I decided to start building a brewing system

[diatonic]

Are you going to be putting heat sinks on the SSRs?

Kal

+1. If you're passing 25A through a 40A SSR, you'll be generating some heat. I've seen hot SSRs stick closed... i.e. control voltage is cut, but the load stays energized due to it being too hot. The 40A SSR I have says to use a heatsink if the load is over 10A. You could probably mount all of the SSRs on a single heat sink easily enough.

btw, your accent reminds me of a friend of mine in Stockholm... and SSR stands for solid state relay. Keep up the good work! You obviously know what you're doing.

 

[DrKarma]

Are you going to be putting heat sinks on the SSRs?

Kal

...and...

+1. If you're passing 25A through a 40A SSR, you'll be generating some heat. I've seen hot SSRs stick closed... i.e. control voltage is cut, but the load stays energized due to it being too hot. The 40A SSR I have says to use a heatsink if the load is over 10A. You could probably mount all of the SSRs on a single heat sink easily enough.

btw, your accent reminds me of a friend of mine in Stockholm... and SSR stands for solid state relay. Keep up the good work! You obviously know what you're doing.

With the setup that I have I will never push more than (2000W/230VAC) 9 A through the SSR:s so I think that I am ok without heat sinks. I have however thought about cooling the SSR:s in case I would experience them getting hot.
In that case I will first try with mounting a fan blowing through the SSR:s. If that wouldn't work then it will be a combination of heat sinks and fan.
When I started building the control panel box, then I decided to make it in a way that hot air will escape using "mother nature" i.e. hot air raises.

Btw...have I typed/said anything else than Solid State Relay for the SSR acronym? If so, pls tell me where so I can correct.
(Working for a company where we use A LOT of acronyms and many which are starting with 'S' so it might have been that I have typed/said something wrong somewhere)

 

[diatonic]

... As you can see, I am yet to mount the Single State Relays that will turn on/off power to the wall-outlets ...

Seemed like I had read that a few times throughout the thread... wasn't trying to nitpick. Your command of English is much better than my command of Swedish . I have a few Swedish friends, and have to rely on Google Translate often to figure out what they are saying on facebook .

Oh, and I agree if you're only running 9a through those SSRs, you probably won't need a heat sink.

Keep up the good work!

 

[DrKarma]

Seemed like I had read that a few times throughout the thread... wasn't trying to nitpick.

No worries, I want my thread to be as correct as possible - at least when it comes to the technical parts.


I read through my postings and...you are right. Somehow I have written 'Single State Relays' on two occations.
Which is a bit funny. I mean, what would the point be with a 'single state' relay...as that would defeat the purpose of having a relay in the first place.

 

[DrKarma]

Started the day by getting some stuff at the local lumberyard.
After that I begun building a cart for the HLT and MLT. Want them to be on wheels so I can move them around when doing cleaning etc.

This is where I will mount the wheels

With my framing nailer it's just *bang bang bang* and you're done.

My MLT posing on the new cart.

 

[DrKarma]

Finished the day by varnishing the HLT.

I also accidently knocked the can of varnish over, made a big mess in the garage.

 

[jcdillin]

Awesome work, the size of everything is impressive.

 

[bakins]

Why didn't I think of that??? I like it!.

 

[DrKarma]

Awesome work, the size of everything is impressive.

Thank you. I went with the philosophy that you can brew small batches just as easy as big batches with a big system. (But primarely the size pretty much was set when I found the add for the tuns)

I don't have that much left to do until the brewing system is in operational state - which means that I better start clearing out the garage so I can put tiling the floor and the walls in the designated brewery section. (cleaning and tiling don't reach high on my 'top ten things I like to do'-list)

But...spring is coming so I need to get into the beer production.

 

[DrKarma]

Continued with some work on the brew-cart.

Put a second shelf on the cart (bottom one)

And as I want an easy to clean surface on the top I bought a fairly cheep laminated floor that had a walnut/zebrano look.
Found a left-over tube of construction glue that I used. That glue is so strong that I bet you could use it to make planets stick to each other.
And naturally the tube burst mid-gluing so by the time I was finished with the "flooring" of the cart the fumes had made me a bit dizzy so I stopped working for today.

 

[DrKarma]

Why didn't I think of that??? I like it!.

Thank you
Converting those hard disk brackets to SSR brackets kind of go inline with my plan not to buy stuff that I can make myself.

 

[DrKarma]

I have spent some time thinking about how I should solve the grain bed filtration in the MLT. Have thought about having a SS screen false bottom, manifolds, filter bags etc. It's not unlikely that I will decide to take any of those paths later on, but for now I have decided on a simpler way.

I will use an old fermentation bucket.
When comparing the size, you can see that the 8 gallon fermentation bucket easily will fit into the MLT.

I wasn't too exited about drilling hundreds of holes, so I thought about an alternative solution...using a soldering pen. Even if I probably will need to replace the tip (although it didn't look too bad afterwards) I see some benefits with this method. You get smooth edges when you melt the plastic. When you drill in plastic you often need to sand/scrup small plastic pieces afterwards.
Since I did it from the inside, each hole also was formed like a funnel.

It does however smell quite bad when doing it so the door should probably be open for ventilation.

I think that I will use a filtering bag in combination with this false bottom tun-in-tun.


I am also evaluating doing a hop filter sphere that will look kind of like this

 

[bendavanza]

how much wasted space will there be with the bucket in the MLT? Why not just make a manifold? I think the bucket in bucket method has been proven less effective than a manifold or braid.

 

[DrKarma]

how much wasted space will there be with the bucket in the MLT? Why not just make a manifold? I think the bucket in bucket method has been proven less effective than a manifold or braid.

Well if it will show that the bucke in bucket method, with filter bag would be less efficient - then I can always change.

