Bye Bye Plastic

I unboxed the new fermenter this weekend.  It is a 65-gallon conical from Stout Tanks & Kettles.  It is very well made and I can't wait to fill it up.

If anyone wants to purchase a couple of 60 gallon cone bottom poly tanks, let me know.

Blow-off

You know you have an issue when you go out to your car in the morning to go to work and see beer seeping out from underneath the garage door.  This looked much worse this morning before all of the foam collapsed.  I should have taken a picture then.

Most of the time I have pretty good luck, but this is the second time this has happened now.  I've ordered a new fermenter but I won't have it until early 2011.  It will have a little more headspace in it and I'll actually be able to direct the blow-off into a bucket.

Another addition to the brewery

Whoo hoo!

Touchscreen Control

I put together a new brewing PC tonight.  Actually, it is not a new PC, but it should serve its purpose well.  I attached an older model touch screen display to it as well.  Works great.  Now I just need to find a place to mount everything.

Milling Station Completed

I have basically finished up the milling station. I think it turned out well. I haven't permanently mounted the power switch yet as there are a couple of places I can locate it and I'm not exactly sure what I want to do yet. One location, and likely the one I will go with, would be to cut another hole in the top of the table and surface mount it near where it is placed in the pictures. The other location would be on the leg of the table near where it is placed in the pictures. The receptacle has a light switch control and an always-on outlet. The switch controls the motor and the scale is plugged in to the outlet, which makes things convenient. The grain does a good job falling into the container placed below, but it does fall right near the edge. I'll likely end up coming up with some sort of a chute just the direct the grain a little more.

Here are some pics.

Front View:

Rear View:

System Changes (of course!)

I'm almost done with a couple minor changes I decided to make after the last brewing session. The first change is I have added a float switch to the bottom of the hot liquor tank so the BCS-460 knows when it is empty. I am also going to add a wort return to the mash tun (instead of just hanging a hose over the side of the kettle). I admit I haven't actually done it yet because it is going to mean drilling the 55-gallon BoilerMaker, and taking a drill to that thing is scaring the hell out of me. The third thing is getting the mill motorized, which I outlined in another post.

Mill Stand Preview

It's not done yet, but I am finally getting my mill back on a stand and motorized. I had everything motorized and mounted on a cabinet when I had it setup at the homebrew shop, but when I closed it was just to big to bring home for home use. Milling 100+ lbs of grain with a bucket and a drill is not much fun though. I found this Hot Water Heater Stand at Lowe's and instantly thought it would make a great milling station.

Nothing is secured yet and I haven't cut a hole for the grain to drop through yet, but I think it will work well. Here is a first look.