Squam Lakes Brewery with Pictures

[Boar Beer]

Brewmation

http://www.brewmation.com/

 

[Boar Beer]

MikeRLynch

As for the ability to stand the heat. I have had my small kettle, the 15 gallon one, for over a year and never had a leakage problem or anything.

 

[bendavanza]

It looks like their (Brewmation) brewery setups use deep sinks for vessels. Interesting idea, sometimes restaurant equipment like that can be found cheap....

 

[Chosenwon]

Brewmation

http://www.brewmation.com/

It had to be that simple...

 

[MikeRLynch]

Can you give us a ballpark on what your elements cost from brewmation? They don't have prices on the site, and seeing as how I'm doing 1 bbl as well, I could just mirror your design (if that's ok )

 

[Boar Beer]

I did not get the pricing broken down by bits and pieces.

 

[Boar Beer]

How best to drain from my 44 gallon mash tun?
I am still looking for some ideas on how to drill my pex tube
What size holes , how many and where to locate them.

Or is my approach not good.

I will connect the red tube to a pex tube fitting with a short piece of removable tubing.

I will put a false bottom over the pex tube

 

[the_Roqk]

How best to drain from my 44 gallon mash tun?
I am still looking for some ideas on how to drill my pex tube
What size holes , how many and where to locate them.

Or is my approach not good.

I will connect the red tube to a pex tube fitting with a short piece of removable tubing.

I will put a false bottom over the pex tube

Just asking. Why PEX?

Why not make a copper manifold? What are some advantages to using PEX anyway?

 

[Boar Beer]

Well for me it is easier to use.
I can replace it easy. Its made for hot water and i could bend it into shape.
and cheap.

 

[1nitrous]

I love your setup.....................

(jaw dropped)

 

[Boar Beer]

Gone Hunting see you all Monday

 

[Boar Beer]

Picked up some 22 oz bottles the other day
Each 1bb batch takes 15 cases!!!
We will bottle what is in the big conical and brew a batch with the new rig this week.

I also picked up some materials to do the other wall with FRP
Still thinking about how to drill the holes in the Pex tub for the new MT

 

[keiths]

I would just drill 1/8" holes about an inch apart around the whole loop on the bottom of it. What are U gonna use to empty the mash? I use a shop vac and it works great.

 

[Boar Beer]

Keiths
We had figured we hand to shovel it out. The the shop vac is a great idea. I will give it a try on our next mash.
Thanks for your comments

 

[MeatyPortion]

Hot damn....

 

[Pangea]

I would just drill 1/8" holes about an inch apart around the whole loop on the bottom of it. What are U gonna use to empty the mash? I use a shop vac and it works great.

Hmmm... shop vac. I will also have to give that a whirl on my big setup as well.

 

[bierhaus15]

Nice setup!

I used to live in Gilmanton (crystal lake), not far south of ya. I sure miss fall in NH.

 

[Boar Beer]

its a great time of year to live in central NH

 

[Jumbo82]

Today is my first brew day with the new setup. I've collected about 30 gallons of wort so far and have just brought the kettle to a boil. I could only mash in 50 lbs of grain into my 20 gal boilermaker, so I'm going to have to supplement a bit with dry extract to get up to a respectable O.G. My final runnings are just about at the point where I need to stop the sparge and top off the kettle with water. I'm making an Amarillo Pale Ale in case anybody was wondering. My dad will be posting some pictures he took at noon later today.

 

[Boar Beer]

Ok this is test day.
We are brewing a batch using the new kettle
You can see the HLT which we filled with sparge water using the 55 gallon new kettle. In this picture Jumbo82 is sparging using the pump to go from the HLT to the MT


Its crude to say the least but for a test its working


Using a bucket to fill the brew kettle. We will use a pump in the future. We just have not figured out the best way to go about it. But as this is a day to test the Brew Kettle hand filling is ok



The Farther Son team

 

[Munsoned]

Fantastic. Just read through the thread for the first time. I can't believe that a 15g kettle can be considered "small." But, compared to those other monsters, it certainly looks that way now.

 

[Munsoned]

Question: Any problems with the Bilchman thermometers (I think that's what you have there)? I've seen a number of posts over the last few days where people were having problems with them when they were used at an angle... Apparently the dials might get stuck or something.

 

[Chosenwon]

That 55 Gal. pot is a thing of beauty! Nice set up and way to go with the father son team!

 

[Boar Beer]

Question: Any problems with the Bilchman thermometers (I think that's what you have there)? I've seen a number of posts over the last few days where people were having problems with them when they were used at an angle... Apparently the dials might get stuck or something.

We use the Thermometers as a guide only. As far as i can tell all the mechanical ones need a rap once in a while if you are trying to follow the temp close. We have two hand held ones that we use to check things and the brew kettles have good ones with digital reed outs.

 

[Jumbo82]

Question: Any problems with the Bilchman thermometers (I think that's what you have there)? I've seen a number of posts over the last few days where people were having problems with them when they were used at an angle... Apparently the dials might get stuck or something.

Yeah, we've had the problem of the dial being stuck on the wrong temp, but we found that with a couple of taps on the glass the needle would move to the right temp. Its pretty accurate after a couple taps, but I must say I hardly ever look at it since our digital control panel gives us a temp reading.

I cut off the sparge when my refractometer read 2.5 (about O.G. 1.010). I added another 8 gallons of water to the kettle and took another reading. Right now there is 38 gallons of wort at O.G. 1.036. By the time it boils down it should be in the neighborhood of 1.040 (first time boiling, so not sure how much boil off there will be). I'll likely add 5 lbs of extra light malt extract to boost the gravity another 7 points. I just put 8 oz of Amarillo hops in a mesh bag, tied it to the handle of the pot and tossed it in the kettle. Hopefully the pellets stay in the bag or else I'll have a nightmare of a time trying to chill through my Therminator (been there, done that).

 

[Jumbo82]

I ended up adding 4.5 lbs of malt extract and 1.5 lbs of corn sugar. I mashed a bit high at 154 degrees, so I thought adding the sugar would help dry it out a bit, but 1.5 lbs in a 34 gallon batch isn't going to make much difference (was 35, but lost a gallon to hot break). My O.G. was 1.049, which according to beersmith means I had 82% efficiency. Right now the whole batch is just starting to bubble away. The hop additions using the mesh bag worked really well. I had no trouble using the Therminator. I used 4 Whirlfloc tablets and the wort came out very clear. A total of 18 oz of Amarillo hops were used, which thanks to hops direct only cost me about $11. Overall a good brew day. I'm looking forward seeing how this batch comes out. Since I have 34 gallons fermenting, I should end up with close to a full barrel of beer. Hopefully it turns out well.

 

[Krelja]

I just read through the whole thread everything looks fantastic. One little thing to add if you don't want to use the sink maybe you could put some of the controls in it with and hide some wires almost like a big junction box, just a thought. Everything looks great and it seems no matter how much you think things through they always change and you have to fly by feel

 

[Boar Beer]

Krelja
Thats a great idea. Thanks.

 

[MultumInParvo]

Wow, I don't know how I missed this thread for so long, but this is great. The brewery is absolutely awesome (Blichmann everywhere!) and the father son team is nice as well. I have been thinking that sometime way in the future I want a big room much like you have, looks perfect for brewing.

Best of luck to you in all of your future brews.

 

[Jaybird]

Holy smokes guys that is freeken killer!!!!
I want to see a picture of the monster false bottom installed.
Cheers
Jay