BigYin
Regular.
I've cobbled together this timeline from various threads of mine on this fine forum :drink:
Sat Aug 28th 2010
Amazingly enough, the Mrs was happy for me to start building an AG brewery, so before she can change her mind I've ordered the first bits for it - the barrels I'll need - one for the boiler, 2 to make the mash tun from, and one to collect the whort and then be the FV after boiling (and I snuck in an extra FV for good luck!).
Wed Sep 1st 2010
The FV's have arrived and I've got two tesco value kettles that will supply the boiler heating elements.
The elements got stripped out - here's the bits from one :
Some wiring adjustments needed made...
In it's homemade shroud
2 fitted and working :mrgreen:
Fri Sep 3rd 2010
Spent this afternoon making the mash and hops filters out if 15mm copper pipe. Have most of the slots cut for the mash filter - using 1mm thick cutting disc on my angle grinder makes short work of it - although tidying up all the little burrs takes just as long again...
Need to go get a 2mm drill bit - must have broken all mine since I can't find any. Grrrr. Spent enough already!
Top tool buy has to be a little pipe cutter from screwfix that only cost £3.50 or so and makes perfect cuts every time. Mind you, it does leave a Sharp edge inside the pipe as my finger tip found out!
Still got a few more slots to cut, but decided it was time to pack it in for the day and relax with a homebrew beer in the garden. Tough life!
Sat Sep 4th 2010
The boiler tap is finally fitted.
The tank connector wouldn't take a pipe and I didn't have a drill piece to drill it out with, so I opted to solder in a 15-10mm reducer piece as an elbow or tee piece could then slot onto that.
The two strainers are nearly made up - the majority of the cutting and drilling is, alas, still to do :lol:
Quick check to see it all fits!
Mon Sep 6th 2010
Managed to get a bit more done today - got all the slots cut for the Mash tun :
Fitted the tap and got the strainer in place
The connection arm swivels to allow it to attach to different heights of tap just in case it needs to go into the boiler for pellet hops as I'm not certain I've got the taps fitted at the same height :lol:
Tomorrow I'll crack on with drilling all the holes for the hops strainer, maybe make up a sparge arm for the mash tun and hopefully start work on the wort chiller.
Also need to insulate the mash tun, waiting for a thermostat etc to arrive for fitting to the boiler, need to check the fittings are watertight and mark out the graduations for fill volume.
Am also going to make up a platform for the boiler to sit on on the worksurface (gravity and few bits of wood is cheaper than a pump!), and will also have to do a bit more woodwork to create some shelf space to store all this stuff out of the wife's way while it's not in use :lol:
The holes for the kettle elements are cut with a 38mm cutter which is part of a set from screwfix that I already had and have been able to use various cutter from it for a number of jobs.
Wed Sep 8th 2010
Immersion chiller completed
Thurs Sep 9th 2010
work on the brewery is progressing steadily.
Mash tun needs insulated, that's tomorrow morning's job, other than that it's good to go. Sparging arm is made, just needs tested to see if it's going to work the way I want it to :hmm:
The boiler will get a single coat of insulation, but not until the thermostat gets here - ordered it from virtual village - so that could be a right old story trying to persuade it to work... :lol:
Built some shelves to keep all the new kit out of the wife's way, and a fold-away stand to sit the boiler up on for brew days.
Made an immersion cooler, it's all leak tested and ready to go.
Doing a trade tomorrow with hairybiker for one of my immersion coolers, so I'll have a king keg tomorrow, and that rapidly brings forward the potential first AG brew day (I have two kits to deal with first - all being well I'll start the Santa's Winter Warmer tonight...).
It's all looking rather good at the moment - although I should get my act together and work out when to order the grains etc
Sun Sep 12th 2010
I'm almost there!
Here's my fold away stand for the boiler
Not that I'll be brewing here, but this is the rough setup
And the storage system I've made in the garage to keep it all away from the Mrs who was moaning about it all taking over the house :lol:
Now, if I can ever figure out how to get that PID thing I've bought to work...
Tue Sep 26th 2010
Finally figured out the PID!!!!
Sun Oct 3rd 2010
The first All Grain Brew!!
The first stage was to get the boiler up on it's stand and on the go - PID set to 78c, the mash tun was warmed up, and while that was going on the grain was measured out, and the printed instructions gleaned from this very forum, where read and re-read many times over...
