My new rig

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jcalisi

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2009
Messages
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Location
Mount Juliet, TN
Finally after many hours I think I'm ready to migrate from extract to all grain. I've passed the wet test and worked through my process.

Its an all electric HERMS with a brewtroller to control it. However, I have to finish configuring it. Still have a few items I need to add as well but will never be completely finished.

The HLT and BK have 5500 elements
The MT has a awesome false bottom thanks to Jaybird
the BK has a whirlpool return with the drain tube about 2.5" from center
HLT has about 45' of .5" copper tubing that will be used to heat and cool
I have stainless just about everywhere possible
Camlocks for easy movement of lines
Two march pumps
Integrated and motorized (forward and reverse) grain crusher

the control panel has:

4 ssr's to control the heating elements
Brewtroller 4
Hoffman Nema ennclosure
EPO that kills the contactors and trips the gfci in my remote spa panel
Keyed power startup

http://joncalisibrewery.shutterfly.com/pictures/37

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Wow Mr. Fancypants, talk about taking a leap from extract! Nice setup, real nice.

I ♥ that mill setup, where did you get the motor?


_
 
this coming from a guy who has a dedicated brew house that requires sun glasses... :)

all joking aside thanks. The motor came from surpluscenter.com item # 5-1098 someone else on the board was using it and had good luck with it.
 
Nice work! It is truly a thing of beauty. I especially like the mill setup.

If you could please explain how you heat and cool using the same coil. I know how it can be done, but I'm wondering how you do it. Also, please post a pic of the inside of the HLT. I wanna see! :)
 
In theory... I will use it to heat like a normal herms system but once I move to the bk with 15 minutes left I will pump the hot wort through the coil to sanitize and create a whirlpool at the same time in the bk. Then with flame out (electrons out) I will put ice in the hlt and add water and continue the process until I get to pitching temps. My fall back is to also use the mt as a secondary vessel to hold ice and water and cycle that through the hlt.

Like I said at this point its a theory until this weekend. Worst case I still have my ic. I don't have any of the inside handy but you can go to shutterfly link I posted at the top to see my album. I should have an inside shot minus the pickup tube.

do you see any flaws with this. I'm open to suggestions.
 
That is soooo cool! I wish I wasn't electrically challenged. I can't read a wiring diagram to save my life. Which sucks because wood working runs in the family. Very nice.
 
One suggestion from someone who went through the whole getting used to pumps/new system, brew a starter wort batch. You can't wreck it, and you can concentrate on the process instead of the recipe. I just filled as many plastic containers as possible, froze them, and dumped the rest.


_
 
wildwest-
that may be a good idea. besides I need a little seat time with the brewtroller anyway. the only problem is my pipeline is completely dry... :(
 
In theory... I will use it to heat like a normal herms system but once I move to the bk with 15 minutes left I will pump the hot wort through the coil to sanitize and create a whirlpool at the same time in the bk. Then with flame out (electrons out) I will put ice in the hlt and add water and continue the process until I get to pitching temps. My fall back is to also use the mt as a secondary vessel to hold ice and water and cycle that through the hlt.

Like I said at this point its a theory until this weekend. Worst case I still have my ic. I don't have any of the inside handy but you can go to shutterfly link I posted at the top to see my album. I should have an inside shot minus the pickup tube.

do you see any flaws with this. I'm open to suggestions.

I have a RIM's rig, but recently added a coil to my HLT to try out HERMS and to use exactly as you describe for cooling. My coil is 5/8" copper, about 30' long. With a whopping 3 batches of experience with this setup here's what I can tell you:

Use tap water in the HLT to get the wort to as close to 100f as you can before you add ice. I put a garden hose in the HLT and pump the water to circulate while some is being diverted to waste to knock the temp way down. A single keg of ice will NOT cool an entire batch from boiling to pitching, so save it until you've gotten all you can from the tap water. I use a 20# bag of ice to get a 10ga batch from about 100f to pitching.

BTW... Nice looking setup.

Ed
 
I have a RIM's rig, but recently added a coil to my HLT to try out HERMS and to use exactly as you describe for cooling. My coil is 5/8" copper, about 30' long. With a whopping 3 batches of experience with this setup here's what I can tell you:

Use tap water in the HLT to get the wort to as close to 100f as you can before you add ice. I put a garden hose in the HLT and pump the water to circulate while some is being diverted to waste to knock the temp way down. A single keg of ice will NOT cool an entire batch from boiling to pitching, so save it until you've gotten all you can from the tap water. I use a 20# bag of ice to get a 10ga batch from about 100f to pitching.

BTW... Nice looking setup.

Ed

Ed,

thanks for the heads up. I'm pretty sure I would just dump the ice in and watch it all melt. :drunk:
 
One suggestion from someone who went through the whole getting used to pumps/new system, brew a starter wort batch. You can't wreck it, and you can concentrate on the process instead of the recipe. I just filled as many plastic containers as possible, froze them, and dumped the rest.


_

Can't believe that I've never heard/thought of this before. Great idea :) I always seem to run out of DME right before I need an important starter made...
Also, would have been nice to figure out my system with this method. My first batch on my electric system was a mess. Mashed too low. Didn't sparge enough. Only ended up with ~3.5 gallons. Total mess...
:mug:
 
Thanks everyone for the comments. I did my first brew on it yesterday and for the most part it worked great. However I do have a lot of tweaking I need to do. I did Ed's haus pale ale and ended up with right under 5 gallons in the fermentor with a 1.61. The bc worked great and the motor had no problem chewing through the grain. I filled the hopper to the very top before turning the motor on. Also, using the herms to chill the wort worked fairly well and the bk whirlpool left a nice little cone in the middle once I was done.
 
One more question on the mill...:D

Did all the linkage (?) piece come with the motor? I've got a BC also, and would love to motorize it. If you had to buy extra bits and bobs, could you specify what and where you got them?

Tanks!
 
I already had all the parts but I think mcmasters has them with these skews. I didn't use a keyway just the allen bolt without any problems.

3/8" hub no keyway 6408K133
1/2" hub with keyway 6408K713
Buna Spider 6408K74

I used a couple of large L brackets to mount the motor and put a metal junction box on top. I got the dpdt on off on switch from radio shack.
 
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