Latest updates
Well, let's see.. I have been adding things here and there for quit some time now. I started the Deadfl brewery with a propane burner and aluminum pot for full boils of the wort that the brewery created. This allowed the use of my previous kettle to be used as a Hot Liquer Tank. You can see it in the pictures of Deadfly with an insulating cover on it. When I put this web site together so long ago I had already purchased a 10 gallon cooler for the mash tun. This is now in operation. I had originally just wanted the larger capacity for bigger beers. However, since I now had the capacity to do ten gallon batched, I figured I'd go for it. I found a local scrap metal yard and bought a few things.
The first puchase was a 15.5 gallon keg. (This set me back $10) I cut the top off and this became my boil kettle.
Next was a piece of SS screen that was cut for the bottom of the mash tun (cooler). I needed to have some sort of standoff the keep it off the bottom. My solution was CPVC pipe held to the screen with SS wire. This solution has worked well.
I also bought a Stainless Steel barrel. I have converted it into an electrically heated HLT. I bought the metal fittings at ACE hardware and it has also worked well. I have found that it takes a while to heat the water, and it helps to have a lid on it. (Currently a scrap of plexiglass.)
I have also purchased a magnetic pump. I decided on this the first time I tried to get the Keg with about 13.5 gallons of boiling hot sugar water up high enough to siphon through the counterflow chiller. The only reason I was able to accomplish this was the adreneline that pulsed through my system when I had it halfway up and realized what I had in my hands. I had gotten it halfway there before I realized I was doing something that was just the other side of stupid. So the pump got ordered that night.
The pump really helped but I found I still needed to start a siphon out of the kettle. I decided that I needed a spigot on the kettle. I bought a no weld spigot and installed it. The O-ring that was sent with it streched miserably. I ended up wrapping the O-ring with teflon tape to hold it in place. This has worked well except for the last session the teflon tape had stretched slightly and the O-ring popped back toward the valve. The keg was 3/4's full when it started leaking. I will have the thing welded. I have become convinced through this experience that no weld is not the way to go.
Deadfly brewery suffered a trashed recirc pump this weekend. I had been using a small 12 volt hot water supply pump for recreational vehicles. (C.D. Pritchard style) Water got into the casing the last time I used it and it died a slow and painful rusted death. I wasn't to worried since I had a new brass pump that I had bought from Beer beer and more beer a while back to move hot wort. I plumbed this in and away we went with the brewing. Needless to say the bed compacted pretty quickly. (There is a big difference between the two pumps, one sips and the other sucks!) Anyhow, while I was fixing this problem I was also considering how to improve my brewery. The idea of a lauter grant came up. So at this point I am working on a complete overhaul of the Deadfly Brewery.