Help designing ag setup

[mak]

Hi all

After recently moving to AG I've encountered a couple of issues...

1. Mrs is going mental, house is not a brewery, etc
2. Water vapours, smell from boiler
3. Power from my cooker gas hob is only 2kw

Current setup is a 40ltr ss with hop strainer and tap. Used for boiler and hlt, and an insulated mash tun with false bottom.

Looks like I need to move to the garage but my bike lives in there and i don't want it getting rusty from all the vapours! :whistle:

Are there any guides or tips anyone can give on setting things up a little better? Ideally I'd like to get into a position where I can upgrade to herms. Firstly though, is getting it out of the house without too much expenditure and not upsetting my triumph!

I think a pump may be in order and a separate hlt... But I'm not sure what to do with them! :drunk:

 

[Mark1964]

its quite a step to use a herms but you could set up a 3 teir system in your garage. This involved a hot liquor tun a mash tun and a boiler. It uses gravity to transfer the hot water to the mash tun and then to the boiler. You could fit an extraction pipe to the boiler so you wont rust your bike

 

[mak]

Thanks. That is almost what i have now I guess, though I have to refill hlt and then use as boiler. If I got another ss pot I'm guessing I'll need 2 gas hobs... Or an electric hlt with a pid?

Any ideas where I can find some form of extractor kit? Guess this is a lid with middle cut out and tube attached?

 

[PD]

Shed or garage is your best bet, for matrimonial harmony get it out of the kitchen
I brew in my attached garage and leave the door open when the boil is on no problem except I'm open to passing eyes from undesirables.
An extractor fan would be better for me, easily available from Wickes, B&Q etc, Just need a hole knocking in the wall. A flexible tbe connects this to the lid of your boiler which needs one large or several smaller holes cutting in it.

 

[Vossy1]

Think cooker hood, ducting and fan. Best to site the fan at the exit, think drain for hood to catch condensation, put a swan neck in the ducting near the hood with a drain hole to collect condensation.
Alternatively, you could do what I do and site the boiler near the door and use a fan to push the air out of the open door....a lot less work :lol:

 

[Mark1964]

Brian i brew in the kitchen and have perfect matrimonial harmony

 

[mak]

Is your wife a beer head too? I think it makes house smell lovely, she feels sick!

Fan + window. That's my kind of style! I was wondering whether to take that old fan down the tip too....

 

[Ceejay]

Brian i brew in the kitchen and have perfect matrimonial harmony

Me too. I brew when the MD is at work and I have a day off; open all the windows, extractor on, start early and make sure I've cleaned up by the time she gets back.

Recently I experimented with No Sparge brewing, which saves a fair amount of time but you lose a lot of efficiency.

 

[PD]

Mark you have a very understanding wife in Wendy..... :thumb: :drunk:
both drunks together.

Its not too bad if both persons indulge in the same hobby but things can get a bit fraught if one party is not into the dark arts....

for the info of other folks on here... when I called at Mark and Wendy's for a brew day......who was it down at the bottom of the garden grinding away at the Barley with a hand grinder.................poor old Wendy of course....and the dog. Mark sat in the kitchen watching the temps rise.....

 

[mak]

Lol - you're a lucky man mark!!

 

[fbsf]

I'm quite lucky as well, but again I try to brew when she's around less - so if she's taking our daughter somewhere on a Saturday, I'll do an overnight mash on the Friday night with a couple of batch sparges early-ish Saturday morning (get up at 7 and put the HLT on, have a shower and shave whilst it's getting up to temp, then start sparge 1 at about 7.45).

Doing this normally means I can have everything done, cleaned and tidied away by about 1pm - it's just the fermenter sat in the corner of the dining room that she can then see but as she drinks beer, it's tolerated! :

 

[WelshPaul]

Would it be cheaper and more satisfying to simply upgrade the Missus for a newer model?

 

[fbsf]

Would it be cheaper and more satisfying to simply upgrade the Missus for a newer model?

Oh, that option is never cheap...