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Author Topic: Redbird Brewhouse - There's Always a Project  (Read 42825 times)

Offline AmandaK

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Re: Redbird Brewhouse - There's Always a Project
« Reply #75 on: July 15, 2014, 04:23:11 pm »



A beer with the name "The Dog's Danglers" has to be good.  ;D

It's won a few times. I love when the emcee reads the beer name out loud. It either ends in complete laughter or like it was read as a question. Haha.
Amanda Burkemper
KC Bier Meisters Lifetime Member - KCBM 3x AHA Club of the Year!!
BJCP Assistant (to the) Midwest Rep
BJCP Grand Master/Mead/Cider


Our Homebrewed Wedding, AHA Article

Offline AmandaK

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Re: Redbird Brewhouse - There's Always a Project
« Reply #76 on: July 21, 2014, 07:50:00 am »
Myles usually does the milling, so I've been fairly oblivious to just how fustrating the old Barley Crusher really is. Yesterday, I had to mill the grain myself. This resulted in a stuck 'free' roller, a mill tear down and rebuild, and plenty of cursing. I bought a MM3 yesterday afternoon.

I'm tired of the gap wandering, the 'free' roller sticking even after I take it apart and clean it, the tiny hopper, the torque the hand drill puts on my wrist (I have messed up wrists that can't take a lot of torque), and the cobbled together mess of it all.

I'm motorizing the MM3 with a direct drive motor/Lovejoys. Will post pics when I get the parts in and get it running.

I also added a pump bleeder valve to the chilling system yesterday. That thing is sweet.

Wedding brew day count: 7 brew days down, 2 more to go.
Amanda Burkemper
KC Bier Meisters Lifetime Member - KCBM 3x AHA Club of the Year!!
BJCP Assistant (to the) Midwest Rep
BJCP Grand Master/Mead/Cider


Our Homebrewed Wedding, AHA Article

Offline Jeff M

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Re: Redbird Brewhouse - There's Always a Project
« Reply #77 on: July 21, 2014, 08:33:50 am »
I also added a pump bleeder valve to the chilling system yesterday. That thing is sweet.

I was thinking about adding bleed valves to my pumps, wanna take pics of how you did it?  I have real problems waiting for my pump to push water all the way threw 50Ft of herms and then another 20ft of hosing.  Bleed valve would probably fix the problem.
Granite Coast Brewing Company.
Building a clone of The Electric Brewery to use as a pilot system for new recipes!

Offline AmandaK

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Re: Redbird Brewhouse - There's Always a Project
« Reply #78 on: July 21, 2014, 09:09:54 am »
Can do, Jeff.
Amanda Burkemper
KC Bier Meisters Lifetime Member - KCBM 3x AHA Club of the Year!!
BJCP Assistant (to the) Midwest Rep
BJCP Grand Master/Mead/Cider


Our Homebrewed Wedding, AHA Article

Offline dak0415

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Re: Redbird Brewhouse - There's Always a Project
« Reply #79 on: July 21, 2014, 09:36:05 am »
I'm motorizing the MM3 with a direct drive motor/Lovejoys. Will post pics when I get the parts in and get it running.
First of all, congrats on getting hitched!
Second - where are you getting your motor?  We found a bunch of 160RPM gearmotors a couple of years ago for $40 each but nothing even close to reasonable $$ since.

Dave
Dave Koenig
Anything worth doing - is worth overdoing!

Offline AmandaK

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Re: Redbird Brewhouse - There's Always a Project
« Reply #80 on: July 21, 2014, 10:21:44 am »
I'm buying one from Steve @ All American Ale Works. (http://www.allamericanaleworks.com/) Disclaimer - the website leaves a lot to be desired. If you don't like ALL CAPS, don't click it.  8)

From what I can tell, he's a home brewer who is importing motors from China because of the same reason you stated - low rpm, high torque motors are nearly impossible to find at a reasonable price. I've talked with him via email and he seems very genuine. The motors seem like they are more than up to the task of grinding grain (I asked for a video, and he made one and sent it over within a day.). However, I do not have it yet and have no actual experience with it. There is a 90 day manufacturer warranty though... so there's at least that.
Amanda Burkemper
KC Bier Meisters Lifetime Member - KCBM 3x AHA Club of the Year!!
BJCP Assistant (to the) Midwest Rep
BJCP Grand Master/Mead/Cider


Our Homebrewed Wedding, AHA Article

Offline dak0415

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Re: Redbird Brewhouse - There's Always a Project
« Reply #81 on: July 21, 2014, 10:58:27 am »
Oh yeah, I remember him now. SHOUTING FROM THE ROOFTOPS!!!!
Are you going for the 180 or 240 RPM?
Dave Koenig
Anything worth doing - is worth overdoing!

Offline AmandaK

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Re: Redbird Brewhouse - There's Always a Project
« Reply #82 on: July 21, 2014, 11:22:50 am »
Oh yeah, I remember him now. SHOUTING FROM THE ROOFTOPS!!!!
Are you going for the 180 or 240 RPM?

