New Basement Brewery Build

[fireslayer]

Great looking build!

 

[highland_brewer]

It's a grain storage chest with a motorized grain milling cabinet, so yes, it's the hopper for the mill.

Now back to the OP's thread and its pure awesomeness!

Looks Awesome Hoppopotomus!! Thanks for sharing the pics. I am wanting to finish out my basement with a bar myself.. I mean after all you have to have a proper place to serve everything you brew right. (I spotted the mill right away.. I have a monster 2 roller myself.. not nearly as nice a stand but it works..

 

[highland_brewer]

Got a good shake down run in today. Had a few things to sort out before brewing. It all went well and should be a success tomorrow.

I almost cried but I drilled my Blichmann pot for the recirc. hose..

Definitely got the drips from the fan... good thing the sink is under it!!

 

[edthedart]

That is a really amazing setup!!!! I just put together an electric set up and have used it once. But I just went as cheaply as I could, and my "spot" in the basement is totally unfinished. I can dream of one day having something as sweet as this I guess. But if you want to check it out, here are some of the pics of my stuff:
www.edsheadbrewing.blogspot.com
Keep up the great work and I hope your brew session goes well!!!!!

 

[highland_brewer]

Mashed in this morning








The view from my chair this morning...nothing goes better with coffee than the smell of mash!!

 

[kopper]

The view from my chair this morning...nothing goes better with coffee than the smell of mash!!

Amen highland, doing the same thing myself this morning and still loving your build!

 

[highland_brewer]

That is a really amazing setup!!!! I just put together an electric set up and have used it once. But I just went as cheaply as I could, and my "spot" in the basement is totally unfinished. I can dream of one day having something as sweet as this I guess. But if you want to check it out, here are some of the pics of my stuff:
www.edsheadbrewing.blogspot.com
Keep up the great work and I hope your brew session goes well!!!!!

Very nice Ed... I will tell you if it works for you there is no need to do what I did. I just have a habit of going to the extreme sometimes. Will my system make better beer than a single BIAB setup? Maybe not but I love all the gadgetry anyway!

 

[mjdonnelly68]

Awesome build. You'd never get me out of that basement.

 

[lorglath]

Thats true.. hadn't thought of it that way.. looks like some cork mats are in order!!

Sorry for not getting back to this for a while, but yes, that was my concern and it seems like you have a viable solution! Everything is looking utterly amazing!

 

[highland_brewer]

Sorry for not getting back to this for a while, but yes, that was my concern and it seems like you have a viable solution! Everything is looking utterly amazing!

No worries.. Thanks for setting me on that path.. they worked great.

Took video of my first brew day and will post it once I get it all edited together in one file.

BTW The brew day was a success hit my gravity and volume for the most part.. Spilled a qt or 2 at the end not shutting off a valve.. but hey live and learn!! :rockin:

 

[kevreh]

Nice brew room and build . Make sure you get that ceiling finished with drywall and painted. You dont want any free vapor escaping the vent and geeting into the wood framing, which could lead to mold.

 

[highland_brewer]

The Maiden voyage.... Hey I need some suggestions for a name of the brewery...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLrIAMfuXpc

 

[Pickled_Pepper]

It was fun seeing everything in photos, but seeing it in video gives you a totally different appreciation of the system. Great build! Thanks for sharing. (sorry about your plate)

 

[kevreh]

Wow, I would need to label all those hoses to prevent confusion. Going to be sooo nice just brewing with everything in place, vs. lugging around and setting up mlt/hlt/kettle for each brew session.

When you set the element to 70%, how does the controller "control" the element? Does it decrease voltage? Something like PWM?

 

[jeffmeh]

Looks great!

 

[highland_brewer]

Wow, I would need to label all those hoses to prevent confusion. Going to be sooo nice just brewing with everything in place, vs. lugging around and setting up mlt/hlt/kettle for each brew session.

