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Moe's 2 vessel brewery
- Thread starter PSGD
- Start date
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So I have built and am brewing on my new electric 2-vessel system for nearly a year now, and I'd like to share it with this community.
First off, a bit of my brewing background. I brewed on a very simple and cheap BIAB system with a Wilser bag in a 53 qt non-ported kettle for about 3 years.
All of my "brewing" budget went to the cold side of the brewing process first, with a few converted freezers. I also built a 3-tap keezer with a
collar to accomodate 1 keg and a 5 lb co2 tank on the hump. On to the hot-side. I wanted to step up to a system that I could brew 10 gallons or
stick with 5 when experimenting. I had collected 4 Sanke kegs from scrap yards over the years and wanted to use several of them in this system. If I would
do it over, I may build it with a 20 gal brew kettle since I am always pushing it at the beginning of the boil. I decided against a recirculating Biab for several reasons.
A) Kettle size would have limited me to 5 gal batches. B) Biab in a converted keg just seemed like I'd always struggle getting the bag out.
C) I had 4 kegs available. D) I see lots of post where people struggle to recirc with biab.
Why not 3-vessel? The garage space I have available will only handle 2 vessels, unless I would have built it 2-tier. Which I could still do in the future.
So, for now it's a 2 vessel single tier continnuosly recirculating mash system. The BK acts as my RIMS "tube" I've heard it called K-RIMS before.
I fashioned it after the BrewEasy, except single tier. Both vessels are inverted, so they are bottom draining which I love. The Mash Tun has a false bottom and a temp
guage. The boil kettle has a sight glass, temp probe at about the 4 gal level as well as one in the plumbing. I have a toggle switch on my panel to select the desired
probe. The probe in the plumbing is the one that controlls the mash temp. The other probe is usefull for the times when i'm not recirculating.The Kettle also has a float
switch to protect my element, as well as making matching the flow rates during recirc very easy. I simply error on the side of pumping out of the BK slightly too fast and when
the level gets down near the top of the element the float switch stops that pump breifly. What I have found with 10 gallon batches (I shoot for 11.25-11.5 to the fermentors) is that
I can't start with all of my water like I did when brewing biab. I usually do a bit of a sparge simply with ground-temp water through my filtration system. Most brew days I skip
a mashout and simply shut off the BK pump after the mash and once the grain starts to show I started trickling water on top. I don't think hardly any of the cold water
actually makes it into the BK, but simply flushes some sugar out. By the time I have my desired pre-boil volume I'm usually nearly boiling. I also made a counter-flow chille
out of copper tubing inside a high-temp rubber hose. Chilling here in the Southeast can be a bit tough as my water is around 90 degrees these days. I've brew twice now
with water temps way above pitching temps, and I think I have a setup that works pretty good. I pump though the chiller and back into the kettle until the wort is around
110 degrees. At that time I switch from tap water to ice water in a 3rd vessel. With a keg full of 40 degree or so water I can chill to around 67-68 pumping directly into
fermentors in one pass. When my tap water is under 65 I just do a single pass straight through my aerator into fermenters. My Controller is a relatively simple single PID
setup with switches for 2 pumps. I used a 40 SSR with a big heatsink and its worked flawlessly so far. There are a few extra relays and creative wiring to make the
float switch and alarm work the way I want it to. I'm not totally satisfied with the PID in manual mode for boil, as I think a dial to control power would be way
simpler and quicker. A change may be coming, based on others' experience with some of the new Auber controllers. I only recently got my stand painted and a few layers
of polyurathene on it. When I had everything apart, I took some pics that I'll be sharing soon.
First off, a bit of my brewing background. I brewed on a very simple and cheap BIAB system with a Wilser bag in a 53 qt non-ported kettle for about 3 years.
All of my "brewing" budget went to the cold side of the brewing process first, with a few converted freezers. I also built a 3-tap keezer with a
collar to accomodate 1 keg and a 5 lb co2 tank on the hump. On to the hot-side. I wanted to step up to a system that I could brew 10 gallons or
stick with 5 when experimenting. I had collected 4 Sanke kegs from scrap yards over the years and wanted to use several of them in this system. If I would
do it over, I may build it with a 20 gal brew kettle since I am always pushing it at the beginning of the boil. I decided against a recirculating Biab for several reasons.
A) Kettle size would have limited me to 5 gal batches. B) Biab in a converted keg just seemed like I'd always struggle getting the bag out.
C) I had 4 kegs available. D) I see lots of post where people struggle to recirc with biab.
Why not 3-vessel? The garage space I have available will only handle 2 vessels, unless I would have built it 2-tier. Which I could still do in the future.
So, for now it's a 2 vessel single tier continnuosly recirculating mash system. The BK acts as my RIMS "tube" I've heard it called K-RIMS before.
