More stand stuff…
Posted by leftshue | Uncategorized | Posted on March 19th, 2008
I’ve been working on the brewstand some more … slowly gathering parts and piecing things together. I finished the frame for the stand yesterday:
And today I finished the shelves to hold everything:
Just after I took this picture I replaced the hose barbs on the kettles with my new quick disconnect fittings from Northern Brewer. Next up is painting and sealing, then I need to mount the water filter, pump, and chiller. After that, time to water-test it (check for leaks, see how much water stays in the tube/pump, etc), then on to making beer!
I should also consider putting sliders or casters or something on this thing… moving it around is fun at the moment. It’s pretty hefty.
Time for a brewstand!
Posted by | Uncategorized | Posted on March 7th, 2008
Well, I’ve started building my new brewstand! I decided that I’d like to be able to brew at least small batches without having to load everything up in the car and drive over to Clint’s.
First thing was to make a mash tun. I used a five gallon Rubbermaid beverage cooler.
Step 1: Remove the plastic spout.
Step 2: Install the new ball valve
I decided to make my own manifold for the mash tun rather than using a false bottom. It was surprisingly easy…
Step 1: Don safety glasses! Look how stylish!
I used about 2 feet worth of 1/2″ copper pipe to make the manifold, along with a couple of elbows and T.
After I made sure it fit it was time to cut some slits to let the wort out of the mash. Lots of hacksaw-ing later…
Mash tun complete! And it was relatively easy, so I decided to move on to my water filter. This is where things started to get irritating.
I got all of the stuff together, and immediately noticed that one of my fittings didn’t match up. I very specifically picked up IDENTICAL packages at Lowe’s after finding the correct piece … so someone had opened a package and put the wrong thing in one of em.
Ah well. Back to Lowe’s the next day to get the correct part, right? Not so much. I got what I THOUGHT was the right part, but ended up getting the wrong size. Back to Lowe’s again that evening! After the third trip I finally have a completed water filter. The amusing thing … when I returned the initial part I explained that it was in the wrong packaging. When I went back for the final time I found the spot on the rack for the correct part … with the incorrectly packaged piece back on the rack waiting to trap someone else.
On to my new brew kettle!
Pulled everything out of the box… huge new burner, flawless shiny stainless kettle … time to cut some holes!
So far so good … so I mounted new new ball valve and filled the kettle with water to leak test it.
Wouldn’t you know it .. it leaked.
I took apart the valve assembly and wrapped the whole bulkead with teflon tape thinking “Ahh, that’ll take care of it!” Started to put things back together and managed to destroy BOTH of the silicon O-rings, so now I get to order some more. Bleh.
After I get the new O-rings and a couple of other small fittings I’ll be ready to construct the stand itself.. more pictures to come!