Yeah... I actually found him on this forum in an old thread about malt mill motors. He was also shouting then. In our email conversations, he hasn't shouted once. ;)

I'm going to go with the 180rpm, just to keep the dust down a touch more. The video he sent of his (the 240 model) is plenty fast, so 180 will be fine for me. But hey, anything is better than my current set up. Well, unless you count a corona mill... that would be worse.
Amanda Burkemper
KC Bier Meisters Lifetime Member - KCBM 3x AHA Club of the Year!!
BJCP Assistant (to the) Midwest Rep
BJCP Grand Master/Mead/Cider


Our Homebrewed Wedding, AHA Article

Offline Jeff M

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Re: Redbird Brewhouse - There's Always a Project
« Reply #83 on: July 21, 2014, 12:00:52 pm »
Corona Mill + Ag Batch = Torn Rotator Cuff
Granite Coast Brewing Company.
Building a clone of The Electric Brewery to use as a pilot system for new recipes!

Offline Stevie

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Re: Redbird Brewhouse - There's Always a Project
« Reply #84 on: July 21, 2014, 04:12:42 pm »
He got pulled through the ringer a few months back when he first posted. People were upset because his post wasn't clearly advertising and was worded as if it was a testimonial. It got ugly fast.

When I power a mill, I'm using him.

Offline Jeff M

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Re: Redbird Brewhouse - There's Always a Project
« Reply #85 on: July 21, 2014, 04:38:03 pm »
He got pulled through the ringer a few months back when he first posted. People were upset because his post wasn't clearly advertising and was worded as if it was a testimonial. It got ugly fast.

When I power a mill, I'm using him.

i bought a gerbil wheel to power my mill, but i suppose you could scale it up and use a human....
Granite Coast Brewing Company.
Building a clone of The Electric Brewery to use as a pilot system for new recipes!

Offline Stevie

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Re: Redbird Brewhouse - There's Always a Project
« Reply #86 on: July 21, 2014, 04:56:43 pm »

He got pulled through the ringer a few months back when he first posted. People were upset because his post wasn't clearly advertising and was worded as if it was a testimonial. It got ugly fast.

When I power a mill, I'm using him.

i bought a gerbil wheel to power my mill, but i suppose you could scale it up and use a human....

Yuck, yuck, yuck

Offline AmandaK

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Re: Redbird Brewhouse - There's Always a Project
« Reply #87 on: July 21, 2014, 06:56:05 pm »
He got pulled through the ringer a few months back when he first posted. People were upset because his post wasn't clearly advertising and was worded as if it was a testimonial. It got ugly fast.

When I power a mill, I'm using him.
Yeah, that's the thread I found him on. I clicked on the link, thought he was a joke, then came back a couple of weeks later. In talking with him, he's just a passionate home brewer trying to help the rest of us out. I'll obviously post here and let you guys know what I think about the product once I get it.

And Jeff, here's two shots of the bleeder valve in front of the pump. It is a Sabco part (TCs make my life easier), about $30 or something. Saves me from manually trying to rid the hose of air and then reconnecting it. The line coming from the left comes from the kettle.

Amanda Burkemper
KC Bier Meisters Lifetime Member - KCBM 3x AHA Club of the Year!!
BJCP Assistant (to the) Midwest Rep
BJCP Grand Master/Mead/Cider


Our Homebrewed Wedding, AHA Article

Offline AmandaK

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Re: Redbird Brewhouse - There's Always a Project
« Reply #88 on: July 31, 2014, 01:15:17 pm »
We bottled the wedding toast beer last week - it is nice to have that done! 15 gallons in bottles and another 5 in a keg for our own use.

I never could find red hooded cages for corking and caging the 750mL bottles, so I ended up with gold ones that got painted. I disassembled 72 cages, painted the hoods dark red, and reassembled the cages before corking. Total PITA and could not recommend, but they look pretty great!

We uploaded the label to GrogTag this week. It's a collaboration between myself (picture & post it note idea) and my mom (execution). The glass in the picture is a custom brewery glass that we're using as the escort card, the reception drinking glass, and the party favor. Grandstand did a great job on the glasses. I will also highly recommend GrogTag - customer service is second to none!


The wedding is so close I can taste it. Soon we will have time to brew what we want, when we want - and we get a vacation to boot!
Amanda Burkemper
KC Bier Meisters Lifetime Member - KCBM 3x AHA Club of the Year!!
BJCP Assistant (to the) Midwest Rep
BJCP Grand Master/Mead/Cider


Our Homebrewed Wedding, AHA Article

Offline AmandaK

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Re: Redbird Brewhouse - There's Always a Project
« Reply #89 on: January 16, 2015, 09:48:02 am »
Ahhh, so since we burnt ourselves out on brewing after the shenanigans that was the wedding brew days, we are now finally getting back into the swing of things!

As is tradition around here, we are having a party next weekend so we're trying to get too many things done in a short space of time before people arrive. I need to:
  • Design/build German bier hall table and benches
  • Receive/install new light fixtures
  • Paint doors/install new doors and frames
  • Install new in wall speakers
  • Finish the grain mill for a brew day this Sunday

So far, I've gotten the glass rinser in the drip tray all hooked up finally. I've had the parts for about 8 months, but no motivation to actually hook it up. Husband asked to have it ready for his party, so there was my motivation!

I'm rockin' again on the mill. I ended up contacting my cabinet friend and had him CNC a spacer for the mill so it would line up with the motor shaft. I now have to grind down the 7mm keyway on the motor shaft to get a 6mm Lovejoy to fit on there - joy.

And we completed a random beer-related project, a coat rack for the garage/basement entryway.

Before:


After:




We will continue to build it out when we travel.  8)
Amanda Burkemper
KC Bier Meisters Lifetime Member - KCBM 3x AHA Club of the Year!!
BJCP Assistant (to the) Midwest Rep
BJCP Grand Master/Mead/Cider


Our Homebrewed Wedding, AHA Article