E brewery complete

[part16john]

I was able to finish up the brewery this past weekend. Been a couple months in the making and many mistakes, learning, blood, sweat and beers..of course $$$$. I am pretty happy with it but I'm sure I will continue to tinker I tried to plan for that in the build. I couldn't have done it without all the threads and posts on this site. First brew day on Sunday took much longer than expected but I had other distractions that happened unexpectedly but the saison is bubbling away in the freezer and I learned a lot about processes in bcs. You can't see it but I also installed a sink which taught me more about plumbing. Thanks to all that contribute and cheers!

 

[hunter306]

Real nice looking, congrats. I am definitely jealous of the disconnects on the newer boil coils. When I finished mine last year, I built it with the older style element information and it works great, just a pain to lift with that big ole cord attached during cleanup.

Any reason you went small on your HLT?

 

[JoshuaW]

I have been two weekends away from finishing my BCS based system for about two months now What hiccups did you have, so I can try to avoid them?

 

[Hello]

That is amazing. What table are you using?

 

[part16john]

Any reason you went small on your HLT?

Honestly I already had the 15 gallon and it saved me some $$.

 

[hunter306]

Honestly I already had the 15 gallon and it saved me some $$.

Roger that, it looks great. I use 15g for my entire setup, wish I had gone 20 across the board! Cheers, great looking.

 

[part16john]

I have been two weekends away from finishing my BCS based system for about two months now What hiccups did you have, so I can try to avoid them?

I did not build the panel but had Ryan at ebrewsupply build it. I didn't want to mess with that. I had to go back and make sure everything was tight in the panel after I received it, there were loose wires but that's to be expected.

I spent quite a bit of time making sure stuff didn't leak like the hoses, pumps, fittings. Use lots of tape on the connections to get that tight seal

I had a hard time getting the compression fittings to work on the hlt coil, ended up using the silicon orings that have been great and no leaks.

I should have gone with a higher cfm fan, mine is 200cfm 4in tjerlund since I had the 4in dryer vent already, I flip flopped on it and chose wrong..Haha. Like I said learned lots and spent even more $$ because of it.

 

[JoshuaW]

I did not build the panel but had Ryan at ebrewsupply build it. I didn't want to mess with that. I had to go back and make sure everything was tight in the panel after I received it, there were loose wires but that's to be expected.

I spent quite a bit of time making sure stuff didn't leak like the hoses, pumps, fittings. Use lots of tape on the connections to get that that gutter seal

I had a hard time getting the compression fittings to work on the hlt coil, ended up using the silicon orings that have been great and no leaks.

I should have gone with a higher cfm fan, mine is 200cfm 4in tjerlund since I had the 4in dryer vent already, I flip flopped on it and chose wrong..Haha. Like I said learned lots and spent even more $$ because of it.

Learning is good! It was only a couple hundred bucks more to have Ryan build my panel, but I opted to build mine myself so I could gain the experience. I half regret that. I have learned alot, but I would be brewing if I hadnt done that. I got kind of burned out on wiring and havent touched it in several weeks.

 

[Gavin C]

Clean , sleek, beautiful. I am very envious. congrats on a great looking build.

 

[chewse]

Beautiful! What time do you want us over?

 

[Roadliner]

Looks great!

How do you like The blichman pots and coils?

I was planning on using those for my E setup when I get back from deployment. Probably only go with 10 gallon pots though, as i don't see myself going over 5 gallon batches.

 

[part16john]

Learning is good! It was only a couple hundred bucks more to have Ryan build my panel, but I opted to build mine myself so I could gain the experience. I half regret that. I have learned alot, but I would be brewing if I hadnt done that. I got kind of burned out on wiring and havent touched it in several weeks.

I know myself and I know I would have gotten very frustrated with the wiring and there is no way I could have done the clean job he did.

I know what you mean on burnt out. I received the panel Friday was up till 1am hanging the panel and monitor. Saturday was up up until 430am running tests and checking leaks as well as boiling to see how fan did. Sunday started brewing at 12ish and finished everything up around 9. I was done about 4pm Sunday and probably should have waited. It's supposed to be fun, right? That's what my wife said to me

 

[CarbonTom]

That is amazing. What table are you using?

Bump for this because I am curious too, that looks sturdy as hell

 

[part16john]

Looks great!

How do you like The blichman pots and coils?

I was planning on using those for my E setup when I get back from deployment. Probably only go with 10 gallon pots though, as i don't see myself going over 5 gallon batches.

I like them so far, I bought the hop blocker from them as well but having hard time getting it to work with the coil and dip tube. I personally like the ability to disconnect the cable from the boil coil to help with cleaning. Same with the temp prob quick disconnects.

 

[part16john]

Bump for this because I am curious too, that looks sturdy as hell

Menards had a deal on work benches around Xmas, 139 I believe. It does have a Fiberboard top, I had a local place cut some aluminum pieces to size and used a countersink bit to put screws in. I put silicon around the edge and screws to help seal and keep out water. I believe it's rated at 1,000lbs. I cut the plywood below to fit as well for additional storage and a place to put pumps. Seems to work well for me. I have another that you can't see that is for storage.

Edit- it cost about $120 to cut the sheet but I was able to use the extra from the two tables in the vent hood.

 

[part16john]

Roger that, it looks great. I use 15g for my entire setup, wish I had gone 20 across the board! Cheers, great looking.

I wish I could had my sink set up like that but it didn't work out that way with the layout. Your comment bout wish you did 20's was something I thought through when building. I wanted to future proof as much as possible knowing that now I would be overwhelmed with learning bcs but I got the bcs462 version knowing I would probably want to add things in he future and tweak. Your set up looks great!

 

[part16john]

Beautiful! What time do you want us over?

Sad part is I haven't brewed since last July so I don't have anything on tap, that will change quickly!

 

[ArmOnFire]

Looks great, nice and clean and well planned...