Show us your brewsystem!

[aleguy]

If that's for a HERMS, you will definitely need a second pump. If it's for a RIMS you will need another burner.

[aleguy]

here are some photos of my brew stand, also under construction.

Sorry about the rotation. The DYS website wouldn't upload if I tried to rotate them.

[Mob_Barley]

Go to picnik.com, upload your photos, edit (ie. rotate them), then save back to your computer. I use it all the time for my website and to adjust the exposure on pics, etc.

[aleguy]

Thanks, Mob!:-D


This is my mash return fixture. It is infinitely adjustable with the turn of a thumbscrew hose clamp.

[Mob_Barley]

To update everyone on the progress of my RIMS build, here are some pics and stuff.

Yeastmeister took time out of his busy schedule to help me with my wiring. He did a great job
and that part of the stand is finished. I just have a few glitches to work through.

One is a casting hole in the burner that was allowing too much air to enter the burner:


Be sure to inspect any of these cast-iron burners right away. I don't know how I missed a hole like that...but
the customer service at Hurricane products was awesome, they are sending out a new burner even though I
was not the original purchaser and did not have a receipt or even know where the thing was purchased.

I placed a couple of those 3M hangers below the control panel to hang the power cord and one of my glass lids on.
Looks cool and was cheap too:


I bought some chrome wire conduit from O'Reilly Auto Parts and wrapped all the wires (loosely right now).
It insulates them a bit and is supposed to be flame retardant as well:


So now I'm waiting on a hurricane burner and a replacement pilot light to arrive so I can continue troubleshooting
my stand. Maybe I'll be able to brew one day before I get too old and can't remember how.

[aleguy]

What's in the silver-painted ammo box???

[Mob_Barley]

The ignition control modules have to be isolated from the control panel because they emit EMI and can play havoc with the rest of your electronics. I priced some stainless waterproof boxes and didn't want to spend $100 or more. I got the ammo box and painted it silver. It is water-tight and doesn't look that bad overall.

[Mob_Barley]

It's finally up and running. Took a long time and a lot of troubleshooting, but she's 100% now.

One final pic of the finished stand.

[yeastmeister]

Nice! When's your first brew day?

[Mob_Barley]

I have to go offshore at the end of this week, so I may not be back for three weeks. I guess I'll wait and see when I get back, then whip up a yeast starter, and finally try and brew.

[Mob_Barley]

Well, I FINALLY got my system somewhat repaired and ready to go. Here are some of the things I learned at the teach a friend to homebrew day:
1. I should have gone with 5/8" OD stainless tubing instead of 1/2" due to the cavitation of the pump.
2. The immersion chiller did not work in the 26 gallon kettle. It was like peeing in the ocean to change the salinity.
3. You have to mount your temperature probe low on the HLT because on 5 gallon batches, once you transfer the strike water to the MT, the probe may be (in my case it was) above the water line of the sparge water and you can't use your controller to get the sparge water at the right temp.
4. When using the setup as I have mine configured, you need to drill out the orifice's to around 7/64" to increase the flow to the burners. I may have to reduce that by one or two sizes to decrease the yellow flames on the tips of my kettle burner.
5. You have to make time to run PBW or some other cleaner through your lines and then a sanitizer before you call your brew-day a wrap.

I ended up re-plumbing my lines that ran to the immersion chiller to work on a Blichmann Therminator. I used the SS cam-lok fittings on the therminator and made the wort-in hose long enough so that I can switch it to the wort-out connection to run PBW and sanitizer in a reverse-flow through the Therminator to clean out any stuck grain and such. I'll use the 5' hose that drains the wort into the fermenter on the wort-in line to discharge the PBW water on the ground.

Since I don't have the whirlpool on the IC any longer, I had to make anohter one and connected it to the top inlet on my kettle. Now, both the wort in from the MT during sparge and the whirlpool flow to the bottom of the kettle against the wall which creates the whirlpool effect. Plus, since I won't be gravity feeding my cooled wort into the fermenter any longer, I plugged the hole on that valve and re-plumbed the Blichmann Hop Blocker to work on the main suction of my kettle.

Here are some pics of my final iteration: (I hope it's final)


Blichmann Therminator plumbed with 1/2" silicone hose


Close up showing the cam-lok fittings


How I replumbed the IC lines to work on the Therminator.


The whirlpool and wort line now goes to the bottom of the kettle.


Blichmann Hop Blocker.


Overall view of the silver beast.

I can't brew anything yet because I will most likely go offshore early next week, but when I get back I'll brew something. I think I'm going to do the first one without help, so I don't have a repeat of the brew day at Marcello's. I want to get the kinks worked out before I invite anyone over.

Cheers!!

[yeastmeister]

Awesome! I just diagnosed my system with the cam locks with the same pump cavitation problem due to restrictions in the line. Look for a nice writeup on the cause and effect of the problem soon from me.

I already ordered the cam lock parts to fix my problem.

If you don't want to go it alone, let me know, I'm more than willing to help troubleshoot! Thats half the fun.

[Imakewort]

With the Blichmann Hop Blocker can you do a flame out whirlpool for hop additions, curious I would like to add it to my boil kettle along with Blichmann's hop back

[yeastmeister]

Schinnen? Any good beer there?

With the Blichmann Hop Blocker can you do a flame out whirlpool for hop additions, curious I would like to add it to my boil kettle along with Blichmann's hop back

[aleguy]

Nice! It took me a moment to realize why you didn't mount your temperature sensors on the HLT outflow, but now I see why. your system is so far away from what everyone else around here is building that you are breaking a lot of new ground. It's not surprising you have been having a lot of teething problems. I have no doubt you'll get everything sorted out soon enough though.