Brewsit
Well-Known Member
Got the power panel up, sink plumbed and started some troubleshooting. Oh, and I installed the dishwasher while I was at it.
Awesome build! Would love to have something like that. Curious though as you seem very meticulous in the things you do, what are you planning for wire management for all the sensor on the control panel?
I installed the faucet for the wash station and hooked up a carbon filter behind the pot filler that will hover over the HLT.
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I sanded the concrete some and then used a slurry over it to fill in some of the cracks and imperfections of that front edge, and a few pinholes. A cool unintended effect was it created some interesting brownish accents that made the concrete even more interesting looking. This is after the first layer of epoxy. The epoxy is some pricy stuff, intended for high temperature kitchen applications up to 500 degrees. It's also highly impact and scratch resistant, and can be refinished.
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I also got working on the glycol chiller. I went through not one... not two... but three window air conditioners before I successfully got it set up. Apparently, any stress on any of the brazed connections mean an instant refrigerant leak. So that sucked, but I got it working.
Practice AC one...
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That AC didn't last much longer than this picture. The drum it is sitting on is now holding 50+ gallons of RV antifreeze, and with AC #3, it works great.
I then set up the new control panel. You don't want to see inside, it will just confuse you. It's about 98% ready in this picture.
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The extra holes on the right were supposed to be for more sensors, but I ran out of things to sense. They will get plugged for now, but there's plenty of room for future expansion.
I got the controller ready as well. I switched from the BCS-460 to BruControl and set it up on a 23" touchscreen and mini computer mounted to the back. I built a bunch of scripts to walk you through the brew day and partially automate some processes, including fermentation.
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The next steps are to finish the epoxy countertops, plumb out the glycol chiller, finish plumbing the sink, mount the power panel, finish brazing fittings on the kettles, and get everything ready for the first brew, hopefully in two weeks! I will finish the cabinets as I go, but I wanted to make sure we could brew by 1 March for an event at work. Stay tuned for more pictures soon...
you did a pretty good job of unbending that AC line, mine had a big U in it i couldnt get the U part flattened out... didnt want to risk breaking it...
Looks great! It's definitely giving me some ideas for my future brew room in a yet-to-be built garage, especially the big clean out tub!
Similar to you, I'm hoping to set up a wood shop adjacent to the brewing space. What are you doing in terms of dust extraction on the wood shop and just generally sealing off the brewing area from the wood working? I know those little specks of sawdust can find their way through any little crack or crevice. Looking forward to further progress pics!
Only thing that would be nice is a floor drain, but the work for that would have been too much excavation.
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