Golddiggie
Well-Known Member
After seeing the idear in another thread (from the person not wanting to change hose connections around so much) I decided to go ahead and make a manifold setup going to/from my two Chugger pumps. It wasn't a cheap project (about $550 currently into the project, not counting the pumps). But I think it will make brew day easier on me. Since I no longer need to change any hose connections for the different processes. Before, I would move the wort pump outlet between the HERMS inlet and BK whirlpool (when draining the MT) as well as the water pump outlet from the HLT recirculation connection to the HERMS (to add sparge water). Then the wort pump from the BK whirlpool fitting to the wort strainer inlet. Now, I just open valves to route water/wort as needed.
Full shot (left pump is wort, right is water):
I don't have the assembly on the plate chiller out port that runs to the conical fermenter. That includes the oxygenation setup as well (plus a ball valve). Since I now have a couple of 'spare' butterfly valves, I might change the ball valve on that to a butterfly (more compact for length).
Closeup of the wort pump setup:
More focus on the water pump:
HERMS oil inlet with the tee fitting:
Connections to/from the wort strainer and plate chiller:
If you look, there's a total of seven valves between the assemblies on the two pumps. I went with the pull handle version due to cost and how compact they are. Really didn't want to spend $55 each for the Spike (short handle) butterfly valves. These came in at about $25 each (from Amazon). I used a lot of the hose lengths that I had already cut. Many from the runs that were in use previously with the QD connections.
I went with a good number of 90 degree bend barb fittings to make routing easier and use shorter lengths of tubing. One of the things I can already see as being an improvement is the connection from pump to wort strainer. Previously the tubing was going from the pump outlet (vertical) to the strainer as it's shown here. There were times where the hose would kink down on itself. Now, the chance of that happening is gone.
I also went with the 1" tee and cross fittings since I figured the 1-1/2" would be too large for this use case. I didn't want to go smaller than 1" (even if I could have easily located them). I still might change the barb fittings going from the BK and MT to 3/4" (or use 3/4" tubing, so probably 7/8" fittings) depending on how things work out in the first session or two. I did run a test yesterday (and a short one today) into the BK. If anything it seems the low rate is better than before. I did place the valves on the wort pump inlet so that it wouldn't try to push back up to either the MT or BK when flowing from the other.
The next hardware change, on the current setup, could be the plate chiller to one that has native TC fittings for at least the wort side. With the size chiller I have now (12" wide, 40 plate) I have between 9 and 10 square feet of cooling surface area. Which means the only real option (since I'm NOT willing to go to something smaller) is the Blichmann Pro wort chiller. At over $400, I need to think about it (and/or plan the purchase).
I'll also be keeping an eye on how the pumps are dealing with the additional weight of this setup. I'm looking for mounting standoff pieces that I can use to secure at least the fittings (probably the cross) on the wort pump with what that mounts to installed on a piece that is welded to the stand. I thought I saw one for 1" TC pipe fittings, but can't locate it anymore.
I plan to do a test run with both MT and HLT with the normal water levels in them either during the week, or next weekend (ahead of the next brew day).
Full shot (left pump is wort, right is water):
I don't have the assembly on the plate chiller out port that runs to the conical fermenter. That includes the oxygenation setup as well (plus a ball valve). Since I now have a couple of 'spare' butterfly valves, I might change the ball valve on that to a butterfly (more compact for length).
Closeup of the wort pump setup:
More focus on the water pump:
HERMS oil inlet with the tee fitting:
Connections to/from the wort strainer and plate chiller:
If you look, there's a total of seven valves between the assemblies on the two pumps. I went with the pull handle version due to cost and how compact they are. Really didn't want to spend $55 each for the Spike (short handle) butterfly valves. These came in at about $25 each (from Amazon). I used a lot of the hose lengths that I had already cut. Many from the runs that were in use previously with the QD connections.
I went with a good number of 90 degree bend barb fittings to make routing easier and use shorter lengths of tubing. One of the things I can already see as being an improvement is the connection from pump to wort strainer. Previously the tubing was going from the pump outlet (vertical) to the strainer as it's shown here. There were times where the hose would kink down on itself. Now, the chance of that happening is gone.
I also went with the 1" tee and cross fittings since I figured the 1-1/2" would be too large for this use case. I didn't want to go smaller than 1" (even if I could have easily located them). I still might change the barb fittings going from the BK and MT to 3/4" (or use 3/4" tubing, so probably 7/8" fittings) depending on how things work out in the first session or two. I did run a test yesterday (and a short one today) into the BK. If anything it seems the low rate is better than before. I did place the valves on the wort pump inlet so that it wouldn't try to push back up to either the MT or BK when flowing from the other.
The next hardware change, on the current setup, could be the plate chiller to one that has native TC fittings for at least the wort side. With the size chiller I have now (12" wide, 40 plate) I have between 9 and 10 square feet of cooling surface area. Which means the only real option (since I'm NOT willing to go to something smaller) is the Blichmann Pro wort chiller. At over $400, I need to think about it (and/or plan the purchase).
I'll also be keeping an eye on how the pumps are dealing with the additional weight of this setup. I'm looking for mounting standoff pieces that I can use to secure at least the fittings (probably the cross) on the wort pump with what that mounts to installed on a piece that is welded to the stand. I thought I saw one for 1" TC pipe fittings, but can't locate it anymore.
I plan to do a test run with both MT and HLT with the normal water levels in them either during the week, or next weekend (ahead of the next brew day).