like batch sparging so that is what I will do using one pump.

Bobby, at one point in this thread you said that it was a real pain to line up the plumbing pieces and the burners etc.

Would it be easier to design and fit the plumbing, then design the size of the stand needed to fit the plumbing?

 

[Bobby_M]

I think the easiest way to line up the burners is to use some kind of flex line between your valves and burners. Of course, it's doable with rigid pipe but you have to be prepared to take it apart many times while you're trying to fit everything up. Buy a ton of pipe nipple lengths and then just return what you don't use.

 

[Surly]

Thanks Bobby

Any good recommendations on burners? You use the 23 tip that you modified down to 15, and then 10 if I remember correctly. Have you run across a burner you now wish was available back when you were building.

I am going to use natural gas as well. What are you using from the NG source to your brew stand? I would like to use a flexible pipe as I brew in the garage in the winter but would like to also brew on my patio when I can.

 

[Bobby_M]

I use some kludged together hose set I made up to connect to the stand. Imagine a really long disclaimer about doing that.......

If you have two locations you want to connect into, it's best to have rigid pipe running to both locations so you can use the shortest piece of flex hose you can.

While I've gotten my multi-jet burners to work for me, in most cases, I really have a hard time recommending them. I want to try the Hurricane burner with the nat gas orifice. My biggest problem right now is getting my mashtun burner to run low enough.