The BeoirMaker a Braumeister / Grainfather inspired build

[TK]

genius! Once again great set up! May have some more queries (hopefully in the not so distant future) as I'm chipping away at my own build

[darren996]

genius! Once again great set up! May have some more queries (hopefully in the not so distant future) as I'm chipping away at my own build

No problem at all, if I can help I will , this build was great fun, I hope you enjoy your build

[darren996]

Folks, I am working on some upgrades to my malt pipe, i need to cut a stainless deck drain down to size, i have no power tools, just a hack saw, any advice on what the best approach is. What type blade should i be looking at..  thanks

[darren996]

Getting ready for brew day, made a few changes to my system. I mounted my new pump underneath the main pot and installed an on off switch for it as I fried the ardbir pump control.

New stainless steel fermenter with thermowell and ssbrewtech rotating racking arm. Etched my kettle and fermenter as well. I put a 3kw element in the kettle.

Had some half inch barbs ao in installed them in the malt pipe and this gives nice clearance on the heating element and drainage when the malt pipe is lifted out.

Going to get a heffe on with a multi stage mash profile..

Happy Patricks Day!

[TK]

Looks great!! Are they rubber stoppers on the 'legs' of your malt pipe?

[darren996]

Hi Tk. They are rubber fermenter grommits, they work well and give a prrfect seal. Hows your project coming on?

[pob]

That's fantastic looking.

How did the (Hefe) brewday work out?

[darren996]

Cheers pob, all went well, very easy brew day and the 3kw element is savage. The ardbir is a great piece of kit. I am doing another in a couple of weeks, i will do a brew day log with a few pics and some video

[TK]

Small delay atm as my pump came to a halt last week so waiting on another also a cheap ass aliexpress element i had started leaking so thats being replaced with hopefully a more robust spare part element for a parry ban marie 300w element http://www.ebay.ie/itm/130402984764?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[darren996]

Nice looking element. I got a pump from bridgewater, its works really well. Its a topsflo pump and it is fairly cheap, I would recommend it if you are after a 12v pump

[darren996]

This is the element I went with
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=200935471240&alt=web
Its a geniune burco 3kw element. Very happy with it

[darren996]

Some more upgrades

Quick disconnects finally arrived from China, good quality.

I got y filter from bridgewater and attached this to the a quick disconnect, the idea here is that it will be a quick release from the kettle tap so easy to rinse and clean.  Nothing should be getting to the pump or the plate chiller. 

[darren996]

Finally got around to finishing the malt pipe.

I secured the lid with a piece of stainless steel flat bar, its 3mm thick and seems pretty sturdy, so hopefully it wont bend.

I put two stainless steel coat hangers on each side of the pot and then modified some stainless eye bolts that I had in my spares box.

The eye bolts are threaded through the flat bar and secured with some more eye bolt, the plan here is that I can lift the malt pipe with a hoist attached to these eye bolts.  Hopefully the flat bar is strong enough.

Getting ready for brew day next Saturday, hopefully.  I will put a heffe on with a 4 step mash profile to test out the new modifications. 

[darren996]

To date, i have done about 10 brews on the beoirmaker but one thing was bugging me was that I could only do 5 gallon brews, not so good for test batches.

I was looking more into the grainfather design and like the way it has the overflow tube in the middle and that this is adjustable for smaller brews.  I also prefer top down re circulation as this mimics sparging on a traditional 3 vessel system.

So started to scratch me head and think how I could achieve this and after a good old google I came across a post on AHB that looks like it will do the job I need.

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/83760-adding-recirculation-my-easy-urn-upgrade/

I had most of the parts as spares from other projects so I said I would give this a go.  I have upgraded my pump to a chugger and would like to be able to run this full blast.

I put put a few eyebolts on the end of the malt pipe to keep it off the element and qmax'd out a few holes. 
I had a left over deck drain that I am going to use for the overflow out and this is connected to a male quick connect so I can detach the overflow pipe for storage.  this is image 1.
Image 2 is a top down view of the malt pipe with false bottom and quick disconnect.
Image 3 is the overflow pipe.  This is a couple of pipe fittings joined together with some connects and a female quick connect on the end.  At the top is a t connecter, I am debating if I should connect a bazooka screen here or use a top filter like the grainfather.
Image 5 is everything in place. 

I will take it for a spin next brew day and post back the results if anyone is interested.
Do you think I need the top filter ?  Anyone any opinions on this..

Thanks

[Leann ull]

Nice pics, wheres your disconnect for the feed for that herms
Only comment I would make is that with smaller batches getting a consistent product is harder, I'm going the other way and finding I'm getting a better overall consistent product on my core recipes from bigger 50L batches v's when I used to do 20-23L batches.  There is no real cost on time and its probably a €10-15 per batch. Oh the extra product I don't want or need gets tipped or given away .