Pumps are awesome man... I feel like a fool for not doing it sooner.

Ya I was just trying to find a deal on one. Ended up getting a chugger for 99

Quote from: PhoenixS4R on November 27, 2011, 08:41:35 AM
I bit the bullet and bought a chiggers pump. My back can't handle lifting a full keggle. getting a hurricane burner and natural gas coversion for Xmas, so now its time yo build a stand, then I think I'm gonna go electric with the hlt and mash tun

Nice, I was gonna do the same amd go electric for tje HLT and MT but ended up with a brew magic. If you're doing Nat Gas I would reccomend the jet burners, I put them on the BM and holy shit do they work well. I think I paid about 25$ for it as well.

Gotta love some controls... the mash was amazing this time around.  The sparge was no less amazing.  Being able to control temperatures like that is just... WOW!

As for you Matador... I don't even want to talk to you.  Wayyyy to jealous for that.

Quote from: Punx Clever on November 27, 2011, 01:34:19 PM
Gotta love some controls... the mash was amazing this time around.  The sparge was no less amazing.  Being able to control temperatures like that is just... WOW!

As for you Matador... I don't even want to talk to you.  Wayyyy to jealous for that.

You know you can come brew here any time you want.

I can't wait to break in my new bourbon barrels. They were emptied last week and are ready to infuse some bourbon oaked goodness into beer.

I'm thinking Brown, but next up is a gingerbread imperial red for our Xmas beer.

Quote from: El Matador on November 27, 2011, 09:11:16 AM
Nice, I was gonna do the same amd go electric for tje HLT and MT but ended up with a brew magic. If you're doing Nat Gas I would reccomend the jet burners, I put them on the BM and holy shit do they work well. I think I paid about 25$ for it as well.

Soooo many people have differing views about those burners, so I went with the hurricane.

Quote from: PhoenixS4R on November 28, 2011, 08:22:14 AM
Soooo many people have differing views about those burners, so I went with the hurricane.

They work great as long as you set them up properly.

I got new toys today!




And what the brewery is looking like now:




I can't wait to use the shit out of them

Quote from: Punx Clever on November 26, 2011, 09:06:05 PM
Got all set up to run a RIMS mash with my old equipment.  Doing it's first run on an oatmeal stout tomorrow.

How did the brew session go?

Would either of you gents let me know what you think of my question I posted on HBT? Basically trying to run a single pump to recirculate the mash then transfer to the BK, then recirculate the BK during cooling without using any QD's only valves to prime.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/plumbing-questions-pump-owners-283819/

Forgot the lnk lol..... The design shows only the input lines. Just need to know iif i can prime

Quote from: PhoenixS4R on November 28, 2011, 06:08:18 PM
Would either of you gents let me know what you think of my question I posted on HBT? Basically trying to run a single pump to recirculate the mash then transfer to the BK, then recirculate the BK during cooling without using any QD's only valves to prime.

It can definitely be done. It's just easier and cheaper to just get another pump

I'm gonna get my setup going so that it's hard-plumbed with flared copper tubing, all to one pump.  One pump is doable on a single tier if you batch sparge.  It is also doable if you make a two-tiered stand with the HLT and mash tun above the kettle.
Side note: You will need some way of adding heat to the mash tun if you recirculate.  The heat loss from the tubes is HUGE.  I almost lost the pumpkin ale I made due to heat losses in the mash (had to add maltodextrin to the keg).

Sometime in the next year it'll happen... for now, I'm just using the pump to recirc the mash tun and transfer to the boil kettle.  I'm young, and only doing 5 gal batches, so lifting isn't a problem.

And Matador, the brew session went swimmingly.  I am going to do a quick and dirty retrofit to a HERMS system to decide between the herms and rims though...

Quote from: Punx Clever on November 28, 2011, 09:30:10 PM
I'm gonna get my setup going so that it's hard-plumbed with flared copper tubing, all to one pump.  One pump is doable on a single tier if you batch sparge.  It is also doable if you make a two-tiered stand with the HLT and mash tun above the kettle.
Side note: You will need some way of adding heat to the mash tun if you recirculate.  The heat loss from the tubes is HUGE.  I almost lost the pumpkin ale I made due to heat losses in the mash (had to add maltodextrin to the keg).

Sometime in the next year it'll happen... for now, I'm just using the pump to recirc the mash tun and transfer to the boil kettle.  I'm young, and only doing 5 gal batches, so lifting isn't a problem.

And Matador, the brew session went swimmingly.  I am going to do a quick and dirty retrofit to a HERMS system to decide between the herms and rims though...

I'm young too. Killed my back at work. I'm a big dude tho. Overall it's more embarrassing then anything.

I know I need a source of heat if I wanted to recirc the mash over the entire duration, which will happen later. I'm attempting to look at the big picture when doing things. Currently just have a 10 gallon rubbermaid as a mash tun, but I'm trying to set everything up for my total goal, which is a hybrid 3 keggle 10 gallon batch system, gravity fed from HLT into MT, pump recirculated mash with heater element, to a gas fired boil kettle, 110v electrical, HLT/MT with natural gas BK. I don't want to plumb the pump one way and 6 months later replumb now that I have what I want, know what I mean?

I'm mostly getting ahead of myself anyways. I haven't recieved my pump or my hurricane burner. Just thinking big so I hopefully don't forgot anything when the time comes.

Man, trading these ball lock kegs for pin lock kegs is harder than I thought.

Why you trading? I might know a guy here in Monterey that has some pin-locks that would probably trade for some ball-locks.

I'm in the same place as you as far as building a system.  I take it you are fly-sparging? Perhaps you could build a stand with the brew kettle down low, and the HLT and MT on the same level.  No reason to have hot liquid above you.
1) Heat strike water in HLT
2) Transfer to MT with pump
3) Recirculate the mash with pump
4) Heat sparge water in HLT
5) Collect wort by gravity while pump moves sparge water from HLT to MT
6) Boil
7) Pump wort through chiller and into fermenter

That would be fly-sparge with a single pump on a 2-tier system with no lifting required Would require 3 inlets to the pump, and 3 outlets.  Batch sparges wouldn't be much different.

My system is set up for pin locks. I got these ball locks free and 1 is missing yhe lid. With ball locks bbeing so popular I figured I could get two pin locks with lids but its not really a big deal.

I'm actually doing my stand similar, except the HLT will be raised and the MT and BK will be lower, to facilitate cleaning the mash tun out, etc. I currently batch sparge, but would like to have the option to do both. This would require 1 pump to recirclute the mash, transfer, and recirculate the boil for my immersion chiller.

This forum hates my phone. Sorry for the misspells.