I fashioned it after the BrewEasy, except single tier. Both vessels are inverted, so they are bottom draining which I love. The Mash Tun has a false bottom and a temp
guage. The boil kettle has a sight glass, temp probe at about the 4 gal level as well as one in the plumbing. I have a toggle switch on my panel to select the desired
probe. The probe in the plumbing is the one that controlls the mash temp. The other probe is usefull for the times when i'm not recirculating.The Kettle also has a float
switch to protect my element, as well as making matching the flow rates during recirc very easy. I simply error on the side of pumping out of the BK slightly too fast and when
the level gets down near the top of the element the float switch stops that pump breifly. What I have found with 10 gallon batches (I shoot for 11.25-11.5 to the fermentors) is that
I can't start with all of my water like I did when brewing biab. I usually do a bit of a sparge simply with ground-temp water through my filtration system. Most brew days I skip
a mashout and simply shut off the BK pump after the mash and once the grain starts to show I started trickling water on top. I don't think hardly any of the cold water
actually makes it into the BK, but simply flushes some sugar out. By the time I have my desired pre-boil volume I'm usually nearly boiling. I also made a counter-flow chille
out of copper tubing inside a high-temp rubber hose. Chilling here in the Southeast can be a bit tough as my water is around 90 degrees these days. I've brew twice now
with water temps way above pitching temps, and I think I have a setup that works pretty good. I pump though the chiller and back into the kettle until the wort is around
110 degrees. At that time I switch from tap water to ice water in a 3rd vessel. With a keg full of 40 degree or so water I can chill to around 67-68 pumping directly into
fermentors in one pass. When my tap water is under 65 I just do a single pass straight through my aerator into fermenters. My Controller is a relatively simple single PID
setup with switches for 2 pumps. I used a 40 SSR with a big heatsink and its worked flawlessly so far. There are a few extra relays and creative wiring to make the
float switch and alarm work the way I want it to. I'm not totally satisfied with the PID in manual mode for boil, as I think a dial to control power would be way
simpler and quicker. A change may be coming, based on others' experience with some of the new Auber controllers. I only recently got my stand painted and a few layers
of polyurathene on it. When I had everything apart, I took some pics that I'll be sharing soon.
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Beernip
Well-Known Member
Nice looking! Do you just do a no sparge in the system? How does the brew day flow work on the 2 vessel?
I start with about 13 or 14 gallons in the boil kettle,heat it up to roughly 6 or 8 degrees above the mash temp. Once it's at temperature I pump 8 or 9 gallons into the MT from from the bottom of the MT(with the grains in already). This eliminates dough balls. I stir it for a few minutes, then start to recirculate back into the top of the grain bed. This sets the bed really well, as well as clearing the wort real nice. After about 4-5 minutes I move the hose over to to boil kettle, which still has enough water in it to cover the element. Then I start pumping out of the BK into the top of the MT. I match the flow rates of the 2 pumps and set the PID to the desired mash temp. The temp probe is right at the bottom of the bk in the plumbing, so it holds the temp very well. I usually let the mash go a full hour, the faster I can recirculate the steadier the temp stays. I can easily do a mash out when I choose to. Once I determine the mash out to be over, I shut off the pump that pumps from the BK. Once I see grains exposed,i start sparging with tap water slowly(through the carbon filter) I usually need about 3 gallons to bring my pre-boil volume to 14ish gallons. When the boil starts, I dial down the PID in manual mode. I can handle the spent grains rather quickly because of the cold water sparge, so I clean out the MT almost right away. I have my hoses set up where I can rinse out little bits of grain out into my yard. At this point the MT will only be used to save some hot water out of the chiller,that I use for cleaning. 15 minutes before knockout, I start pumping the boiling wort through the chiller to sanitize it. During this time of year I have to chill in 2 stages. I'll run it through the chiller and back into the kettle until it's about 105-110 degrees. For the 2nd stage I switch the plumbing from tap water to ice water from another bottom draining keg. I get to pitching temp easily this way, and run it directly to carboys or buckets through my inline T I have with oxygen pumping straight into the wort. The T has a mini ball valve that I use to control the temperature.
Beernip
Well-Known Member
Thanks, that was informative. Brew on!
nice clean system, thanks for sharing!
do you really keep your keezer at 32.5 degrees? what are you drinking, coors light clone?
do you really keep your keezer at 32.5 degrees? what are you drinking, coors light clone?
I've been suspicious that my keezer has some cold/warm spots. The carbonation temp/ co2 pressure charts never seemed to work for me. So one day I poured a beer and immediately stuck a thermometer into it, it was 46°. So the 33° setting results in beer carbonated just right, pours a nice head and serves at around 42°.
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Zmanwithdog
Member
I also had temperature issues in my kegerator... I bought a "muffin fan" on Amazon in which it lives in the kegerator circulating that air around. I routed the power plug out the drain hole. Made a HUGE difference. Now I can set the thermostat to something more reasonable which means the compressor doesn't have to work as hard. Saves on energy and the life of the compressor.
