My UK Electric Brewery Build

chastuck · Last edited by chastuck on Tue Oct 10, 2017 1:23 pm; edited 1 time in total

Being in my early sixties and now retired, I decided to build my definitive brewery which will probably be the last one I build. I determined quite early on that this would be the best one I have ever made, picking up from my experience of building stainless steel pots over the last five years and my home brewing of around 40 years, plus all the knowledge picked up from the Forum. I have tried to follow best practice and learn from my past attempts at working with German made Bergland stainless steel catering pots. In this regard, I have decided to follow the build of The Electric Brewery as best I can, bearing in mind their successful clones all around the world. I have changed their overall plan to cater for my own brewing preferences. For instance, this means incorporating a separate HERMS setup rather than a combined HERMS/HLT coil and not buying Blichman BoilerMaker pots, which are incredibly expensive in the UK. The pots I bought were high-end stainless steel 100L pots made to the same gauge as Boilermakers, to which I added my own taps and elements. Without going through all the details and heartache involved in building my electric brewery, here's a picture of the finished results.

From left to right we have the 100L boil kettle, the 80L mash tun, the 10L HERMS pot, the 100L hot liquor tank (this also has an internal 1/2 inch x 50ft herms coil should I need to use it).

On the bottom shelf are shown the CFC and the wort and water pumps.

I have not shown the control panel, since I bought a standard kit from Spike Innovations for 240V use. But what I did do was to build into the panel an extra PID and relay for an auxiliary output, mainly for the separate HERMS pot. I also added additional output control lines to control a breakout box to run extra elements in both the boil kettle and HLT.

If anyone is really interested in the detail of my build, I do have a PDF file as a booklet with pictures which goes into much more detail. It's 2Mb, but if you want a copy send me a private message with your email address.

**kal** · Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 11:27 pm Post subject:

Nice work! Thanks for sharing!

Kal

Roadie · Joined: 13 Oct 2013 Posts: 127 Location: Charleston, SC

Very nice!

Castermmt · Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 10:35 pm Post subject:

Sweet! The lumber you used looks very straight and square, the stuff we get here in the USA is not nearly as nice. Great looking build. Early 60's means you should get at least that out of your build. Nice job! Mug

chastuck · Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 8:34 pm Post subject:

Crouch · Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2014 3:30 am Post subject:

I LOVE that bench ... something about timber that just fits nicely into a brewery. It's much better then the stainless bench we just put in.

Crazy Brewer · Joined: 12 Feb 2014 Posts: 60 Location: Houston area, Texas

Sweet set-up! I really like the wood too. Enjoy the brewing!

Cheers,
Mug

Tony

therealdairylea · Joined: 14 Oct 2014 Posts: 5

Wow looks amazing! Would love to see how you built it from start to finish!

guzzi23

Hi,

I am in the process of building my own small clone. What type of heating elements did you use in your HLT/Boil kettle and HERMS pot?

Thanks,
Oliver

chastuck

guzzi23

chastuck

fessafoyce · Joined: 01 Mar 2015 Posts: 1

joe89 · Joined: 27 Feb 2015 Posts: 17 Location: Yorkshire, UK

That looks like a really nice setup. What is your reasoning for having a dedicated pot for heat exchange? Is this for quicker ramp up speeds when doing step mashes? I'm currently in the process of building my herms system, well just buying all the parts at the moment but can't wait to get started with the build. Also from the UK as well and we are not as spoilt as those guys from over the pond when it comes to all the nice gear they can buy.

chastuck · Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2015 9:42 pm Post subject:

joe89 · Joined: 27 Feb 2015 Posts: 17 Location: Yorkshire, UK

Thanks Charles.
The pdf came through. Looks great, looking forward to reading through it. Thanks for this information it's greatly appreciated

Joe

Rex071 · Joined: 21 Jun 2015 Posts: 1

Hi,
This is the most beautiful HERMS in homemade I've seen so far. Congratulations.

simonk68 · Joined: 08 Oct 2015 Posts: 1 Location: Hull

thomag · Joined: 13 Oct 2015 Posts: 1 Location: Liverpool

Fantastic setup. Truely inspirational.

I will aspire to create something similar in the next year or so. Will PM you for the documentation.

Minkey · Joined: 05 Mar 2015 Posts: 2 Location: Crediton, Devon. UK

A quick public message to thank Charles for the 'paperwork' on this build.

I've been lurking on this and other HB forums for a while, having got in to all grain brewing around 10 years ago.

Finally the time has come to upgrade from the dodgy plastic buckets. I've looked at many, many self-build systems, but what Charles has achieved here has to be very close to a work of engineering art.

Now it's my turn to follow in his highly detailed footsteps.

Thanks again,

Mike