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Chuck, are you gonna be there tomorrow? I want to set the precedent that can seamer shareholders get a can or two off of each run. I figure guys like Gordon (and Evan) will probably never use it, but may as well get some beer for their investment.
I have the tapcooler counter pressure bottle filler, and I bought the canning attachments for it. It’s pretty slick!
Evan—-David has gotten his 3-vessel electric system up and running. Kinda makes you think, doesn’t it.
Very impressive, and good job taking the advice and doing it right the first time. I started in college, and there was no chance of buying good equipment. Thrifted stock pots and a cooler mash tun for the hot side, and 5 gallon water cooler jugs stolen from various campus offices for cold side. I finally upgraded to my electric system and ss fermenters during covid lockdown after I dropped a glass carboy filled with finished wort. So that leads to my next question: what are you using for fermenting? It looks like you have a sweet 3-vessel brew system. Did you go for a legit unitank? Glycol chiller? Fermentation chamber? What about serving—-did you build a draft system as well or are you bottling? I’m fascinated to talk to folks who had the resources and space to start out with proper equipment, because I can only imagine what I would have done if I knew then what I know now…
Come to a meeting sometime (next Wednesday) and it’s ok if you don’t have beer to bring yet. First mtg is free. You’ll definitely get quality feedback!
I may be able to help you free up some space. What is the volume of the spike kettle on the top shelf? 👀
That looks great Chuck. Beautiful hardware! It’s a very similar (albeit shinier) design as mine. One thing that I found helpful for streamlining the process was to mount the pump and cfc in place on my table (converted bbq frame). I too have my main temp probe in a tee fitting on my kettle outlet. It reads as long as the pump is on, so I also have a waterproof ds18b20 probe with a high-temp sheath that can go straight into the kettle. I have a third probe in a tee on the outlet of my cfc. Here’s one pro tip: for the cfc water hoses, get color-coded red and blue ones from the laundry section at Home Depot. You’ll never have to think twice about which side is IN and which side is OUT.
Cheers!
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Thanks for sharing this. I might try to fortify my Grolsch bottle supply…$1000 is reasonable for a few cases of empty bottles right?
I’m keepin it classic.
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Thanks Jim. I’m still dialing in the mise en place with regard to the cart and the cables running through the window, but yes, it is a repurposed BBQ. You can see the progression from A to B to C below:
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Throttling the pump flow is a good way to go IMO. A simple ball valve on the outflow side works very well. My understanding is that with magnetic impeller pumps, it doesn’t harm the motor because the impeller can still spin freely.
As you can see, I put valves on everything…
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In my experience, “whirlpooling” has been more like “stirring”. It has led to a hazier wort because all it seems to do is efficiently stir and mix my wort causing resuspension of the trub. I haven’t dedicated too much effort to getting a true whirlpool, mostly because web forums where it’s discussed seem to demonstrate that it’s quite hard to achieve. Does your kettle have a trub dam on the pickup tube? I know we use similar SS Brewtech kettles, and mine came with a little silicone “dam”. It doesn’t block all the trub, but it does prevent a trub superhighway. I’ve gotten the clearest wort when I’ve left the kettle alone for some time, let the trub settle to the bottom, and had the trub dam do its job.
Thanks Jim–hopefully there’ll be some good content for the HomebrewingDIY podcast from this.
And Jay, I did spend a bit too much time fiddling with the weldless fittings to get them to stop dripping. I have a lot of cheap SS fittings that I’ve sourced from various places and have collected over the years. Not surprisingly, the parts that shipped from SS Brewtech with the kettle were perfect out of the box and didn’t even need thread tape. The other fittings that are either well-used or bargain bin (or maybe both) were very annoying. With enough thread tape, I’ve gotten them watertight, but it’s possible that welded bulkheads could be in my future. And yes, I prefer a mainly manual operation as well. I can pre-program the various steps in the recipe, but I don’t trust a computer to run it without me telling it to.