The boiler was fed hot water to give it an easier job.
In the first beginner error, I failed to spot the bit in the recipe that mentioned roasted grain
- so the oven was hastily turned on and a search of THBF revealed 130c for 45 minutes seemed to be about right. So that gave time for a cuppa and and update to the 'crib notes' for future brews. Live and learn, eh?
The next thing I noticed was that the sparging arm was far too tall. A swift cut and some quick soldering and it was at a much better height.
After 90 minutes, mash temp had only dropped by 1.3c to 70.5c
Time to start to sparge.
First runnings
Pouring back in gently
Some steamy sparging arm action
The sparge ran through without sticking at all :mrgreen:
Running into the collector
The view from below
A clamp kept the hose in place to minimise 'hot aeration' and kept hands free for grabbing samples to test the SG
Stopped when I had 24 litres of wort and the runnings SG was approaching 0.990.
The boiler was lifted down from its stand, and the wort was jugged and then poured into it, and with the PID now set to 100c, settled down for the boil to get going.
When it first reached the boil it foamed up like I really hadn't expected. I chucked in the 4 litres I'd kept back, but not before the worksurface had a hot sticky covering. D'oh!
30 minutes later the fuggles hops went in. At an hour and a quarter into the boil, half a crushed protoflac tablet was added in and then the chiller was put in place to santise it.
The volume had dropped a lot, thanks to some over vigorous boiling, so 2 L of boiled water were added to compensate.
At 90 minutes the power was turned off to the elements, and the cooler was turned on, Leaving the PID on gave a constant readout of the dropping temperature.
The waste water from the chiller was initially directed into the FV where it mixed with a sanitiser. The stirring paddle, hose, trial jar and hydrometer were also sanitised.
Once the FV was full, the flow was turned off briefly to let the outflow be directed into the sink instead.
It only took 11 minutes to reach 28c!
Finally the cooled wort was run, splashing all the way, into the FV.
The boiler kept the hops inside it!
They were added to the spent mash in the garden compost.
Finally the S04 yeats was pitched, and AG#1 was trully on its way :mrgreen:
Looking forward to the first bottle!! :drink:
Sat Aug 28th 2010
Amazingly enough, the Mrs was happy for me to start building an AG brewery, so before she can change her mind I've ordered the first bits for it - the barrels I'll need - one for the boiler, 2 to make the mash tun from, and one to collect the whort and then be the FV after boiling (and I snuck in an extra FV for good luck!).
Wed Sep 1st 2010
The FV's have arrived and I've got two tesco value kettles that will supply the boiler heating elements.
The elements got stripped out - here's the bits from one :
Some wiring adjustments needed made...
In it's homemade shroud
2 fitted and working :mrgreen:
Fri Sep 3rd 2010
Spent this afternoon making the mash and hops filters out if 15mm copper pipe. Have most of the slots cut for the mash filter - using 1mm thick cutting disc on my angle grinder makes short work of it - although tidying up all the little burrs takes just as long again...
Need to go get a 2mm drill bit - must have broken all mine since I can't find any. Grrrr. Spent enough already!
Top tool buy has to be a little pipe cutter from screwfix that only cost £3.50 or so and makes perfect cuts every time. Mind you, it does leave a Sharp edge inside the pipe as my finger tip found out!
Still got a few more slots to cut, but decided it was time to pack it in for the day and relax with a homebrew beer in the garden. Tough life!
Sat Sep 4th 2010
The boiler tap is finally fitted.
The tank connector wouldn't take a pipe and I didn't have a drill piece to drill it out with, so I opted to solder in a 15-10mm reducer piece as an elbow or tee piece could then slot onto that.
The two strainers are nearly made up - the majority of the cutting and drilling is, alas, still to do :lol:
Quick check to see it all fits!
Mon Sep 6th 2010
Managed to get a bit more done today - got all the slots cut for the Mash tun :
Fitted the tap and got the strainer in place
The connection arm swivels to allow it to attach to different heights of tap just in case it needs to go into the boiler for pellet hops as I'm not certain I've got the taps fitted at the same height :lol:
Tomorrow I'll crack on with drilling all the holes for the hops strainer, maybe make up a sparge arm for the mash tun and hopefully start work on the wort chiller.
