DIY Project Workshops

John Eaton

John Eaton

Active Member
Ok you DIY members, it's time to get those projects you've been thinking about to action. Here are some ideas, but feel free to make any suggestions, project or process.

I recall several, and maybe there are more. Fish, you had a controller project we talked about. Other names elude me... a sparge arm, chillers, and my favorite controller the STC 1000+. Feel free to post any ideas you have, and see if others are interested.

For those of you that have been to my shop, we've done some work and it's even more project friendly now. For those that have not been here, sounds like it's time to stop by. I'd like to set a schedule for maybe 2 nights a month so people can plan. With the upcoming holidays, I'm thinking of starting in January, so get your wish lists filled out and maybe your favorite deity (or family) can hook you up.

For those that have projects not easily transported, maybe we can have a gathering of like projected members at your location and others can benefit as well.

All ideas welcome!
 
John - January sounds good. The holidays have barely started and I'm already busier than I want to be. Don't really have a specific project in mind but will definitely make an effort to be there.

Thanks
 
Here are a couple things I've got on my radar:
Whirlpool fitting and mash cooler temp probe.

For the whirlpool I'd like to see if that works with my chiller to keep the liquid moving, and build a trub pile. If it looks promising I'd add a soldered port so nothing over the edge.
The mash tun temp probe is a custom made fitting from brewhardware.com that you install in the wall and a STD small probe thermometer slides in.
 
@john Eaton I pit a whirlpool port on my chiller and it helped a lot. Eventually built a CFC chiller and just went ahead and put a whirlpool port right on my kettle. Now I can whirlpool without having the chiller actually in the kettle.
 
Dan_Ell_Wang_Er said:
[post]1787[/post] @john Eaton I pit a whirlpool port on my chiller and it helped a lot. Eventually built a CFC chiller and just went ahead and put a whirlpool port right on my kettle. Now I can whirlpool without having the chiller actually in the kettle.
Click to expand...

I do pretty well with trub mgmt without the whirlpool so far. I let the kettle sit about an hour after chilling and removal of the IC. The port inlet seems a near perfect height most of the time, and I don't get much carboy settling. I have no idea how mine compares to a whirlpool, and if the port height might impact doing any better.
Don't know if you've met my IC, but it's a souped up one with a stirrer and can chill 6 gals under 90 in 12 min with less than 10 gal of tap water. 1 bucket hot and 1 warm for cleanup, or for the bottle washer if I've got a least a couple cases to do.
I'm wondering if the whirlpool would circulate around the coils as well as the stirrer, and still leave a nice pile without running it any longer than the chill time. What's a typical run time for the whirlpool?

I'd like to try an over the edge before making any changes to the pot, but not sure I can hold out till January.... Maybe a pot mod by then if it works well.
 
If you're doing whirlpool additions of hops, usually about 30 minutes before chilling. Not sure what you mean by stirrer...when I use the IC (50' 1/2" copper) with the whirlpool it significantly cut down on my chill time without me having to stand over the pot with my mash paddle. It's just not very practical because I built the whirlpool port about 7 gallons up from the bottom (so not good for 5 gallon batches) and the CFC I built will chill to below 70 as fast as I can pump it through (so much faster than using IC on a 10 gallon batch). If I was going to rebuild my kettle, I'd put the whirlpool port at the 4.5 gallon mark. As things stand, I just use a different pot for my smaller batches.
 
Here's the hop basket I made. The tabs on top were bent to hang over the kettle edge. I also made the traditional hop spider, but don't have a pic handy.
 

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Have not used the spider since I made the other. For my last brew, the ipa I've been enjoying immensely, I used the basket for bittering hops and my voile bags for each late addition.
 
Lets see if this pic works...
These spiders are best built with 3 legs.
 

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Bob Thompson said:
[post]1810[/post] How does everyone work these with immersion chillers?

Sent from my LG-D800 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
You don't with these. On my last batch I pulled the basket which had only early bittering hops, but left the bags hanging over the sides. I would expect that the circulating wort around the IC provided more aroma extraction during the cooldown. I'm very pleased with the end result on this batch.
Between the basket and bags (free floating before cooldown) I have very little trub.
 
As I mentioned at the Jan Meeting it looks like Hop management was the topic that seemed to be generating some interest.
To re-cap some of the options we have to consider:
  • Hop Basket
    Hop Spider
    Hop Socks
    Hop Filter/Randall

I'm thinking a 2 night project, with the first night to review, discuss and plan, then a second night to make some stuff.
Does this peak anyone's interest? If so, give a shout about your interest, and what week nights work best for you. I'm pretty flexible, so I can generally work around other's needs.
And of course there will be the usual homebrew sampling and critique, as available. And debating as to why one hop management design is better than another.

For those not familiar, my shop is in Edgewater Park, near the Beverly/Edgewater Park Riverline station.

John
 
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