Garage Brewery Build

[tmurph6]

I'm trying to make a push to finish everything up but it's slow going at the end. Tonight I got the diptubes and herms coil installed in the kettles, also ran some water through my chiller to leak test, and good news, no leaks. However, I'm having a really hard time getting the fill valves that are installed on my water supply to seal. If I can't get them to seal I may just say the heck with it and let them leak, they won't have water turned onto them all the time anyway and they aren't used for a very long period of time.

Also, word to the wise, I had a 30A 220 outlet installed in my house and the plug on the hosehead is a 50A plug, long story short I ended up replacing my 30A receptacle with a 50A to allow me to plug in the hosehead, it's still a 30A breaker with wire only capable of 30A so it will still trip all the same if I overcurrent the circuit, however, the receptacle allows me to actually plug in the hosehead.

Tomorrow I hope to get the hosehead booted up, connected to the network and controlling my elements and pumps. Once that's working I can finally properly leak test everything and get it ready to brew. I was hoping to brew Saturday on it, but doesn't look like that's going to happen.

 

[tmurph6]

Finished, all that's left now is figuring out how to brew on it

I was able to mount the hosehead computer to the underside of the table with some industrial strength velcro which seems to do the trick, hasn't fallen off yet. I also mounted a power strip to the underside of the table with double sided tape. All the wires and cords for the pumps, computers, and temp probes are tucked into some channels on the underside of the table on the front and back.

I'm still putzing with a few things here and there and still need to calibrate the temp probes, but those are so small they wouldn't even warrant another post. If anyone has specific questions or things they want to know I'd be more than happy to share any learnings I had along the way.

FYI, the program running on my computer is craftbeerpi. I removed elsinore as craftbeerpi seems to be a bit more polished and better supported.

 

[jlongstreet]

I'm trying to make a push to finish everything up but it's slow going at the end. Tonight I got the diptubes and herms coil installed in the kettles, also ran some water through my chiller to leak test, and good news, no leaks. However, I'm having a really hard time getting the fill valves that are installed on my water supply to seal. If I can't get them to seal I may just say the heck with it and let them leak, they won't have water turned onto them all the time anyway and they aren't used for a very long period of time.

Also, word to the wise, I had a 30A 220 outlet installed in my house and the plug on the hosehead is a 50A plug, long story short I ended up replacing my 30A receptacle with a 50A to allow me to plug in the hosehead, it's still a 30A breaker with wire only capable of 30A so it will still trip all the same if I overcurrent the circuit, however, the receptacle allows me to actually plug in the hosehead.

Tomorrow I hope to get the hosehead booted up, connected to the network and controlling my elements and pumps. Once that's working I can finally properly leak test everything and get it ready to brew. I was hoping to brew Saturday on it, but doesn't look like that's going to happen.

I had to do the same thing with my Hosehead -- when I ordered it, they didn't have the 50A option, and it came with 10' of 10/3 cable, supply your own plug. So I ordered it and got an L6-30 plug and receptacle for it and installed the receptacle -- then when it came it had a much shorter 8/4 cord with a 14-50 plug on it -- well, OK, I guess. I'm a little annoyed, too, because I've got a single element system (EBIAB) and I definitely don't need the 50A capability. If they had the Uno option at the time, I could have saved some money.

 

[BrewKaiser]

Nice looking set up @tmurph6. You've come a long way in a short amount of time.

I'm almost done with my all electric rig and haven't brewed since August. It will be interesting to see if brewing again on a new rig will be as fun and captivating as building it has been.

Looks like you'll be well set up for years to come...Of course you know you'll want to go bigger...We always do!

 

[mattym5]

Looks really good! I started ordering smaller parts for my setup, as I see things go on sale. Hope to order the kettles in the next month or so. I'll be doing my setup in my basement though, not the garage. Your setup is pretty much exactly what I'm planning to do so your process has been a huge help! Let us know how the first brew day goes!

 

[tmurph6]

Matty, link me to your build if you post pics. Best of luck!

 

[jcav]

Sweet looking rig you built! Good luck with the maiden voyage!

John

 

[tmurph6]

First brew was rough. I couldn't quite get the mash recirculation going, finally got it after about 25 minutes fooling with it. I had the pump recirculating full bore until I realized it kept compacting the grain bed and causing cavitation. After throttling the pump discharge and slowing the recirculation everything went better.

