[jas0420]

Awesome system!!!!  How do you like your Stout kettles?  I have been considering the same ones....  they seem to be generally well-liked.

Thanks for the inspiration!

[bentwood]

Awesome system!!!!  How do you like your Stout kettles?  I have been considering the same ones....  they seem to be generally well-liked.

Thanks for the inspiration!

Heya jas. I like them. I think the build quality is good. If I had a complaint about them I would say the lid design makes for more mess than is necessary but it's not a deal breaker. These tanks all come with a lid that sits on the rim and then hangs down. A better design would be to have the lid sit down in the rim with a ring that fits horizontal and a dip inside so that fluid collected would drip back down inside. This however is an annoyance and the quality of the materials makes up for it. The welds are all very clean and over time this is very important. You don't want crap building up messing with your brew quality and you don't want rust. Thanks for looking :-)

[jas0420]

If I understood correctly then, what you are experiencing is the steam condensing on the underside of the lid, then ultimately at least some of it is rolling between the lid and kettle then dripping or rolling down the outside of the kettle?  I can see that as being annoying...  not a deal breaker, like you said, but it's hard enough keeping everything clean as it is!  Does it happen while the lid is just sitting there, or mainly when you lift and tilt it?

I wonder if a silicone gasket along the top of the kettles would help?  I can't find the original link, but I saw someone who wrapped their false bottom with a silicone ring.  I saved the link to McMaster in case I wound up needing to solve a similar problem.  Not 100% sure which one they used in their particular case, but there are a lot of options...  Link:  http://www.mcmaster.com/#edge-seals/=m4bjpr

If I could sneak in a few more questions...  I was also looking at Stout's 1bbl system that comes with 13" legs.  I thought that would be kind of low to get the pumps primed good (so I would have to go ahead and build a stand anyway)....  Yours though appears to be in the same general neighborhood height-wise.  Any issues with that?

I'd like to still have the option to do 10gallon batches.  The Stout kettles are only about 5 inches wider than my current ones (15.5g Bayou Classics)...  So I THINK that I could still get away with it if I can get everything mounted low enough (would like 2 heating elements in the BK and HLT and Stout appears to stagger them vertically as well as different angles).  Think (or know) a small batch is still doable?

I see the RIMS tube in your pics....  Did you go with Stout on that too?  They seem to have a nice price on that.  Any issues with RIMS hitting your target temp(s) on a 1bbl batch?  I use HERMS today on 10 gallons and generally don't do any protein rests or anything "fancy" but would like to leave as many options on the table in the future as possible.  HERMS has been great, but I'm questioning it on my next build because I think that it would have quite a bit of lag if I was indeed trying to do any temp steps in the mash.  But that's just in my head, not from actual experience..... 

Thanks again!
Jason

[bentwood]

If I understood correctly then, what you are experiencing is the steam condensing on the underside of the lid, then ultimately at least some of it is rolling between the lid and kettle then dripping or rolling down the outside of the kettle?  I can see that as being annoying...  not a deal breaker, like you said, but it's hard enough keeping everything clean as it is!  Does it happen while the lid is just sitting there, or mainly when you lift and tilt it?

I wonder if a silicone gasket along the top of the kettles would help?  I can't find the original link, but I saw someone who wrapped their false bottom with a silicone ring.  I saved the link to McMaster in case I wound up needing to solve a similar problem.  Not 100% sure which one they used in their particular case, but there are a lot of options...  Link:  http://www.mcmaster.com/#edge-seals/=m4bjpr

It leaks all the time.  This is only an issue on the kettle and minimally on the MT.  I looked at the silicone seals you linked but I don't think they'll solve the problem and as I was telling you about it earlier I was looking at the lid and may try the next batch with the kettle lid inverted.  They are domed and I bet it doesn't leak at all.  Even with a full batch there should be plenty of headroom.  Ill let you know how that turns out.

If I could sneak in a few more questions...  I was also looking at Stout's 1bbl system that comes with 13" legs.  I thought that would be kind of low to get the pumps primed good (so I would have to go ahead and build a stand anyway)....  Yours though appears to be in the same general neighborhood height-wise.  Any issues with that?

The only pump I had problems with is the one side of the dual sparge/transfer pump.  I noticed a reduced volume of flow from the sparge side and I just ordered a pair of 4x4x22" square aluminum tubes.  I tested again briefly this morning putting the HLT on some 4x4 wood discards and flow was much improved.  You should have zero problems with priming using the legged models.

I'd like to still have the option to do 10gallon batches.  The Stout kettles are only about 5 inches wider than my current ones (15.5g Bayou Classics)...  So I THINK that I could still get away with it if I can get everything mounted low enough (would like 2 heating elements in the BK and HLT and Stout appears to stagger them vertically as well as different angles).  Think (or know) a small batch is still doable?

