bruin_ale
Well-Known Member
Hey all,
Been brewing since 2005, did two extract batches then moved to all-grain. Here's a picture of my current "sculpture":
http://www.flickr.com/photos/61274208@N00/684102069/in/set-72157600586616585
Well, I've been thinking of upgrading lately, only having a single propane jet burner gets old after awhile. I got a great deal on a partially completed brew sculpture the other day ($35) - it's all 1" steel:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/61274208@N00/3533871054
The only issues are:
1) The holes on the top are too large for any of my pots. I'm thinking of welding in a couple of cross bars to each one.
2) I was going to upgrade before I found this and was going to go single tier. I'm thinking about cutting and re-welding the top tier to be at the same level as the middle tier. Sorta like thepol's setup, I would be able to fly sparge and get away with only buying one pump.
I've been grappling with what to do for burners/heat for the past couple days. Before I joined hbt I was thinking a natural gas burner would be the bee's knees. I have a natural gas bbq in my backyard, so I'd just put a QD on that and I'm in business.
But from what I've seen, there's a lack of adjustability in the natural gas burners (especially the jet burners) and there's very little options to automate the system like you can with electric.
So that said, I checked out the possibility of adding 240V to my detached garage last night and I think it's simple. The previous owner added a 100A sub-panel to the garage, it's got 60A worth of fuses in there now (and two empty spots), so I should be good to add another 40A 240V in there (stop me if it's not that simple, I'm not an electrician).
Anyways, the only thing I hate about electric is having to drill an extra hole in my keggle and also in my current BK which is one of the 15G italian SS kettles (it's going to be my new HLT).
One question for the electric HERMS guys, do I use the PID to control the temp of the HLT and then just run the pump the whole time or do I use a separate temperature controller to measure the temp out the output of the exchange and use that to cycle the pump or what?
Anyways, this'll probably take a while, but I thought I'd start a post now since I'm so excited to get started on this.
Been brewing since 2005, did two extract batches then moved to all-grain. Here's a picture of my current "sculpture":
http://www.flickr.com/photos/61274208@N00/684102069/in/set-72157600586616585
Well, I've been thinking of upgrading lately, only having a single propane jet burner gets old after awhile. I got a great deal on a partially completed brew sculpture the other day ($35) - it's all 1" steel:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/61274208@N00/3533871054
The only issues are:
1) The holes on the top are too large for any of my pots. I'm thinking of welding in a couple of cross bars to each one.
2) I was going to upgrade before I found this and was going to go single tier. I'm thinking about cutting and re-welding the top tier to be at the same level as the middle tier. Sorta like thepol's setup, I would be able to fly sparge and get away with only buying one pump.
I've been grappling with what to do for burners/heat for the past couple days. Before I joined hbt I was thinking a natural gas burner would be the bee's knees. I have a natural gas bbq in my backyard, so I'd just put a QD on that and I'm in business.
But from what I've seen, there's a lack of adjustability in the natural gas burners (especially the jet burners) and there's very little options to automate the system like you can with electric.
So that said, I checked out the possibility of adding 240V to my detached garage last night and I think it's simple. The previous owner added a 100A sub-panel to the garage, it's got 60A worth of fuses in there now (and two empty spots), so I should be good to add another 40A 240V in there (stop me if it's not that simple, I'm not an electrician).
Anyways, the only thing I hate about electric is having to drill an extra hole in my keggle and also in my current BK which is one of the 15G italian SS kettles (it's going to be my new HLT).
One question for the electric HERMS guys, do I use the PID to control the temp of the HLT and then just run the pump the whole time or do I use a separate temperature controller to measure the temp out the output of the exchange and use that to cycle the pump or what?
Anyways, this'll probably take a while, but I thought I'd start a post now since I'm so excited to get started on this.
