Tiny Brew House. Ultimate BIAB 110v System Build

[poptarts]

Crude but this is pretty much my basket plan with some cross braces that will go under the basket on the pot rim to support it to help it drain

 

[Vandulus]

Shiny! Did they include a free pair of sunglasses? If not how can you brew with all that bling?

 

[iijakii]

Sexy kettle, man!

Dont think I saw you mention it, but how come you didnt go with 2x 120v circuits? Could just run an extension cord for a 1500w element to heat strike and come to a boil. Shorten your brew day by an hour or more and be able to do larger boils.

 

[poptarts]

Sexy kettle, man!

Dont think I saw you mention it, but how come you didnt go with 2x 120v circuits? Could just run an extension cord for a 1500w element to heat strike and come to a boil. Shorten your brew day by an hour or more and be able to do larger boils.

idk... something inside me says I should do this with 110v so if I can bring it over to a friends and do a brew or something but I mean... That has happened like once in my brewing career and it was like 4 years ago so honestly i'm leaning toward just rolling 220v. Im having my house built so it wont be an issue to get the hookups on GFCI wherever I want.... maybe I should just do that lol...

 

[iijakii]

idk... something inside me says I should do this with 110v so if I can bring it over to a friends and do a brew or something but I mean... That has happened like once in my brewing career and it was like 4 years ago so honestly i'm leaning toward just rolling 220v. Im having my house built so it wont be an issue to get the hookups on GFCI wherever I want.... maybe I should just do that lol...

I'm saying if you want to keep it 120v just run one of the heaters on a separate circuit. I did that on a previous brewrig and it worked well. In any kitchen you're pretty much guaranteed to have two circuits. Otherwise you can run a 20ft extension cord to another room. Too late for that already I guess with your custom pot. Unless you wanted to do a heatstick but you're too blingy for that I reckon. So yeah, go 220v lol.

 

[poptarts]

Yea i'm not going 2 elements haha, Ill just make sure to have them install a couple of GFCI 220v circuits for me inside and outside to future proof myself a little and roll a single 110v element for now and go from there. Worst case I get a new element and beef up some wire in the panel and go 220 in the future if I get tired of being slow.

 

[BeardedBrews]

Crude but this is pretty much my basket plan with some cross braces that will go under the basket on the pot rim to support it to help it drain

You're going to have ~2.5 gallons of liquid below your basket in that design. This may not be a problem, but it's something you should consider.

 

[poptarts]

Back to business.

• Order placed with Arbor for basket.
• They wanted $50 for the support hooks so i'm going to just make my own out of copper pipe or buy some SS bar stock and bend my own.
• Badger Pipes wont make me a custom pool heater with TC fittings so just going to roll with the china condenser and see how that goes. My system is going to heat slow it might as well cool slow
• Going to place an order from Aliexpress for most of my parts once I get it all ironed out so those should be here by next year...

 

[poptarts]

You're going to have ~2.5 gallons of liquid below your basket in that design. This may not be a problem, but it's something you should consider.

Yea already did the math on that too :/ My old system had roughly the same deadspace and it wasn't an issue. I plan on mashing at full volume and doing recirc during the mash so I dont expect any problems.

 

[PsychoBiter]

Sorry to the OP for this.....but trying to help Metzen

- searching for a small sprayer head that will fit through the 1.5TC port in the lid to replace the locline. Some pieces of the locline can’t be pulled through. I’d like to be able to swap out the Recirc fitting after the mash and replace with a whirlpool fitting (bent tubing that drops from the lid into the wort with an angle at the end to force the whirlpool)

Put a female QD on the TC fitting on your lid with a TC to 1/2" NPT hole http://www.beveragefactory.com/homebrew/pre-fermentation-equipment/brewing-pump/tc105-cap-12-npt.html w/ a 1/2" NPT nipple. Then put 1 male QD on to the line loc (or sprayhead) and another to your whirlpool fitting, then you can easily switch from one to the other from the bottom side of your lid and not have to thread anything through the TC port.

Similar to what I did in pics below.

Also, if you need more flow from your pump, angle the pick up tube some, on mine the flow was greatly reduced until I turned it 45degrees to allow the pick up some more "breathing room"

 

[poptarts]

I wanted to do something like that with the whirlpool return but it would block the outlet for steam on my system since lid only has one hole.