This is going to depend on what you choose for heating and where your site tube begins.  My 40 gal HLT site tube doesn't start reading till 10 gals and that doesn't reach the level of the float so I have to put 15 gallons in to get the heaters to kick in.  I think 20 gallons is really the smallest batch you can do and remember, these tanks have at least one gallon of loss. Kettle is even worse with the concave bottom.  I leave 2-2.5 gallons behind there.
[/quote]

I see the RIMS tube in your pics....  Did you go with Stout on that too?  They seem to have a nice price on that.  Any issues with RIMS hitting your target temp(s) on a 1bbl batch?  I use HERMS today on 10 gallons and generally don't do any protein rests or anything "fancy" but would like to leave as many options on the table in the future as possible.  HERMS has been great, but I'm questioning it on my next build because I think that it would have quite a bit of lag if I was indeed trying to do any temp steps in the mash.  But that's just in my head, not from actual experience..... 

Thanks again!
Jason

I don't know the answer to this.  Kevin at Brewmation provided the RIMs.  I would say if you're reasonably close to target when the strike is done you won't have trouble maintaining temps.  In fact when I had that stuck mash, temp dropped to 141 and I was able to raise it back up to 152 with the RIMs.  It did take about 10 mins but that seems reasonable efficient. 

[bentwood]

Hopefully these pics help.

This first one shows the dual pump.  Both of these run clockwise so the left one (sparge) is the challenged one in terms of priming as the feed is on top.  This is why I had to raise the HLT.  On the original platform everything was raised 2 inches and that made the difference.  The other pumps have no issues though with the new layout.
And again with the funky orientation...



It's 7" to the bottom of the site tube on the HLT and 7" to the temp probe.  A little less to the float.



The lid design:

[jas0420]

I really appreciate the pics....  Thank you for taking the time to do that, it helps me a lot.  Those certainly look a lot bigger next to a tape measure!  That is the ONE thing (so far anyway!) I don't like about Stout, they are way too light on pictures on their website.  Had to piece this together in my head from folks like yourself who were kind enough to share.

Yeah, it looks like I'd be pushing it trying to get 10 gallons in.  Maybe I shouldn't be selling my current system after all....  going to want a home pilot brewery next. 

Again, thank you very much for your time and insight...  My mind is swimmmming with having a blank slate to start fresh with again and I need to start getting some decisions made!

[bentwood]

I really appreciate the pics....  Thank you for taking the time to do that, it helps me a lot.  Those certainly look a lot bigger next to a tape measure!  That is the ONE thing (so far anyway!) I don't like about Stout, they are way too light on pictures on their website.  Had to piece this together in my head from folks like yourself who were kind enough to share.

Yeah, it looks like I'd be pushing it trying to get 10 gallons in.  Maybe I shouldn't be selling my current system after all....  going to want a home pilot brewery next. 

Again, thank you very much for your time and insight...  My mind is swimmmming with having a blank slate to start fresh with again and I need to start getting some decisions made!

You are most welcome.  Good luck with whatever route you end up going.

[dean_palmer]

Awesome system! Thanks for sharing. Seeing this type of thing is inspirational :-)

[davidgzach]

That is freakin' AWESOME!  Makes me re-think my Brutus 20 plans.....

[jimbo2]

How much did all of that cost?

[bentwood]

How much did all of that cost?

That is the one question I won't answer. Suffice it to say you could do it for less.

[blatz]

How much did all of that cost?

That is the one question I won't answer. Suffice it to say you could do it for less.

   my system isn't quite as elaborate as yours, and i cringe when even my nonbrewing friends say "damn, how much did all this cost?!"  at least its less than what most car guys spend on rebuilds!

[bentwood]

How much did all of that cost?

That is the one question I won't answer. Suffice it to say you could do it for less.

   my system isn't quite as elaborate as yours, and i cringe when even my nonbrewing friends say "damn, how much did all this cost?!"  at least its less than what most car guys spend on rebuilds!

Lets put it this way, for what I paid for this system I could have had a professionally built STI boxer motor with all the bells. 1BBL brewing can be done for considerably less but when I'm done with this it will be fast, consistent and repeatable. Which is what I wanted.

[bentwood]

I brewed a Red last weekend on the new set up and the brewing part was cake.  The heaters are touchy and you have watch the boil very closely but everything else was smooth and by the numbers.  My friend Jim loading grain into the tun.


Mostly finished the first brite beer tank today.  Cleaned, sanitized, figured out where all the bits went.  I'm still waiting on the clamps and a couple fittings but this is just about ready for the Red which I hope to transfer next weekend.  It's pretty cloudy yet and on a brewer friends advice I'm temperature crashing it today.  Fingers crossed.

[bentwood]

So here's the result of batch number two.  A mostly trouble free batch and I would score the result at a 7, taking points for appearance as cooling issues led to some cloudiness and head retention isn't great.  Tastes great though :-)



The growlers are done finally.  I picked them up yesterday and have handed out a couple cases of samples so far with good feedback.