On the positives, no boil over, hit my preboil gravity and original gravity on the nose, predicted my boil off perfectly and ended up with 11 gallons of clear wort. Efficiency was 80% and I only sparged 30 minutes!

Cleaning was a pain as I don't have my regiment down, also forgot to sanitize my fermenter as I was doing so many other things. Oh well I've made worse mistakes.

Looking forward to tasting the first beer thru the system.

 

[HAHB]

First brew was rough. I couldn't quite get the mash recirculation going, finally got it after about 25 minutes fooling with it. I had the pump recirculating full bore until I realized it kept compacting the grain bed and causing cavitation. After throttling the pump discharge and slowing the recirculation everything went better.

On the positives, no boil over, hit my preboil gravity and original gravity on the nose, predicted my boil off perfectly and ended up with 11 gallons of clear wort. Efficiency was 80% and I only sparged 30 minutes!

Cleaning was a pain as I don't have my regiment down, also forgot to sanitize my fermenter as I was doing so many other things. Oh well I've made worse mistakes.

Looking forward to tasting the first beer thru the system.

I've been watching your thread and finally signed up to say great job. Good to see as I'm currently waiting for my order of parts for a HERMS build running craftbrewpi too.

Quick question, you mention throttling the recirculation. Just to clarify, you left the inlet to the pump wide open and only throttled the output, yes?

 

[tmurph6]

I've been watching your thread and finally signed up to say great job. Good to see as I'm currently waiting for my order of parts for a HERMS build running craftbrewpi too.

Quick question, you mention throttling the recirculation. Just to clarify, you left the inlet to the pump wide open and only throttled the output, yes?

Yes throttled output.

 

[joshesmusica]

Great looking build here. Just wondering, are you doing anything for ventilation? Just opening up the garage door?

 

[tmurph6]

I have a door to the outside on the side of my garage near the brewery that when opened provides adequate ventilation for boil off. However I do usually brew with the garage door open.

 

[mattym5]

Any additional brews on the new system? Go any smoother? Have any suggestions for my build?

I'm ordering my kettles today hopefully. How well is the controller staying with the velcro under the table?

 

[nblocke]

I am very interested in copying this setup, it looks amazing!! I would like to hear how it goes after you get a view brews in and iron out some of the bugs

 

[tmurph6]

I'll let y'all know how the next brew goes. Have only done the 1 so far.

 

[augiedoggy]

I had to do the same thing with my Hosehead -- when I ordered it, they didn't have the 50A option, and it came with 10' of 10/3 cable, supply your own plug. So I ordered it and got an L6-30 plug and receptacle for it and installed the receptacle -- then when it came it had a much shorter 8/4 cord with a 14-50 plug on it -- well, OK, I guess. I'm a little annoyed, too, because I've got a single element system (EBIAB) and I definitely don't need the 50A capability. If they had the Uno option at the time, I could have saved some money.

wasnt that when they had the issue of the speak on connectors they used being underrated for the power loads? I thought that was why they didnt attach the plug because of liability issues? I ended up having both my speakon connectors burn up and smoke after a couple brews on my old setup when I upgraded from 4500w to 5500w elements.. They were fine for 4 years with 4500w.

I see the new one on the first page uses nema connectors now.

 

[newtobrew1981]

Pbw will destroy you copper

 

[augiedoggy]

Pbw will destroy you copper

Not unless he left it submerged for very prolonged periods of time... plate chillers are made of copper too and Ive been using pbw to clean mine for 4 years now with no problems..

 

[BrunDog]

That ^^

 

[mattym5]

How is the industrial strength velco working to hold up the hosehead controller? I'm still deciding where I'm going to put min and your idea seems like a decent one, just wondering how its holding up (no pun intended).

 

[tmurph6]

The velcro btw has been working great, perfect fit for purpose (cheap) solution to mount the computer out of harms way.

FYI, I brewed on the system again. I did make a modification to the system to add a ball valve to the recirculation port at the top of my mash tun. This helps control the flow on the recirculation out of my wort pump to keep the grain bed from compacting. Worked like a charm.

 

[IronBrew78]

Did you purchase the complete system from Spike minus the controller? I've been looking at their systems also, and didn't know if you could get the system without their controller.