Bought panel supplies. We are going 220v

 

[Metzen]

- I don’t like the U bar I have for draining my the basket. Too much finesse required to position the U bar while holding a heavy basket. I am either going to use J hooks or build small supports that hang from the pot handles and swing up to form a support on which the draining hooks on the basket can rest (hard to describe but I’ll draw something out and post it). This way I can pull the basket out and just flip up the supports on both sides with a quick flick of my finger

Today I constructed the steel supports attached to my pot handles to hold my basket. I still want to “spring load” them so that they are more stable. They work well as-is, but if the basket bumps it too hard, the support may swing down against the side of the pot. By adding a spring, the support would push against the side of the basket when at the top position and should make it that much easier to setup (literally just a flick of your finger). I’ll align the spring so that when you push the support beneath the pot handle it’ll toggle and pull it against the side of the pot instead.

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[rl6]

I, for one, think this is ingenious! Most other solutions are attached directly to the basket or the top rim of the kettle. This is great for keeping the supports out of the way.

 

[poptarts]

I had a dream about swing out hooks on the basket to where when you pick up the basket they would just grab the rim at the top, should allow for hands free action so I can use both hands to pick up basket. I dig your solution though, looks clean and easy to use.

give or take something like this... Probably made out of some SS or Aluminum Rod and pipe.

 

[poptarts]

Progress Update:
Got some fittings from Brewhardware and started working on the hardware and software for control panel.

 

[Metzen]

I had a dream about swing out hooks on the basket to where when you pick up the basket they would just grab the rim at the top, should allow for hands free action so I can use both hands to pick up basket. I dig your solution though, looks clean and easy to use.

give or take something like this... Probably made out of some SS or Aluminum Rod and pipe.

Excellent idea. Looking forward to seeing your dream become reality. Cheers.

 

[Metzen]

Spring action!

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[poptarts]

Nice hands free seems like the way to go.

 

[poptarts]

More bling and some more panel parts showed up. Im continuing work on software for panel. Pretty sure everything is shipped and on the way at this point.

 

[jcav]

I love it so far! Keep up the good work!

John

 

[poptarts]

Butterflies showed up.

 

[Metzen]

Butterflies showed up.

Nice looking butterfly. If you don’t mind, where did you pick these up?

 

[Metzen]

Sorry to the OP for this.....but trying to help Metzen







Put a female QD on the TC fitting on your lid with a TC to 1/2" NPT hole http://www.beveragefactory.com/home...-equipment/brewing-pump/tc105-cap-12-npt.html w/ a 1/2" NPT nipple. Then put 1 male QD on to the line loc (or sprayhead) and another to your whirlpool fitting, then you can easily switch from one to the other from the bottom side of your lid and not have to thread anything through the TC port.



Similar to what I did in pics below.



Also, if you need more flow from your pump, angle the pick up tube some, on mine the flow was greatly reduced until I turned it 45degrees to allow the pick up some more "breathing room"

Took your advice. Cheers!

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[poptarts]

Nice, I would go that route if I didnt need to have the TC fitting open during boil for steam.

Got PWM and temp probes up and running on my panel, next up coding PID logic.

 

[poptarts]

Nice looking butterfly. If you don’t mind, where did you pick these up?

Found a good deal on eBay for $26 each.

 

[poptarts]

More parts showed up. So running into a little design help question. So this whole assembly hangs off the lid and I'm a little worried about stress on the lid TC fitting and overall lid clamp stress over time especially when this whole thing is filled with wort during chilling and recirc. I found a super simple solution that works perfect is bracing the condenser unit on the handle with a TC clamp but its not 100% fancy looking so looking if anyone has any easy to attach remove cleaner looking ways to do this.

 

[hafmpty]

...if anyone has any easy to attach remove cleaner looking ways to do this.

What about a sanitary pipe hanger? Something like this:

Then use something like the little clips you're using for the basket spring attachments. Attach one to the handle and thread through that into the pipe hanger. Something like that?

 

[Metzen]

Rather than have the assembly supported from the lid and the side of the kettle, you could also build an adjustable height foot to support it from the bottom (if the bottom of the assembly will be close to the floor - can’t tell yet). I’m not exactly sure what the bottom of the assembly will look like but perhaps you could combine a pipe hanger and threaded, adjustable rubber foot to give it support. Not sure it’s that much more elegant, but maybe it would look more “intentional”

 

[poptarts]

Rather than have the assembly supported from the lid and the side of the kettle, you could also build an adjustable height foot to support it from the bottom (if the bottom of the assembly will be close to the floor - can’t tell yet). I’m not exactly sure what the bottom of the assembly will look like but perhaps you could combine a pipe hanger and threaded, adjustable rubber foot to give it support. Not sure it’s that much more elegant, but maybe it would look more “intentional”

Yea Im leaning toward some pipe clamp hanger supporting the bottom. I think I will have a 90 bend before that tee valve so that should work pretty easy then I wouldn't have to have it attach to the kettle at all.

 

[enormous13]

Man, that’s an impressive build right there. I might be wrong here, but could you Brew and distill out of this thing? (With a few small adjustments)