The Old Reverend

[Shooter]

In honor of the recovery of one of our most "revered" members, I brewed up a partial mash old ale recipe last weekend. It was also a test of my brew ladder, new pump, new false bottom, new HLT, and new boil kettle spigot. A lot of firsts!

The starter is just about ready to go:

Here's the new setup during the runoff:

This little drill pump actually worked great for moving strike and sparge water:

A couple shots of the sparge underway:

...and to top the day off, a toast to the man himself. A blurry shot of my Scottish 80/-, in a not so clean glass. Here's to you Revvy!

 

[Revvy]

Dude it looks great!!!! What make and model is the pump? It's food gradable and everything? Would you be able to move hot wort with it? I like the setup, I may do something like that. Even just to move strike and sparge water. But man if we could move our wort (hot or cold, but even just cooled) it would be the perfect setup for me.

 

[Shooter]

Dude it looks great!!!! What make and model is the pump? It's food gradable and everything? Would you be able to move hot wort with it? I like the setup, I may do something like that. Even just to move strike and sparge water. But man if we could move our wort (hot or cold, but even just cooled) it would be the perfect setup for me.

Yeah, a few people have asked about that pump. It is sold by Northern Tool, about $20 delivered to your door. I got mine through Amazon. A couple of episodes back James Spencer, of Basic Brewing, mentioned a multi-purpose drill powered pump purchased through his Amazon link. That was my pump!

It's the exact same pump used in the original brew ladder build:

http://home.comcast.net/~midnighthomebrewers/brewladder.htm

Per his instructions, you definitely need to open it up before use and clean out the white grease. It is rated to 220 degrees and is safe, per a post by someone who contacted the manufacturer, for pumping drinking water. I doubt I'll ever try it with wort, but it probably would work for that. For 170-180 degree strike and sparge water it is hard to beat for the price! It leaks just a tiny bit out of the shaft area when running, but it's very minor. I'm really happy with it at this point.

Hopefully the old ale will be as successful as the brew day. It's still fermenting away in the other room!

 

[JetSmooth]

Just came across this while looking for Brewladder stuff.

What brand and model ladder do you have there? At what height is the mash tun? How about the hot liquor tank? I only use one cooler and do a recirculation mash, so I don't know what spot I'd put the cooler in. Probably the top, but then again, it might be hard to stir the mash up so high.

My whole setup hinges on the height of my fermenters, which are ten gallon cornys, so the keggle valve has to sit a 24 inches. So the mash valve has to sit at like five feet. I hate math.

 

[Shooter]

Just came across this while looking for Brewladder stuff.

What brand and model ladder do you have there? At what height is the mash tun? How about the hot liquor tank? I only use one cooler and do a recirculation mash, so I don't know what spot I'd put the cooler in. Probably the top, but then again, it might be hard to stir the mash up so high.

My whole setup hinges on the height of my fermenters, which are ten gallon cornys, so the keggle valve has to sit a 24 inches. So the mash valve has to sit at like five feet. I hate math.

It's a Babcock six foot ladder from Ace Hardware. So, the bottom of the HLT is at six feet, plus the 3/4 inch for the stabilizer board I screwed on to the top. The mash tun probably sits at about four feet. You might be able to place the swing arm assembly that holds the tank one rung higher, but I'm not sure if that would work without looking at it closely.

 

[JetSmooth]

How about the built-in paint tray? That's probably the right height. I'll bet I could move it down a scoshe and extend it out a little bit so I could place a cooler on it. Or replace it all together but put the shelf on that side, so I could step up the rungs to peer into/stir the mash.

That's the same ladder I'm looking at converting. If you have any other pics detailing your build, I would love to see them!

 

[bwomp313]

It leaks just a tiny bit out of the shaft area when running,

He said that it leaks out of the shaft.

 

[Shooter]

How about the built-in paint tray? That's probably the right height. I'll bet I could move it down a scoshe and extend it out a little bit so I could place a cooler on it. Or replace it all together but put the shelf on that side, so I could step up the rungs to peer into/stir the mash.

That's the same ladder I'm looking at converting. If you have any other pics detailing your build, I would love to see them!

Unfortunately, no build pics. It might have been good for me to take a couple, as I actually did the fold out portion differently from the instructions.

Replacing the paint tray, or shoring it up, might work. I'm not sure I'd put a full ten gallon cooler on it as it is, but it wouldn't be hard to beef up.

 

[JetSmooth]

I think I'll look at doing that, then. Just ordered my ladder. I'll try to get some build-pics. Though it's tough to remember to take pics when you're on a build.

 

[jdlev]

Dude it looks great!!!! What make and model is the pump? It's food gradable and everything? Would you be able to move hot wort with it? I like the setup, I may do something like that. Even just to move strike and sparge water. But man if we could move our wort (hot or cold, but even just cooled) it would be the perfect setup for me.

I wonder if the pump from a washer could pull that duty? I've got an extra one from when I got a sock stuck in mine and the lowes guy came out to fix it It can obviously handle some decent temps (whatever you can set your water heater to), not sure about the food grade of it though. One things for sure though...it can move some water quick!