Also need to insulate the mash tun, waiting for a thermostat etc to arrive for fitting to the boiler, need to check the fittings are watertight and mark out the graduations for fill volume.
Am also going to make up a platform for the boiler to sit on on the worksurface (gravity and few bits of wood is cheaper than a pump!), and will also have to do a bit more woodwork to create some shelf space to store all this stuff out of the wife's way while it's not in use :lol:
The holes for the kettle elements are cut with a 38mm cutter which is part of a set from screwfix that I already had and have been able to use various cutter from it for a number of jobs.
Wed Sep 8th 2010
Immersion chiller completed
Thurs Sep 9th 2010
work on the brewery is progressing steadily.
Mash tun needs insulated, that's tomorrow morning's job, other than that it's good to go. Sparging arm is made, just needs tested to see if it's going to work the way I want it to :hmm:
The boiler will get a single coat of insulation, but not until the thermostat gets here - ordered it from virtual village - so that could be a right old story trying to persuade it to work... :lol:
Built some shelves to keep all the new kit out of the wife's way, and a fold-away stand to sit the boiler up on for brew days.
Made an immersion cooler, it's all leak tested and ready to go.
Doing a trade tomorrow with hairybiker for one of my immersion coolers, so I'll have a king keg tomorrow, and that rapidly brings forward the potential first AG brew day (I have two kits to deal with first - all being well I'll start the Santa's Winter Warmer tonight...).
It's all looking rather good at the moment - although I should get my act together and work out when to order the grains etc
Sun Sep 12th 2010
I'm almost there!
Here's my fold away stand for the boiler
Not that I'll be brewing here, but this is the rough setup
And the storage system I've made in the garage to keep it all away from the Mrs who was moaning about it all taking over the house :lol:
Now, if I can ever figure out how to get that PID thing I've bought to work...
Tue Sep 26th 2010
Finally figured out the PID!!!!
Sun Oct 3rd 2010
The first All Grain Brew!!
The first stage was to get the boiler up on it's stand and on the go - PID set to 78c, the mash tun was warmed up, and while that was going on the grain was measured out, and the printed instructions gleaned from this very forum, where read and re-read many times over...
The boiler was fed hot water to give it an easier job.
In the first beginner error, I failed to spot the bit in the recipe that mentioned roasted grain
- so the oven was hastily turned on and a search of THBF revealed 130c for 45 minutes seemed to be about right. So that gave time for a cuppa and and update to the 'crib notes' for future brews. Live and learn, eh? The next thing I noticed was that the sparging arm was far too tall. A swift cut and some quick soldering and it was at a much better height.
After 90 minutes, mash temp had only dropped by 1.3c to 70.5c
Time to start to sparge.
First runnings
Pouring back in gently
Some steamy sparging arm action
The sparge ran through without sticking at all :mrgreen:
Running into the collector
The view from below
A clamp kept the hose in place to minimise 'hot aeration' and kept hands free for grabbing samples to test the SG
Stopped when I had 24 litres of wort and the runnings SG was approaching 0.990.
The boiler was lifted down from its stand, and the wort was jugged and then poured into it, and with the PID now set to 100c, settled down for the boil to get going.
When it first reached the boil it foamed up like I really hadn't expected. I chucked in the 4 litres I'd kept back, but not before the worksurface had a hot sticky covering. D'oh!
30 minutes later the fuggles hops went in. At an hour and a quarter into the boil, half a crushed protoflac tablet was added in and then the chiller was put in place to santise it.
The volume had dropped a lot, thanks to some over vigorous boiling, so 2 L of boiled water were added to compensate.
At 90 minutes the power was turned off to the elements, and the cooler was turned on, Leaving the PID on gave a constant readout of the dropping temperature.
The waste water from the chiller was initially directed into the FV where it mixed with a sanitiser. The stirring paddle, hose, trial jar and hydrometer were also sanitised.
Once the FV was full, the flow was turned off briefly to let the outflow be directed into the sink instead.
It only took 11 minutes to reach 28c!
Finally the cooled wort was run, splashing all the way, into the FV.
The boiler kept the hops inside it!
They were added to the spent mash in the garden compost.
Finally the S04 yeats was pitched, and AG#1 was trully on its way :mrgreen:
Looking forward to the first bottle!! :drink:
