almost

How many times have I said "almost"? I've lost count. I think I've been saying "I'll be ready to brew my first test batch in about 2 months" for the last year now. Well, this time "almost" is taking on a new meaning because I'm really almost there. There's some electrical wiring connections to be made, immersion chillers and internal kettle arms to be formed, and tests on the controller programming. And then, it'll really be ready!!! And you better believe I've got my fingers crossed that it'll all work as hoped!!!

mash tun false bottom modifications

What's the first thing you do when you get your shiny new Blichmann Boilermakers? If you're like me, you start cutting new holes and welding things onto it. But most of my friends will tell you that you shouldn't be like me, so do this at your own risk. In my last post, I explained how I modified some rotating racking arms from St. Pats for the kettle main ports and return ports. Pictured below is the new mash tun pick up tube and how I handled modifying the Blichmann false bottom to accommodate the new pick up tube.  I added additional pictures of the false bottom work in the Bluto 555 kettles gallery, as well as some additional pics of work on the kettles.

The hole pictured above is plenty big enough to allow inserting and removing the pick up tube.  A couple of additional stainless washers are used to slide over the pick up tube before adjusting it into place, and then you slide them back down to rest on top of the welded-on washers, in order to prevent grain from flowing through around the pick up tube during recirculation.

main port and return port fittings

I've added some pics to the fittings gallery to show how I'm coming through the kettle wall at the main port and the return port. Originally, I thought I'd have a TC ferrule on both the inside and outside of the kettle at the main and return ports (similar to the way Stout Tanks and Kettles has designed their mash tun return port), but welding a TC ferrule into the inside of the kettle down near the bottom for the main port proved to be too difficult.  It took me a while to figure out another way, and I eventually settled on modifying some rotating racking arms from St. Pats. Unfortunately, it's just about impossible to link to specific pages on St. Pats's website, so you have to click on Rotating Arms in the left column and then scroll down about 2/3 of the way down (or I took some screen shots and uploaded them here and here).

For the mash tun main port pick up tube (not pictured below), I left the horizontal part of the tube (for lack of a better way to describe it) alone and simply cut off the vertical part so it could point straight down inside the kettle.  For the boil kettle main port dip tube (pictured below), I shortened both the horizontal part of the tube and the vertical part. The ability to rotate this pick up tube from the outside of the kettle should (if necessary if I don't get a good trub cone following the whirlpool) enable avoiding picking up junk off the bottom of the kettle.

boil kettle dip tube

boil kettle dip tube

I used the same St. Pats racking arms for the return port, except for these I basically cut off all but an inch or so of the arm and welded on a reducing tube stem fitting from McMaster-Carr (which was also slightly modified).  The pics below show how this is designed to work so that you can basically create any type of internal kettle fitting you want to attach to the inside of the return port (mash wort return, sparge arm, whirlpool wort return, etc.) The pumps used on the system have a 1/2" exit, and the tubing from the pump to the return port is 1/2" ID. The tube stem fittings allow for a 1/2" OD tube, and a stainless 1/2" OD tube has an ID of .46", so there's not too much further restriction coming in through the return port like this when using the stainless tubing.  With 1/2" OD copper tubing, the ID is 3/8" but I only plan to use copper tubing internally for sparging and mash wort return, so hopefully that additional restriction won't be a big deal.

return port fitting idea

return port fitting

return port fitting

idea for motorized mash mixer

Here's a few pics of the idea I have for a motorized mash mixer. I haven't started on this yet, but it's something I really want to add to the system at some point. It'll be an expensive addition, so it's something I don't care to screw up. I've made a few design mistakes on the system so far, but nothing that I haven't been able to solve or tolerate (I hope!). Alot of contemplation is in order before I move forward with this part. I'm really eager to test a few typical batches before getting into decoction mashing anyway.

The idea is to create an addition to the frame (that can be bolted on when needed and removed when not needed) on which can be mounted a gear driven motorized mixer. The picture below shows an example of such a mixer, although I'd need blades of a larger diameter. The motor would need to be variable speed and capable of around 35 rpms (at least, my understanding at this point is that the blade shouldn't turn faster than 35 rpms). Some of these electric gear driven motors have an rpm range of 0-350 rpms. I'll just need to figure out how much horsepower is needed to stir a typical mash for the size batch appropriate for this system. Theoretically, with 5 kettles, you could split a mash up into 3 parts, stepping up the temperature of each as necessary and then continuing with the mash that has the mixer to bring it up to a boil for a while.

Special thanks to Donald Put, who wrote an article years ago on motorized mash mixing for Brewing Techniques magazine.

I created a new gallery for work on the motorized mash mixer here. For now, there are only a few more pictures of the drawing in the gallery, but I hope to add more later when the work on it is actually being done.

1 bbl (40 gallon) conical fermenter and freezer conversion

Here's some pics of a 1 bbl conical fermenter from Stout Tanks and Kettles (40 gallons total capacity) and the conversion of a 20.5 cf upright freezer from Lowe's. Stout has a diagram of how this conical fits inside the freezer here.  I really don't see the need for the 3/4" plywood on the floor yet.  I'm a big guy, and I got inside the freezer and stood on my heels and toes in every spot I could, and the floor never seemed to be affected.  I think it'll be ok without.  I hope to put this fermenter to the test very soon.

click for more pictures

Priscilla and I spent about 3 or 4 hours total converting the freezer to hold the fermenter.  We unscrewed all the screws on the outside of the door panel and removed it.  The gasket comes off with the panel. We decided to glue the gasket back in place, and this was a pain, especially since we did it without taking the whole door off the freezer first.  We tried using clamps to hold it in place, which didn't work well, so we ended up carefully taping it in place and letting it dry until the next day.  The glue held well, but we ended up deciding that we really didn't need to glue the gasket on to begin with. You can just as easily cut around the outside edge of the door panel, so that you end up with an approximately 1" strip of door panel just to make use of the screw holes.  Using this will hold the gasket in place just fine.  Next, we glued a piece of 3/4" insulation board to the inside of the door and put cold weather aluminum tape across, from top to bottom.

The freezer and a heat belt designed for a 30 gallon drum are both plugged into a Ranco 2-stage temperature controller, and the temperature probe from the Ranco is plugged into a sanitary thermowell from GW Kent. In case you're looking at this and thinking about a similar setup, you might want to consider a less powerful heat belt. I haven't put this to the test yet, but I suspect the heat belt pictured needs to be seriously downgraded.  More on that later after I'm able to test it out.

the gas manifold

The gas manifold is finally complete. I added a few pics to the Bluto 555 combustion gallery.  I sized the main line at 1-1/4" to facilitate potentially all five burners operating at full blast simultaneously.

Using the propane burners I have (175k btu/hour each), that would require the main manifold (which is just over 10 feet long) and supply line to be able to handle up to 875k btus/hour).  Consulting the engineering toolbox, I can have a run of up to 40' of 1-1/4" pipe and still have a capacity of 900k btus/hour. Alternatively, if I'm using my natural gas burners (160k btu/hour each), theoretically all at the same time for a total of 800k btus/hour, the engineering toolbox natural gas piping chart says I can have up to 20' of 1-1/4" pipe for a capacity of up to 850k btus/hour.

click for more pictures

3/4" pipe is used for each of the individual burners, which is more than enough capacity for either 160k or 175k btus/hour.  I'm also using 12" Dormont flexible gas connectors (DOR-1675BPCF2S12) with swivels, shut-off valves and quick disconnects, which each have a capacity of 230k btus/hour.  The Dormont connectors are used in commercial kitchens to facilitate rolling equipment away from walls to clean, without having to disconnect the gas line.  They're made to withstand repeated stress and are covered with an anti-microbial pvc coating. They're expensive, but (as far as I know) they're the only gas connectors approved for repetitive flexing in a commercial environment.  The Dormont connectors allow me to easily lower and raise the burners as needed, anytime.

work on the black pipe

I added some more pics to the Bluto 555 combustion gallery showing the process of putting thread compound on all the black pipe, tightening everything down in the proper configurations, cleaning it all up, and putting a couple of coats of high temperature/rust prevention paint on.  Up to this point, I've always had the pipes loosely configured in case I realized I needed to make a change, but that realization hasn't come, and now it's approaching the time to finally light this thing up.

I'm waiting on two more flexible connectors from Dormont, and once I have those installed, I'll post a pic of the entire gas manifold with a bit more explanation about the manifold.

thermometer calibration

My good buddy and fellow homebrewer Curt loaned me his very precise mercury thermometer a while back, and I attempted to calibrate the 5 Blichmann thermometers using water in a pot on the stove.  This was no problem with the water settled at room temperature and comparing the mercury thermometer to the Blichmanns. four of the five were off by either 1F or .5F, and I was able to dial them in nicely at 69F.  However, when I heated the water to boiling, the Blichmanns were way off.  I can't remember exactly how much off they were, but  I seem to recall as much as 5 or maybe 7 degrees.  I tried to let the water cool down to 152F (a midpoint temperature between the ranges favored by alpha amylase enzymes and beta amylase enzymes during mashing) and calibrate them  at that point, but I never could hold the water right at 152 long enough to do the calibration... too small a volume of water and no ability to fine tune the heat applied to it.