When you set the element to 70%, how does the controller "control" the element? Does it decrease voltage? Something like PWM?

It cycles the ssr on and off.. Voltage is full each cycle... Don't know what the time interval is, want to say like about 3 seconds on 2 seconds off or something like that. Someone on here probably can tell you exactly..i have not dug into exactly how long the cycle actually is.

 

[high5apparatus]

WARNING: browsing the forums on HomeBrewTalk will make you feel POOR

 

[vinnythering]

WARNING: browsing the forums on HomeBrewTalk will make you feel POOR

Agreed.

 

[highland_brewer]

 

[southwoodbrew]

Wow... Nice build. I am waiting on ebay funds to clear to order the last parts to start my Kal clone. I have a question for you... I plan on mounting my control panel the same way you did. In fact I just got my TV mount in two days ago. I was hoping you could enlighten me how you hooked the mount to the control panel.

Also, It's nice to see another fellow electric brewer in the buckeye state. O-H!!!!

 

[highland_brewer]

I O!!!

I just screwed it to the back of the panel using some sheet metal screws... Works fine. Thought about putting a board in between but don't really need it.

 

[highland_brewer]

mashed in on my second batch I'm making some notes to share once the brew is over

 

[highland_brewer]

All done! 10 gallons in primary... Man I love my new brew area, easy to use easy to clean!! Not having to move stuff around to chill and then clean really knocks some time off my brew day. Started heating my strike water @ 5:15 a.m. completely done now with cleanup and everything. 5.5 hours pretty solid!!

Ok so here is something I wanted to see when heating my strike/sparge water, how far behind is the mash tun in relation to the HLT? I found that the MT was about 10 - 12 degrees behind. I turned my element in the HLT all the way up to 195 and when the mash reading was 155 I turned the HLT down to 164 (my mash in temp target was 153.8). The HLT dropped off pretty quick and the mash MT of stalled at 158 so I kicked it back up to 175 and it reach my temp and overshot slightly, so I added some cold water to the HLT to adjust and got it back to temp.

The other thing I wanted to make notes on was the mash out. I set my HLT on 175 and let everything run for a while, about 10 minutes into heating up to mash out temp I took a reading on the inlet on the MT and was only at 165 flowing into the MT (the outlet reading was 155 on the PID). Waited another 3-4 minutes and checked it again and the wort coming into the MT was 169. My reading on the outlet of the MT was still only at 163, so at that point I said screw it and mashed out. I want to work on trying to figure out ramping up the temps without going over, so any suggestions from the notes here are appreciated.

One last thing is I found out my HLT probe was 1 degree high on its reading and the MT was 1 degree low, on top of that the brewmometer on the MT was 2 degrees low. So after making those adjustments some of the readings made a little more sense. I did not initially, but definitely advise calibrating all of your probes with a known good reading thermometer, it will save you some frustration.

Brian

 

[theknub]

Brian,
I started a thread a few days back asking about how far behind the MLT lagged behind the HLT. I found mine to be about 15. Sounds like you are the same. Mine didn't 'stall' like yours, but I certainly felt that the last two or three degrees took forever. Just keep tweaking, you'll get there. My second batch I did a step so I saw quite a bit of lag which also gave me a good idea of heat temps. In reality, I will do very few of these, but had a 'why not' moment.

 

[kchomebrew]

Nice build ! I like all of it ! I have similar basement/eherms builds that was completed in Jan. of this year. I like your SS vent hood. Very nice! Great job with all of it.

 

[billr1]

Subbed

 

[Tritonal]

Amazing build nice work! Do you have plans on using a conical for your primary? Like the Fermenator?

 

[cheez]

All done! 10 gallons in primary... Man I love my new brew area, easy to use easy to clean!! Not having to move stuff around to chill and then clean really knocks some time off my brew day. Started heating my strike water @ 5:15 a.m. completely done now with cleanup and everything. 5.5 hours pretty solid!!

