Spike brewing hard piped tri clamp 30 gallon system

[Drumminguy81]

This has been a project over a year in the making.. I tell everyone its my ever evolving brew system.. I finally feel like im to a point where there isn't much more I want to do. Unfortunately I didn't take a ton of pictures along the way or of the build but the basics-

3 custom spike brewing 30 gallon kettles
custom built 3 burner automated natural gas brew stand
3 chugger pumps
1 ssbrewtech 5.5 gallon kettle(lauter grant)
2 blichmann thermonators
A stout tanks 3 gallon hop back
a blichmann hop rocket
a brewers hardware filter
Custom made oxygenation setup
and tons of tri clamp fittings
I built everything myself including the brew stand and control panel..
this brewhouse is accompanied by 2 brewhemoth conicals with temp control but I wont get into that just yet. The basics of the stand I built it for 3 keggles with burners on natural gas. They all have valves and pilots controlled by my control panel with pid controllers. The kettles are spike brewing 30 gallon with a few extra ports added for fly sparging, vorlauf, and whirlpool as well as the temp probes on the back. I went with threaded fittings and wish I had done tri clamp from the beginning so now I have tri clamp adapters to all my kettles. I just finished hard piping everything. Let me tell you that was an investment even using china fittings.
Im sure it will be asked, I use the hop rocket for smaller ipa's or hoppy pale ales on occasion and the stout hop back for the big ipa's. The reason for the 2 thermonators is one is connected to my glycol system to pre chill the ground water before chilling my wort. Im able to chill an entire 20+ gallon batch in one pass in under 20 minutes.
Anyway here's some pictures. Questions are welcome im sure ill post more.

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[RocketBrewer]

That's beautiful! I guess if you get bored, you could convert it to all electric.
Are you welding the plumbing yourself, or were you able to piece it together from off the shelf fittings?

 

[Drumminguy81]

Eventually I plan to go electric but probably not until I move to a different house. My current electrical panel cant support an electric brewery. Plus natural has is so so cheap and works great. I was able to piece everything together with off the shelf fittings. Cost a little more in clamps but worked well and easy to break down if needed.

 

[DasBierBaron]

I have not had good luck with Chinese fittings. Got some 90 degree elbows and none of them are 90 degrees so I can't make good connections with them. They also have flaws where the pipe is joined to the flange.

 

[Drumminguy81]

Mine were all actually pretty nice, the clamps aren't great but I got a lot of nice taiwan clamps used. I use silicon gaskets so the fit doesn't have to be perfect to get a good seal. Not a single leak. I didn't see any flaws where my flanges were connected. Im actually impressed with the quality of everything except the clamps.

 

[brew2enjoy]

Nice job, that looks awesome!

 

[tracyk]

Nice!!! I think that is the most tri-clamps that I have seen! Great job!!!!

 

[Drumminguy81]

Actually just did a little work re-routing some of the pipes because I wasn't completely happy with how it looked. I think it looks much better now.

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[GrassBrewer]

Dare I ask the cost?

 

[Drumminguy81]

You don't want to know. I was in the neighborhood of $650 just in clamps, gaskets, and tube/elbows.. I stopped counting at that point because I was a little sick to my stomach. Ha.. that isn't including the threaded fittings or sight glasses. I'd say I went a little overboard on this one.. as far as total cost there is no telling.. I have been accumulating and building this system for several years..

 

[mcgimpkins]

What is your method for cleaning everything? Do you cycle PBW though the system or are you dissembling and reassembling every brew day?

 

[Drumminguy81]

I circulate near boiling water through the entire system before brewing and after. The piping has low point drain valves on every line to make sure water doesn't sit after circulating. I break a few lines to pull my mash tun, lauter grant, and boil kettles to clean before circulating water. I broke several to verify no gunk or water was left behind after my last brew and everything looked great. Everything after the chiller gets broken down to fully sanitize and dry.

 

[sneakybrian]

Where did you get the fittings?

 

[jcav]

That is a beautiful rig you built, you should be very proud of yourself! I know what you mean about the cost of going all tri-clamps. I did the same on mine and it cost a small fortune! I love them though, no leaks and very strong connections. Good Luck brewing!

John

 

[brianbrinley]

beautiful setup!

 

[Drumminguy81]

Most of my fittings were ebay china specials.. I have noticed some slight rust spots in the flanges so I know they aren't great quality. Thanks for the kind words guys im pretty proud of it. Im actually in the middle of a little face lift now, converting to all electric. Its turning out to be quite a job but I can't wait till its complete! Ill post more pictures as it starts to come together.. its all a mess right now.. clamps, fittings, gaskets everywhere!

 

[Drumminguy81]

Well brew system 4.0 is mostly complete. New additions are: new 240v 5 element 60 amp control panel (I wish i could take credit for building it but I didn't it was built by another member, I did upgrade the wiring and breakers to support an additional element per kettle) replaced the brew stand with a heavy duty stainless table, got new pumps, and reworked a little of the piping. Also added a rims tube. I have brewed 2 batches on it and man I love electric. I went with 2 elements per kettle so I am able to go from 68-170* with 30 gallons of water in 24 minutes and from 150-212* in 10 min. It's amazing. Here are a couple poctures. Also a picture of my brewhemoth fermenter triplets..

 

[Brewpastor]

You don't want to know. I was in the neighborhood of $650 just in clamps, gaskets, and tube/elbows.. I stopped counting at that point because I was a little sick to my stomach. Ha.. that isn't including the threaded fittings or sight glasses. I'd say I went a little overboard on this one.. as far as total cost there is no telling.. I have been accumulating and building this system for several years..

We make our own beer to save money...

Very nice set-up.

 

[Vandulus]

So. much. bling! I've been slowing converting my BIAB system over to tri-clover and think I've had a vision of what heaven looks like!

 

[Drumminguy81]

Not sure where the latest pictures went but looks like they disappeared.. repost

 

[Leadpencil]

The new set up looks great. I am working on hard piping my set up. What size pipe did you end up using?

 

[Drumminguy81]

I used 19mm which is 3/4" with 1.5" clamps.. I wish I had gone with 1" tube though just for compatibility.. the 19mm works great but I can only find parts from China. The industry standard with the 1.5" ferrules is 1" pipe so there are more fittings available.

 

[Leadpencil]

I have been dealing with a few sellers on Alibaba. I only brew 5 -7 gallon batches so It doesn't seem feasible to use 1 1/2" fittings. I am thinking og getting 1" valves, tees, and caps. Drilling the caps out and welding 1/2" tubing to them. Thus eliminating having to buy 90*'s and 45*'s. I can bend the tubing to fit everywhere I need it.

 

[Drumminguy81]

That would be a great I wish a could have bent and welded, would have saved a ton on clamps and fittings.