Sunday, October 21, 2007

The new brewery


In the house where I live there is a nice terrace and a little garden. It is great for brewing. The above photo was taken on the day when I brewed the weissbier. As you can see it was raining a little that day but that didn't stop me from brewing. In fact a little rain isn't a problem on brew day, at least as long as the burner or the pump doesn't get wet.

The new brewery consists of the following pieces of equipment:

A robust 100 liter stainless steel brew pot. The thickness is 1.2 mm. It is 50.8 cm wide and 50.8 cm tall. There are two 7/8" holes in it, one 1.5" above the bottom and the second 7" above the bottom. As you can see from the photo the holes are there for the weldless thermometer and the weldless spigot.

Bayou Classic Kick A Banjo Burner, a propane burner that outputs 65kW (210.000 BTU). This is definitely overkill by far, but it works great at [much] lower output. It can be adjusted all the way down, so that you can keep a cup of coffee warm. In my experience with two 40 liter batches it uses about 3.5 kg of propane per batch.


Two 11 kg propane gas containers. I bought two as it is nice to have a backup if the first one runs out. Then I can just go and get the second one from the shed. It also means that I can refill between brew days instead of having to do it on brew day. Or in worst case bringing the brewday to a halt if the propane shop is closed.

Hop Stopper, all stainless steel construction. It is installed inside the brew pot and works as a hop filter.

Therminator, a very effective plate-chiller. It is probably overkill for a brewery of this size, but it can't hurt. In any case it is very cool.

March H315 High Temperature Polysulphone Pump, a 230 volt impeller pump. I bought this one used from someone who had just recently upgraded to a much larger pump. It works nicely, but I find the fact that it needs to be primed a little annoying. If it had generated just a little suction it would have simplified the process of moving the wort.

5 meters of 1/2" silicone tubing, cut into 1, 1, and 3 meter pieces.

The brew stand is home made. The garden furniture works nicely, and was cheap too.

I bought the brew pot and the burner from Austin Homebrew Supply. As the brew pot was too big to ship through US Postal Service I got it shipped with boat freight via JetCarrier. I took advantage of the $5.99 shipping to their shipping hub in New Jersey. It took about a month before it arrived at my doorstep.



Austin Homebrew Supply:
1xSuper Stainless Steel Stock Pot (100 qt)$239.99
1xTwo holes drilled$19.99
1xHigh Output Propane Burner$99.99
1xTherminator Wort Chiller$195.00
1xBrewVint - Plate Chiller Backflush Adaptor$16.99
3xBlichmann Stainless Steel 1/2" QuickConnector$19.99

Innovative Homebrew Solutions:
1xHop Stopper, All Stainless Steel Construction$90.00

Northern Brewer:
1xWeldless Deluxe Plus, S/S Kettle Valve Kit w/barb$39.99

Morebeer:
1xThermometer (3'' Face x 2" Probe)$34.95

7 comments:

Travis said...

Nice, going all out. I have recently moved to 10 gallon batches and found that the 48QT cooler I was using is not cutting it. It's fine for normal or lower gravity beers, but it couldn't handle more than 25lbs of grain with the proper water. Any thoughts on beefing up the mashtun?

Joel said...

Hi,

I am a homebrewer from Australia but living in Stavanger. I find it hard to get good quality supplies. Can you reccommend a good webshop to obtain brewing supplies from?

Thanks

Joel Ireland
joel.ireland@subsea7.com

Adam said...

Grove,

Happy to see your back at it. Nice setup. Lots of good info too. All you all grain guys keep tempting me to leave extract behind.

Anonymous said...

Hi,
Thanks for all the info. It is obvious that the US is the place to get equipment. I noticed on your close-up picture of your brewing kettle that you have some sort of protection. What is that and where did you get it?

Reinhard, Nesbru, norway

Anonymous said...

Hi!
joel:
I have used supplier in the past and have not been disappointed. All norwegian language, though :(

Unknown said...

Howdy!
About the Kick A burner, did you have to do anything to connect it to the Norwegian propane tank? Any extra bits required (cables, regulators, converts etc...), or was it just plug and play?!

grove said...

matthew: You'll need a POL Fitting. Note that with this fitting you'll need a gas container with an "industrial" fitting (i.e. not the ones with a jumbo quick connect). This is what I have myself.

The POL fitting looks like this one: http://www.cajunshoppe.com/img/bpol.jpg

I got mine from Eiva/Propansenteret here in Oslo, but they ordered it for me from another company called Angros. The product number is 651800. The cost was 170 NOK.