Ok so here is something I wanted to see when heating my strike/sparge water, how far behind is the mash tun in relation to the HLT? I found that the MT was about 10 - 12 degrees behind. I turned my element in the HLT all the way up to 195 and when the mash reading was 155 I turned the HLT down to 164 (my mash in temp target was 153.8). The HLT dropped off pretty quick and the mash MT of stalled at 158 so I kicked it back up to 175 and it reach my temp and overshot slightly, so I added some cold water to the HLT to adjust and got it back to temp.

The other thing I wanted to make notes on was the mash out. I set my HLT on 175 and let everything run for a while, about 10 minutes into heating up to mash out temp I took a reading on the inlet on the MT and was only at 165 flowing into the MT (the outlet reading was 155 on the PID). Waited another 3-4 minutes and checked it again and the wort coming into the MT was 169. My reading on the outlet of the MT was still only at 163, so at that point I said screw it and mashed out. I want to work on trying to figure out ramping up the temps without going over, so any suggestions from the notes here are appreciated.

One last thing is I found out my HLT probe was 1 degree high on its reading and the MT was 1 degree low, on top of that the brewmometer on the MT was 2 degrees low. So after making those adjustments some of the readings made a little more sense. I did not initially, but definitely advise calibrating all of your probes with a known good reading thermometer, it will save you some frustration.

Brian

With my EHERMS setup (stainless steel 20 gal MT & 20 gal HLT), it took me a few batches to figure out that I had to up my initial strike water temp by about 8 degrees from my old setup (10 gal rubbermaid cooler MT). The naked stainless really sucks up the heat. I'm now within 1-2 degrees of my target mash temp. I start the recirculation and adjust my HLT temp. from there to reach the target mash temp. Even at only a 2 degree difference, it can take 10 minutes to reach the target. Once my target is reached, I found that I need to keep the HLT temp. 4 degrees higher than the target mash temp to make up for the heat loss in the tubing and pumps.

I am still playing around with the valve position on the outlet from the coil in the HLT. So far it doesn't seem to make a ramp up/down time difference whether it's wide open or trickling.

If my strike water was at the same temp. as my target mash temp (which is what I think many people do), my mash would be half way done before it ever got up to the correct temp. I am a believer of trying to hit your target mash temp. as soon as possible as most of the conversion takes place in the first 30 min. or so.

I bet you will have it dialed in after 3-4 batches. Have fun!

 

[billr1]

Awesome build! I've been studying it(along with some of the other one posted on HBT) as I plan my own.
I'm sure you'd rather spend time brewing on it now that it's done, but any chance you could post a narrative (and maybe some pics) of your clean up procedure?

 

[highland_brewer]

Tritonal, Thanks

Cheez, I have found the exact same thing as you. I have a 4 - 5 degree differential on my HLT- MT as well. I deal with the HLT temp diff by dumping a little cold water in to bring the temp down... just makes for a little more sparge water.. Never been an issue.

Billr1
Clean up is a cinche. After all my wort in collected I scoop all the spent grains out of the mash tun for disposal, Unhook the temp probe and set the mash tun on the floor and use a hose to wash it out. (using the floor drain for all the bits and such)

After boil that is pretty easy as well... I put about 4 gallons of water in the BK and bring it to a boil, run it through my counterflow and wash the BK right at the sink were it sits. (I can just tip it over in place to drain and wash) Not really much I could think to take photos of. As far as the coil in the HLT I run the sparge water through it, so it is cleaned as I sparge.

I find the key to making the brew day not as long with regards to cleanup is to clean the MT during the boil. One word of advice though is get your boil going and make sure you don't have any issues with boil over etc. add your first hops.. START YOUR TIMER... lol then proceed with cleanup... I have had a time or two I forgot to start my boil timer being distracted by cleanup...lol not an issues just hard to geusstimate how long I had been boiling.

Hope that answers your question.