Brewery upgrade: 10 gallon 1/2 digital HERMS on a Top Tier.

[andy77]

This is the first brew on my upgraded system. From a 5 gallon system utilizing a Top Tier, 10 gallon kettle and Orange cooler to a 10 gallon system utilizing stainless 20 gallon kettles and a 50% digital HERMS system.

List of the changes made:

-Everything, from the water lines to the hot side hoses to the transfer tubing is 1/2" ID and connects using brass QDs.
-2 20 Gallon kettles with welded fittings for boil and direct fired mash.
-Half digital HERMS using a temp controller running the mash through my IC, that is in my HLT.

I took pics as best I could, but remembering to take pics during a first brew day with a new system is hectic at best. Enjoy the pics. BN Army for life!!!




The carbon block filter. I hook it right onto the kettle handle and the blue hose feeds right into the kettle. The brass QD on the right is connected to a long pece of vinyl tubing that connects to the garden hose faucet. Remember that hose, it stays connected to the house water supply all brew day because we're going to need it for later.



This is the automated mash. Just like a MoreBeer Smart system, a thermowell in the mash tun turns the pump on and off as the mash dips below a my set point. The mash runs from the mash tun to my immersion chiller, which right now is doubling as a heat exchanger and is placed in the mash tun. I keep the HLT at 160-165 manually, hence the 50% digital SMART. Placing the controller on top of the boill kettle is a bit akward, but do-able. I have some questions for B3 sculpture owners about mash procedures, but that's another thread.



Closeup of the Mash Tun 'cuz I think stainless is sexy.

[andy77]

Yet another picture of a boiling kettle.


I don't whirlpool, instead do a "hot settle." Note the brass QDs on the chiller. I used them to connect the mash recirculation earlier. After the rest, I'm going to connect the chilling water using the same hose that I used to connect the house water to the filter.


I just moved to a condo that doesn't have a convenient gutter accessable from the back patio. Instead, I run the waste water line into a garden drain. On the far left side, you can also see the garden hose line coming from the house faucet towards the chiller.


My groundwater is in the mid seventies, so after getting the wort to 80-90ish, I recirc ice water through my chiller with the pump.


Chilling configuration (can you tell which hose is the new one?):


Racking to fermenters. Using better bottles instead of glass carboys is new, too. I figure if I'm going to make big changes, might as well do them all at once.


Happy yeast. This is my house IPA recipe. Columbus to bitter, and 8 ounces of cascade/centennial blend in the last 10 minutes. Always tasty. One fermenter is will be dry hopped with cascade/centennial/amarillo, and one will get 3 ounces of that new Falconer's Flight blend.

[Rictanica]

congrats on the upgrade. Lookn' good. Iv'e considered wirlpooling the hot wort from boil kettle to counterflow and back to settle out trub. As it is now it gravity feeds from boil kettle to counter flow into carboys.

Do you find it reduces cold break considerably?