Silver Luce Brewery

The time has come to begin to put this brewery together. It has been, up till now, a whole lot of parts that may or may not fit into the vision I have for this project. So now I’m mocking up with major parts in order to better assess the final product.

Mocked up:

Overall most everything is accounted for but there are a few things that need to be acquired and or built. The Mash Tun will need some form of insulation to maintain the mash temp. Someday I want to wrap it with Armaflex but for now it will get an old blanket or something. I also need to figure out some form of lid for the HLT and the Mash Tun.

Kettle valve:

The kettle is done. I had that built and functional before I started this project. All I’ll need to do is have a tube long enough to make it from the pump up and over the side, all the way to the bottom of the keg. I should have enough tubing for that but it’s something to remember. Someday I may hard plumb some of the lines to add some copper tubing to match the flame shielding.

Mash Tun valve:

FB:

I think I have the FB and the bottom valve of the MT figured out. The bolt through the FB seems to keep it more or less in place which is nice. If I recirculate the mash it should make the runoff really clear. I don’t think that the first run with this brewery will include the HERMS setup though, so it may just be a simple single infusion with sparging. I hope I can maintain temp in the MT.

HLT valve:

Aaaah the HLT. This is where the majority of the customization will have to occur, at some indeterminate period in the future. The coupling where I have decided to put the valve, for the moment, doesn’t allow for anything to be attached inside so it will leave close to a gallon (I’m assuming) of H2O behind in the tank. Eventually this coupling will be used for a sight gauge but for now I will just waste the H2O and screw in the valve, instead of cutting a new hole for the valve.

Not only do I have to cut in a hole for the valve. I’ll also need to cut in 2 more holes for the heating coil that will be suspended inside the HLT. I’m not sure I want to build this portion on the first run since there are so many other elements to check out; e.g. the pumps, the MT and the burner adaption.

My long term plan is to use the home made immersion chiller as the HERMS coil in the HLT since I also acquired a larger diameter immersion chiller when I bought the rest of the equipment. It’s a smaller diameter copper coil but that should be fine in the HLT. MY only concern is that the smaller interior diameter might either clog or otherwise mess up the circulation. It can be seen sticking out of the HLT in the “mock up” picture above, as can the larger chiller in the boil kettle on the right.

One other thing you may see in that picture is the plugs that I’m planning on using to stop up the couplers at the top of the kegs that don’t fit into my design at the moment. Essentially they plug up the extra holes.

Return manifold:

So this is my return manifold that will serve as an inlet for strike and sparge H2O from the HLT as well as a return for the wort that will be recirculating from the MT and/or running through the HERMS coil. I took the “H” design from many other designs I’ve seen on the web and when I mocked it up it looked like turning the outlets inside a little would be the best way to get the flow even throughout the quadrants.

On the right is the intake for the manifold, with two separate nipples. I’m building it this way because I will have a separate pump working for the H2O lines and the wort lines (strictly a decision I made to only have to flush out and clean one set of lines and pump). I’m also thinking that it might be prudent to add a place to put in a thermometer near the intake to keep an additional eye on the temp of liquid as it enters the MT. I have extra thermometers so this makes sense even if it is overkill.

Burner:

The burner is the same burner I’ve been using for years though now I’ve removed it from it’s stand, windscreen and grate. It will be bolted to bands of metal below the HLT and the kettle. I’ll have to change it after sparging from the HLT to the opposite side of the stand where the kettle is since I only have the one. Eventually I’ll buy/acquire another burner and will have one for each side. Maybe then I’ll even add more of that cool copper pipe for the gas lines.

Pumps:

The pumps are going to be the heart of this operation. As noted above I will have separate pumps for the H2O and the wort. Since they move similar volumes this should work well for sparging. Their position in this picture is about where I think I’ll mount them but since I will be eventually changing the HLT valve’s position I may need to reassess the H2O pump’s current position (on left). I haven’t tested them so I really hope they work. The whole operation depends on their working.

The H2O filter is also visible in this picture. I want to run H2O straight from the hose to this for all my brewing needs. I need to get an adapter for the hose to convert it to 1/2″ tubing to fit the intake nipple. I saw one in the local hardware store for a couple of bucks so that should be easy enough. I’m also thinking that I may have a hose splitter/valve so that I can have a separate hose for washing needs and to attach to the immersion chiller.

Then comes the issue of mounting the H2O gadgets far enough away from the flames.

Lastly I think that I’ll need to add in a GFI outlet or two with switches for the pumps.

Final assessment:

Basically at this point I only need to do a few more things to have this up and running for the trial run:

• Mash Tun insulation
• Lids for MT and HLT
• Finish building the return manifold
• Mount burner brackets
• Grind/clean/sand kegs - especially the interior welds
• Test and mount pumps
• H2O gadgets mounting
• Run lines
• Power