Gearing up for first brew of the season
I have ordered a couple of odds and ends, and I’m planning for the changes that need to be made this brewing season. Last year, we added the pump, moved to converted kegs, got a new wort chiller, and added a new sparge arm. With all of the big-ticket, Earth-shattering changes pretty much out of the way, what’s left are things that are more about making those things work together more seamlessly. Less human intervention would also be nice.
I ordered a measuring pitcher, which I’m actually really excited about. It’s a little painful to use the 1 Gallon growler for measuring and marking things. I also ordered a pair of those polysulfone quick disconnects. I’m hoping and praying with all of my might that they’re the right size and they work like I need them to. If they do I’ll be able to achieve another goal I have: a “no knife” brewing system. By “no knife”, I mean no knives are ever required to remove tubing from a brass barb, and (ideally) no tubing ever needs to be cut on-the-fly during a brew session.
We have a little adjustment to make to our kettle. we tried putting this solution in place to get the wort out with as little of the break material getting in. It didn’t work like we wanted it to, so we’re on the lookout for solutions to that. Our kettle is just a standard keg with a weldless fitting. However, because the bottom of the keg extends down a ways beyond where it’s practical to place a hole, there’s probably a good two inches from the hole to the actual bottom of the keg. What’s the best way to get as much beer as possible without getting the break material in there, and without getting frequent clogs? I’ve seen more than one person just take a copper tube, bend it in the shape of a “z”, then attach one end to the fitting and the other end has a screen on it. Seems to work for a few different people, and it’s a dead simple solution (we like those), but I’m happy to hear other ideas and viewpoints! Not surprisingly, the finer points of the brew kettle are rarely bragged about when people post pictures of their brew rigs. :-/
Anyway, once these bits fall into place, the next step would be to build a proper stand, with casters, to sort of “contain” the brewery, so it can be rolled in and out of the garage. Once the setup is stable, we can start shooting for making everything completely stationary, where we don’t ever have to move any of the kegs at all, ever, during the entire brew session. From there, almost everything else is gravy. Move to copper tubing instead of plastic? Add a pump? Whatever.
On the fermentation side, I’m considering getting a temp controller for a refrigerator in my basement, not so much because it’s too warm down there, but because a) it *sometimes* can be too warm down there, and b) the temperature is *not* stable down there at all. Anyone ever use a temp controller to maintain a steady 66F in a refrigerator? It’s just an old, upright, rather small, standard fridge with the freezer on top and fridge on the bottom. Nothing fancy. Advice solicited.
Also on the far end of brew day is what to do about packaging. I’ve bottled every brew I’ve ever made. That’s a lot of bottles. I probably have around 8-10 cases of 22oz brown glass bottles. Maybe more. Kegging might be in the near future, because we’d like to go to 10-gallon batches, and bottles just aren’t gonna cut it - at least not for *all* 10 gallons. I don’t know much about kegging, and the used keg systems all say that the kegs may need work. I know *nothing* about kegs, so I’m tempted to get a new keg, but they’re god awful expensive, and I’m kind of a DIY-er anyway, so I’m not opposed to learning about kegs as long as I’m not opening my beer up to undue risk. Advice and links to howto’s on corny kegs are solicited too 
yeah, you’ve got a couple of questions in there. let me see what I can help you with. first, polysulfone QD’s are an essential piece of my rig. one thing you’ll want to remember to do always, is wet an end before you connect them, or you may tear that fairly small o-ring. I have a two tier system with three converted kegs and a pump, and can do everything with three 6ft hoses, two of three have female ends on both ends, the last only one end. (since the female ends are more expensive than the males, this seemed a reasonable way to go…)
my pickup in my boil kettle is close to what you describe, it’s a copper “L” shape that sits about 3/8″ off the bottom of the keg, and I use a copper “chore boy” scrubber for a filter. I take a SS screw clamp and shove a few of the wires from the scrubby to attach it to the 1/2″ copper pipe. however, I still have issues with a fair amount of wasted wort, a gallon or so, since pumping it through a pile of hops (I usually only use whole hops) the wort doesn’t strain through fast enough to keep my pump from sucking air. this may be less of an issue if you’re gravity feeding, but it is somewhat of a PITA.
I have two digital temp controllers (the Ranco one, get it at Grainger unwired for about $60 new), I use them to control my chest freezers in my garage. I keep them at 42ºF year round (I use a small heater in the Minnesota winters), it works great. absolutely no reason you couldn’t keep it any temp you want. one issue that arises though, most temp controllers can be used for both heating and cooling, but there’s no middle ground, it will switch back and forth from one to the other. so, I just pick a time in the fall and the spring to switch between heating and cooling. I’m pretty sure that Johson Controls and Ranco make a dual stage thermostats (so you could have a 5 degree region where neither heating nor cooling happens) but these are more than twice as expensive as the single stage thermostats.
I’d skip moving to copper tubing instead of plastic, simply because it’s more crap you have to take apart when it’s time to clean. but, I love having a pump, since it lets me have everything on two tiers instead of some 9 foot tall gravity fed monster. the idea of 14 gallons of 180º water above my head doesn’t make me very comfortable…
kegging is’t that tough, and reconditioning used kegs is pretty easy. basically, you’ll need to replace all the small o-rings on the posts and the dip tubes, and a good PBW soak will take care of everything else. I buy o-rings from McMaster-Carr by the hundreds, and basically swap them out every other time I disassemble my kegs, which is every time I fill them up.
hope this helps, and good luck! if you have any followup questions, hit me up at the realbeer.com forum…
danno (St. Paul, MN)
Thanks a bunch, danno,
If you’re basically replacing parts on a keg every other time you use it anyway, then I might as well just buy it used, so there’s one bit out of the way!
As for the chore boy - yeah, that’s *exactly* my plan. In fact, the chore boys are already stacked up on a shelf in the brewery. We had the problem you describe, though, with the wasted wort, and that is not just a PITA - it’s just absolutely unacceptable to me (I guess I’m just anal retentive that way). I need to find some solution for it. Maybe I’ll start by just getting the tube down really low and seeing what I can do. I wonder if anyone has done anything to try to isolate the break material using some form of barrier and then pulling the wort from all around the barrier. Kinda like putting a circular wall at the bottom of the boiler, about 2″ high, and then using a plain old slotted copper, circular false bottom around it or something.
The QD’s are going to help so much. A couple of years ago I could *never* find ones that were rated for 212F. I only ordered a male and female 3/8″ pair, because at those prices I can’t afford to just order and pray that they fit. I bought a valve once that said “3/8″ on it, and it *didn’t* fit, so now I’m all paranoid about it
Thanks a lot for posting!
brian.