Things That Do Not Help

Sight glasses for the liquor tanks arrived today - broken. This is the second set; the first arrived at the tank manufacturers broken also :

Investigations to ensue - in the meantime we will have to settle for blanking plates on the ports and manage without volume indicators for the liquor tanks.

Somehow the bracket on the outlet port of our large sump pump broke :

Fortunately Clarke's have a replacement - all it costs is time and money.

Spot The Difference

Before :

After :

Give up?

It transpired that the kettle stack was just impinging on the line of a purling, which would make it tricky to run it through the roof - so the second picture shows the entire brewhouse moved three inches further away from the camera. Half a day spent undoing connections, shoving a few tonnes of steel into millimetre-precise positions, then reconnecting. Yes, Mr Smart-Arse, you are right - we should have spotted this before the final positioning was set - Oops! # 537, I suppose.

This "After" picture provides a better perspective :

The rest of the stack will be on site at 7 a.m. tomorrow, and will be in position sometime in the next few days - assuming good weather for roof work. Of course, after three weeks of glorious dry spring weather, we have just returned to traditional Cheshire drizzle now that the stack is ready. Oh pook.

Little things... please me

This insignificant pic means that we have full domestic plumbing - hot and cold running water and effluent pumped to drain. Complicated because there is no direct access to sewer, so we had to install a sump and pump and run the piping through the wall and along to an outside gully. Bigger things to come...

Oops! #2

Yes, it does seem unlikely that this is only the second mistake that has been uncovered so far - perhaps it would be better numbered as i.

Anyway, this shows the back side (fnarr fnarr) of the diverter panel, with the pumps fitted. The route to one of the 2" ports is blocked, and we need to modify the supplied kettle wort-out pipe with a couple of 45 degree elbows - a tricky alteration as the point connects at three separate points. Ho hum.

Final plumbing design - probably

This details the various connections and pumps between the brewhouse, liquor tanks, heat exchanger, & grist pump; all the internal brewhouse plumbing is already in place and not included here. If you spot anything missing, do let us know.

Old-fashioned tools in a new-fangled brewery?

Just run the old washing machine successfully for the first time in 16 years - compliments to Hotpoint. We use this for washing cloths, overalls, yeast, etc.

A Banner and A Beast

No longer hiding our light behind a bushel.

The beast is the pump for pre-mixing grain with hot liquor and pumping the wetted grist into the mash tun - it is a combination of Steel's masher and progressive cavity pump. I placed the cardboard box to give an indication of scale; useful, huh? 1.75m long, for those who like precise figures.

And now for something completely different

Number 17 : The Grain Store

Very clean and shiny - for now. Not quite hermetically sealed, but definitely rodent-proof. Particularly pleased with the custom-built sliding door, thanks to a certain Texan gentleman.

There appears to be a box on legs in this picture; not a rodent, but certainly a pest of some sort.

Brewhouse plumbing part 1

Most of the brewhouse internal plumbing has been connected up. Took most of Sunday, and I only stabbed myself a couple of times - our last two butterfly stitches saved a trip to the hospital. Detailed instructions & labelling by Specific Mechanical made the job fairly straightforward, though a few complications arose aligning the vessels because of the sloping floor.

Fabricators in on Monday to start work on external connections : grist case, hot liquor tank, heat exchanger, etc.

Brewhouse arrives

Nerve-wracking but unloaded safely, thanks to the generosity and help of various neighbours. Now to connect it all up...

Liquor tanks delivered

These 4000 litre tanks, hot (err... and cold) from the factory will hold brewing liquor (hot water) heated by steam, and cold water (for wort cooling) cooled by glycol. They are twin tanks, each jacketed and insulated for efficiency.

We managed to manoeuvre them into the brewery on the flat-bed truck, and unload with our fork-lift. Manoeuvering these tanks around and trundling them up the ramp onto the brewhouse floor was a little exciting, but completed without drama.

The brewhouse floor is starting to look a little crowded, but my carefully-planned drawing and repeated measurements assure that we will be able to fit everything - probably. Just hope we have none of those embarrassing metric-to-Imperial conversion hiccoughs.

Thanks to Tommy Stafford for his patience at both ends of the delivery, and his help unloading.

All metered up

In terms of utilities at least. New water meter (our neighbours will be glad they are not sharing our water costs), and new gas meter for 400 kW supply. Next stop steam.