I can however not see the logic reason why it would be less efficient as the grain-and-water contact according to my logic would be the main contributer for efficiency. Or?

Maybe someone that has tried both methods could spread some light on this issue?

 

[hayabusa]

What about cutting the bottom out of the bucket and plastic-welding one of these screens on there?

EZ-Strainers™ - US Plastic Corporation

 

[DrKarma]

What about cutting the bottom out of the bucket and plastic-welding one of these screens on there?

EZ-Strainers™ - US Plastic Corporation

Those were pretty cool - would be a bit expensive to ship to Sweden though. Will be pretty much the same effect as having a filterbag inside the bucket.

 

[DrKarma]

Took a trip to a plumber supply shop today and bought the heating element(s) for the boiler

3x2000 W

 

[BrewBeemer]

That looks like a very small and tight group of heating elements at 6KW, I would worry about scorching problems. I hope i'm wrong and it works out for you. keep posting.

 

[rtichota]

Curious about scorching as well, I've heard only use "low density" elements for the brew kettle. Have you heard anything about that?

 

[cyberbackpacker]

Umm, I presonally think these look to be about 12" long not counting the foldover... that should work out to a very reasonable amount of power per square inch. North American 2000w high density elements are about 7 inches with no foldover.

I think he should be fine. Additionally in one of the other threads, there have been reports of zero issues using high density elements and scorching, even on a very pale pilsner. That has been real world experience, not conjecture.

 

[rtichota]

I think he should be fine. Additionally in one of the other threads, there have been reports of zero issues using high density elements and scorching, even on a very pale pilsner. That has been real world experience, not conjecture.

Cool because I'd rather run higher watts in a smaller package no seriously that would actually be convienent

 

[DrKarma]

Umm, I presonally think these look to be about 12" long not counting the foldover... that should work out to a very reasonable amount of power per square inch. North American 2000w high density elements are about 7 inches with no foldover.

I think he should be fine. Additionally in one of the other threads, there have been reports of zero issues using high density elements and scorching, even on a very pale pilsner. That has been real world experience, not conjecture.

Pretty good eyes there.

The insert length of the elements is around 16" and each element has a total length of 1 m (~39") so that would be an effect of 51W/inch - which is pretty similar to the effect/inch that you have in these travel heaters

So I am not too worried about scorching

 

[DrKarma]

A picture when the heating elements are mounted in the boiler.

 

[DrKarma]

Been working on the piping in the brew cart.

Above the cart top (from left):
-hose from HLT
-valve for e.g. iodine tests
-hose from MLT
-hose from boiler
(All tuns have their own valves so that's why there are no valves above the cart top - except for the iodine test valve)

Below the cart top (from left)
-hose to the fermenting tun if valve is closed, then wort will go up to the heat exchange coil in the HLT.
-hose to and from heat exchange coil in the HLT. If the valve to the right is open then it is used for heating mash. If closed then (and cold water in the HLT) then it is used to chill the wort.
-the rightmost valve is used to pump mash to the boiler or to pump wort to the heat exchanging coil (chilling) in the HLT (when +30 gallons cold water in HLT)

close up of the circulation pump.

I found a 1" valve and mounted that on the boiler.

 

[Philsc]

Your setup looks amazing. I'd love to have the time, space, know-how and cash to do something similar.

Just out of interest. What are you planning on brewing?

When I was in Sweden, I seem to remember there wasn't anything other than lagers, but I wasn't looking very hard. Stor Stark was good for my student's wallet. I remember liking Lapin Kulta, but that was a long time ago; I was very young.

 

[DrKarma]

Your setup looks amazing. I'd love to have the time, space, know-how and cash to do something similar.

Just out of interest. What are you planning on brewing?

When I was in Sweden, I seem to remember there wasn't anything other than lagers, but I wasn't looking very hard. Stor Stark was good for my student's wallet. I remember liking Lapin Kulta, but that was a long time ago; I was very young.

Thank you.
Actually...I don't think that my build would be considered expensive (especially if you would compare it with some of the nice shiny builds that you will find here on HBT).
Now, I have gotten many freebies...which has saved me around $500 USD...one of the benefits of being engaged to a plumber's daughter

To build it, then I guess that as long as you are handy to some extent, that it shouldn't be any problems...the rest comes with a good imagination and to learn from others.

We will start brewing Irish Red Ales, IPA:s and ESB. I doubt that we will brew lagers anytime soon.
We also have plans to let people that are intrerested to book time slots for brewing their own beer and also to host kick-off activities.

Yea, stor stark (draft lager - the brand that the pub sell cheaper than the rest of the lagers) is a classic.

 

[DrKarma]

Here is a profile close up from the gravity fed inputs (from different tuns, see previous posts)

Did a boiler wet test today to see that I had no leaks (note the water on the floor is NOT from leaks, it's the result of a wild hose when turning the water on in the other room. )

No leaks.

Approximately 10 gallons of water in the boiler.

 

[DrKarma]

Eventually you need to start dealing with the stuff that is boring.
This evening has been dedicated to start cleaning what will become the brewery.

The brew cart and the boiler stand will be put towards the the back wall. Boiler to the right and above it I will create a ventilation system that will evacuate the steam so I won't get too high humidity.

 

[TCopa]

Keep up the good work- I have enjoyed your post and look forward to the finished project.

 

[DrKarma]

Keep up the good work- I have enjoyed your post and look forward to the finished project.

Thank you, it's far from being finished (especially since it includes making the brew room).

Will however try to do the first brew on the system this weekend - so the system is good enough to brew with now. (However it will be quite manual, as I haven't ordered temperature sensors yet - and I can't find the ones that I know that I have...so it will only be semi controlled)