Show me your setup and I'll show you mine

[Bazza]

I was packing away my gear following a brew the other day, when the thought hit me that people might find it useful seeing other folks' setup.

So I'll start the ball rolling and hopefully this will encourage others to follow.


The large silver thing is a Burco Cygnet 30L Tea urn. This is used as both a mash tun and boiler. They're around 70 quid new on Amazon and I've done over 30 brews it to date and she's still going strong. I do 17L batches (for reasons I'll go in to later), so the Burco is perfect for this.

My brewing method is no-sparge BIAB, meaning ALL the required water for the brew goes in at the start. When the grains are pulled out and the bag strained after the mashing stage, the remaining wort is boiled and cooled according to the recipe and this leaves me with around 18 or so litres for fermenting.

So, why 17L? Well firstly I find it a nice manageable batch size. You don't spend months getting through it, and means I can brew different recipes more frequently. Also, my brewing is limited to weeknights, so with 17L I can get through the whole process in less than 5 hours.

But the main reason for the 17L batch size is that all my brews are fermented in Corny Kegs. Cornys only have 19l capacity, so 18L of wort for a 17L batch is about the maximum amount you can realistically get in there. I also ferment under pressure using a spuding valve attached to the gas in of the corny and set to keep the pressure at around 20psi. This means that the beer is naturally carbonated by the CO2 created during the fermentation process.


Fermentation happens in the temperature-controlled fermentation chamber, which I hacked together with some shelving, some leftover sheets of Kingspan insulation, a 60w heating tube, stc 1000 and a cheapo usb desk fan.

At the end of fermentation I use CO2 from the tank to drive the finished beer directly from the fermentation keg to a serving keg through PVC tubing. Advantages of this is that the fermented wort doesn't see the light of day until it hits the glass and, more importantly, does not come into contact with any oxygen, so the beer can stay fresher for longer. Also, it makes kegging a dawdle.



The resulting beer, once conditioned, is served from a keggerater.



(random kegs and grain storage barrels)


Any questions, please fire way.

SO COME ON; SHOW ME YOURS!


-Barry

[Qs]

Just finished brewing so took some photos while I cleaned up. Only thing missing is my bog standard peco boiler I use as HLT.

Mash Tun


Kettle


Burner


Hydra chiller


Fermentation fridge, controlled by an STC. Brewbelt for heat. Fermenters are SS Brewtech brewbuckets (first brew for one of those lads at the moment)


Kegerator inside and outside. Gas is on the outside, fridge snuggly fits 2 stubby kegs and 2 long ones. 4 brass Intertap faucets. Sticker situation is a work in progress.

[belfastjacko]

Damn you Bazza I've literally just hit "buy now" on a 30ltr water boiler. My PET one just never filled me with any confidence (didn't help the original power cable melted the first time I used it).

[johnrm]

@Qs - Do you trust those glass shelves to hold your S/S fermenter!

[Bazza]

Some nice shiny stuff there, Qs. Cheers for the pics.

You're the current winner of the 'who's got the most impressive keggerator' competition

Damn you Bazza I've literally just hit "buy now" on a 30ltr water boiler. My PET one just never filled me with any confidence (didn't help the original power cable melted the first time I used it).

Haha. Always happy to take the blame for such purchases. Good luck with the new boiler. You'll not go far wrong with it.


-Barry

[Qs]

@Qs - Do you trust those glass shelves to hold your S/S fermenter!

I've had them on it before. I've got a cut off of a bit of 1x2 in there with a few layers of cardboard for added support. I've always been a little worried about it but I've put plenty of beer on it and its never budged (touch wood). At some stage I want to build a properly supported wooden stand in it but I keep putting it on the long finger.

[SprocketFuel]

I'll show my gear off in the next week or so when i do a brew day, but regarding the glass shelves in the fridge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw9XmxKfz6Y

[mr hoppy]

Qs love the SS Brewtech kit, where did you get it?

[Jonnycheech]

Need to get me some of that SS Brewtech fermenter action, very nice!

[Qs]

Qs love the SS Brewtech kit, where did you get it?

Got them all from the Malt Miller.

[Mudder]

Here are some pictures of my compact 3 tier brew stand, electric hlt, insulated keg mash tun and a keg on gas ring kettle.

[lordstilton]

Q where did you get the connections for the back of your taps.. Never see them before

[Qs]

Q where did you get the connections for the back of your taps.. Never see them before

They're just standard JG fittings with 3/8 to 3/16 reducers on them, very small bit of 3/8 line between them. I much prefer the 3/16 line for limiting the flow rate, especially if I've stuff on with higher carbonation.

Heres a better pic of them

[lordstilton]

Never seen them threaded to a tap before.. Where did you pick them up.. I had a disaster a few weeks past when beer line popped inside my kegerator.. Full 20L Of expensive ipa all gone

[Qs]

I originally got 2 of them on the group buy here a couple of years ago, got the other ones I think from https://www.kegkingdom.co.uk/

I had a similar situation with some JG fittings a few months ago too as they'd just worn away, not quite a full keg lost but plenty of mess. I'm expecting these to last longer, when I first started kegging I'd a few accidents that I think took their toll on the fittings.