Moving to 3V

Hey all

Just pulled the pin on an upgrade to my brewery, as anyone who has read my other thread is aware I have done a bit of BIAB and brew a little bit of beer as well as all grain Mashes for whiskey

Have been using the equipment I have to its limits and been sacrificing ease of use/efficiency because of it. Maxing out my batches at about 23L into the fementer and about 20L of drinkable or distillable product

New system is going to use my 50L milk can with an inkbird pid for my HLT ill be getting an adapter from Punkin when he is back from China for the triclamp drain to 1/2" BSp and then using a bsp to camlock fitting on top of that

I am getting a new 50L 304SS MLT

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Have upgraded it to a triple layer bottom and a better false bottom, will also be insulating it with some clark rubber insulation (will lose less then 1C in an Hour)

That with a Blichman autosparge should really help my batch sparging

Boil kettle will be a 50L 304SS pot (Considering going to a 70L pot atm for added headspace)

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And will be adding an extra 2200w element (Total heating power is 4400w)

Should do me 40L batches with 80-92% efficiency if I do it right Aiming of 80L in 8Hrs ready to ferment

Later on ill get another 50L HLT with Herms

Just wondering who else has a similar setup as well as documenting what im doing :)

I've also got enough grain coming to brew 600L of beer :)

Planning to do a few whisky batches as well :D

Gear should be ready around the 15th of July so hoping to get it around then.

Comments

  • Best thing you can do to utilise your gear and nearly halve your brew day is do back to back batches. Adds an hour ir so to my 5 hour day and neans i get 8 keg batches instead of 4.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • edited July 2017

    @punkin said: Best thing you can do to utilise your gear and nearly halve your brew day is do back to back batches. Adds an hour ir so to my 5 hour day and neans i get 8 keg batches instead of 4.

    Yeah so keen to give that a go, double batch should be 8hrs total based on some rough math

    Will see how I go when I dial it in, I also have 3 15L pots so can use them to heat more strike and sparge water etc :D

    When are you back from china?

  • About the 20th I'll be driving home from the airport.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • @punkin said: About the 20th I'll be driving home from the airport.

    Cool when you get back ill need to get a 3/4" triclamp to 1/2" male bsp fitting off you (if it exists?) So I can run a camlock fitting iff it to either my pump or autosparge

  • I can do a female and a nipple.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • edited July 2017

    Love to do a female and nipples......

    Sorry......Couldn'tHelpIt......ItWasWideOpen.......

  • Today I picked up from the stock feed store (total of $36) all un-malted

    20kg of steam rolled Barley
    20kg of steam rolled Oats
    20kg of Whole wheat
    

    Have worked out that I can mash 2kg of Pilsner with 10kg of un-malted grain and still convert the starches for a good ferment as the Pilsner malt has lots of diastatic power, may need some rice hulls so I don't get a stuck sparge. Thinking of making a rolled oats whisky and some all grain wheat vodka

  • @punkin said: I can do a female and a nipple.

    Hey do you still have 2" triclamp caps with a 1/2" male BSP thread? Thinking ill get the can recirculating during heatup so I get a more consistant temp

    Have a pid that ill run a temp probe into the drain port via my T peice.

    Thinking heatup with 2 elements and then hold the temp I want with the pid and ine element

  • No i have .5 inch in female only.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • @punkin said: No i have .5 inch in female only.

    As in 1/2" female bsp to a 2" triclamp?

    The 3/4" triclamp to 1/2" female bsp ill just use a 1/2" bsp male to male fitting to work with my camlock fitting :)

  • Yes. Rims cap.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • edited July 2017

    Id hold off buying vessels at this stage. Found these insulated vessels holding soup at a Dim Sum restaraunt. Look to be about 40 to 50 litres. Weve sourced them and looks like pricing will come in very well.

    We'll have them ...hopefully... with a ball valve that will have a spout or thread internally to take a braided hose for a mash tun or as an alternative to a barrell for bulk ageing with domino's.

    image

    I'm excited to say the least and will be ordering heaps if we can pull it off.

    image.jpg
    600 x 800 - 75K

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • Already committed but would be keen on getting something like that later on when you get them in :) maybe as a 2nd mash tun. Whats the internal diameter? A full size false bottom would be great

  • Soup pot. Id at this early stage is the only number i know. At 350mm.

    Early daysbut i think we may be on a winner.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • edited July 2017

    @Clickeral - very similar to my Kettle. Not sure if I want to stay BIAB, or go the fully monty with Infusion and HLT. This 55L Kettle is a good size for heating up the water to dissolve sugar - if a bit exciting when the boil starts, on a beer run. I pump out through a Therminator and straight into an SS Chronical fermentor.

    I use a 809 pump with 1/2" ID throughout via CamLocks, so obviously I wish the SD Milk Can had the 1/2" drain, just to keep the flow rates the same between the vessels.

    Also, the SS Chronical Spray Ball looks perfect for the Milk Can, instant CIP (with an SD reducer). It all seems to be coming together nicely in the home brew / distilling world - if you have the cash and the space to store / brew.

    image

    image.jpg
    600 x 800 - 109K
  • @Flidget yes I would love my milkcan drain to be 1/2" but nevermind ill be opening the milkcan valve completely and managing flow via a valve on my pump. Need to see what works best when I get the new system

    If you wanted to go to a larger system an esky with a manifold would be a good thing to get

    Could use your 55l pot as an HLT and boiler? You would just need a bucket to catch wort drained from your tun until the pot is empty

    Ill be insulating my Mash tun, I went for stainless mainly for cleaning and durablity purposes. And im considering getting another 50L hlt with herms later on down the track.

    The milkcan will do the job for now :) and I love getting dual use out of things.

    Have gone to a 70L Boil kettle so should be be able to boil enough to fill a 50L keg post ferment

  • @Clickeral Thanks for that. I never made the mental leap that I already have 2 boilers. The pictured kettle, and the SD milk can ^:)^ This is yet another example of you being a fantastic help, to show me where I should be thinking.

  • So have had my new gear for 2weeks now and have the below brewed almost 80L of beer.

    Still tweaking things and trying to work out if I want to batch sparge or fly sparge

    Think I need to adjust my crush as im getting 70-80% efficiency atm with no real constancy.

    In saying that im using Joe White grain which can cause conversation issues. But over all im having fun

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