Isotemp Immersion Circulator

Later, as I was telling Curt about my experience, he said he had just the thing in his lab, and here's a pic of his assistant showing me how to set up their Fisher Scientific Isotemp Immersion Circulator.  It took about 20 minutes or so to get the constantly recirculating water temp up to 152F, but once it was there, it held the temp steady as long as I needed it.  Calibrating to 152 was really easy this way, and that has me thinking about how I can build my own do-it-yourself style Isotemp Immersion Circulator.

the burner apparatus

I added a few pics to the Frame Build Phase II gallery to show a little better how - what we call - the sliding burner apparatus works. This uses a quick position cam handle from McMaster Carr to make lowering and raising the burner a a fairly quick and easy 2-hand process. Being able to adjust the burner's height was necessary to accommodate the tippy dump swing radius, but it's also helpful to be able to control how the particular flame your getting hits the kettle.

upper position

lower position

There are a few more pics of the burner apparatus in the Frame Phase II gallery. You may notice the black piping is missing a couple of end caps. Putting goop on the threads, tightening the pipes down, and putting the black paint on them is one of the very last things I'll do prior to the first test batch, so the burners are just loosely assembled right now.

lots of stainless bolts, washers, nuts, screws needed

An accumulation of different sizes of bolts, washers, nuts, thumb screws, self-tapping screws, etc. just sort of happened during the building of the Bluto 555. This is just what I have left over. Lots of trips to the local bolt and screw store.

custom fittings for Blichmann sight glasses and thermometers

With 1-1/2" triclamp style butt weld ferrules added to the walls of the kettles at every hole, I needed some custom fittings to get the thermometers and sight glasses attached to the kettles again:

• for the thermometers, a standard 1-1/2" TC endcap drilled/tapped for 1/2-20 thread (this was simple)
• for the sight glasses, a custom machined fitting (all one piece, no welding, drawing here), drilled and tapped for a straight thread that is a little tighter than 1/4" npt (I didn't make a note of the specific thread, but can find out if someone really wants to know)

Since these are threaded, they're not sanitary, but the benefit is the ease with which they can be removed for thorough cleaning and sanitization, and then reattached (as opposed to having to having to practically crawl inside the kettles to remove/reattach the originals. Later, I'll post about the fittings for the main ports and the return ports because I'm actually still working on those.

modifying the kettles

One of the rules I came up with when thinking about the design of the Bluto 555 was to use all 1.5" sanitary clamp (aka, tri-clamp or TC) fittings, if possible, in every place fittings were required, the reason being that all manner of 1.5" TC fittings are very commonly sold by all the vendors of sanitary fittings such as St. Pats and GW Kent. The truth is that 3/4" fittings would have been perfect for most of this system, but 1.5" seems to be the only size available for some specialty fittings, and 3/4" and sometimes even 1" TC fittings either aren't sold or are out-of-stock alot of the time. (update: Stout Tanks and Kettles has them available. They also have some great kettles, but I don't think Stout was in business when I first started my project or I just didn't find out about the company until later).

So I took the Blichmann kettles, enlarged the holes in the side and added 1-1/2" butt weld triclamp ferrules. I also added a hole and ferrule to the lid for the float switch, and also near the top of the kettle wall on the right to allow for MT and WP wort return and to act as a sparge water inlet.

click for more pictures

My buddy Mike Chavez, who was Auburn's first commercial brewer, connected me with a sanitary welder in Lowndesboro who does alot of work for a Coca-Cola bottling plant. Sabco has a good write up here re: sanitary welding vs. weldless fittings.

Sanitary welds are designed for one purpose. . . namely 'aseptic cleanability.' Big words that simply say that standard industry cleaning techniques and chemistries must be able to remove all possible risks of infection.

I don't completely understand the reason, but sanitary welding involves backflushing the area to be welded with argon. You'll see later that I haven't been completely successful in making every single fitting and weld on the system sanitary, but the threaded fittings I had to use were kept to a minimum.

Here's a gallery of pics for the kettles, including some pics of the modification work.