O.K. Combrewter

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kevmo
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O.K. Combrewter

Post by kevmo »

(more or less a repost from my post on HBT)

Here's my system, up and running after months of planning:

It's a three pump system that was inspired largely by Jon W.'s BCS system.

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The stand is a little different than your normal brew stand. The structural component of the stand has a L profile rather than a square/rectangular profile.

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I mounted some aluminum extrusion to the stand and then the Blichmann modular burners to to the extrusion. It's pretty damn sturdy.

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I then fabricated some square stainless tubing to mount to the extrusion and hang out in front of the burners. I piped all the natural gas and electrical through the tubing.

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The kettles are from Stout Tanks and Kettles and incorporate Stout's HERMs option.

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The brew kettle has a tangential inlet and concave bottom for whirlpooling. Since I'm already whirlpooling, I installed a dedicated immersion chiller.

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I brewed on it this weekend and it went about as good as I could have reasonably expected. Here's a picture of me and my buddy with two outrageously overfilled carboys:

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ECC
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Re: O.K. Combrewter

Post by ECC »

Congrats on a beautiful build. The L shaped stand is truly innovative! Can we see some shots of the control panel guts? Also, would you mind sharing your HMI image?
JonW
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Re: O.K. Combrewter

Post by JonW »

Very nice! Do you undo all those tri clovers at the end of the brew session or do you leave the common rail & valves in place?
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Re: O.K. Combrewter

Post by JonW »

Do you have a liquid flow diagram? I take it you are not recirculating your HLT water (at least that's what I gather from what I can tell with the valve configuration). How are you monitoring your HLT temp if it's not recirculating?
kevmo
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Re: O.K. Combrewter

Post by kevmo »

ECC wrote:Can we see some shots of the control panel guts? Also, would you mind sharing your HMI image?
I'm really actually embarrassed with the panel organization. I need to clean it up a bit. I intend to redo it in the near future.

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Here's the HMI image. It's a little different from the existing set up:

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JonW wrote:Do you undo all those tri clovers at the end of the brew session or do you leave the common rail & valves in place?
The rail will always stay in place unless I need to work on the gas or electrical. The pumps are mounted to brackets that were welded on the underside of the rail. All the tri-clover is built off the pumps. I haven't developed a routine yet but I intend to dismantle the tri-clover every couple of brews or so. All the parts that come in contact with cooled wort will be cleaned every session.
JonW wrote:Do you have a liquid flow diagram? I take it you are not recirculating your HLT water (at least that's what I gather from what I can tell with the valve configuration). How are you monitoring your HLT temp if it's not recirculating?
My diagrams are a little outdated. As pictured, I can move liquid in and out of the BK and MLT and out only on the HLT. However, the upper right inlet on the MLT (for sparging) is connected to an internal silicon tube. I sparge through the tube. No spraying or whirly-gigs, just a slow flow over the grain. That tube is placed on the upper left inlet on the BK, which feeds into the immersion chiller. So for cooling, I put water in the MLT and ice in the HLT then pull the MLT water through the HERMS coil for a prechill then back up through the sparge tubing and finally through the immersion chiller. If I want to recirculate into the HLT, I just put that tube (assuming I'm not chilling or sparging) over the lip and into the HLT. The short answer is that each of the kettles have thermowells with temp probes in the back.
Last edited by kevmo on Mon Nov 28, 2011 1:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
kevmo
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Re: O.K. Combrewter

Post by kevmo »

I should mention - since you're bound to notice - that one of the e ball valves is completely redundant. I underestimated the scale of the plumbing when I designed it. When I finally started putting it together it turned out the extra ball valve was the perfect length to bring together the tri-clover plumbing.
gbrewer
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Re: O.K. Combrewter

Post by gbrewer »

Did you have any problem with pump cavitation?
kevmo
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Re: O.K. Combrewter

Post by kevmo »

gbrewer wrote:Did you have any problem with pump cavitation?
Not that I've noticed. The pumps seemed to be fully primed by the time I start them. FWIW, these are the newer morebeer issued "high flow" pumps, which, according to their website, "features a different slightly higher flow rate with less issues of cavitation."
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Re: O.K. Combrewter

Post by JonW »

kevmo wrote:
gbrewer wrote:Did you have any problem with pump cavitation?
Not that I've noticed. The pumps seemed to be fully primed by the time I start them. FWIW, these are the newer morebeer issued "high flow" pumps, which, according to their website, "features a different slightly higher flow rate with less issues of cavitation."
Couple of things to add here.... The way the pumps are setup here with a direct drop (straight hose) to the input of the pumps helps greatly in getting primed. Additionally, the new pump model is the March 815 and while the head is the same as the 809, the internal impeller is larger and completely fills the head cavity (the 809 impeller has a huge gap between the edge of the impeller and the inside of the pump head). This change in impeller size does wonders to sweep the air out of the head versus the 809 which can leave a large trapped bubble around the impeller.

I'm thinking of changing out the impellers on all 3 of my pumps.
mdunlop
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Re: O.K. Combrewter

Post by mdunlop »

Beautiful work and inspiring. Im in the process of designing and building something similar but all electric. Im trying to decide on TRI clovers vs quick disconnects. Im wondering your thoughts on why you went with TC's

With the threaded fittings from the electric valves and pumps along with the barb fittings the system would not be considered sanitary is that correct?
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