Steve's 2-tier Brew System

Howdy, Brewers! I've been brewing using an all-grain process since December, 1997. I built my original system as a 3-tiered gravity based system, and researched a lot of different systems before finalizing my design. I made some great beers with this rig, but I finally succumbed to the bane of gadget freaks - I thought of a better way.

One of my main reasons was due to a low ceiling in my garage: it caused problems brewing inside the garage with the garage door open because there wasn't enough clearance for the top tier. So I acquired a pump from Moving Brews (sadly out of business now) and proceeded to mutilate my rack and rebuild it into a new 2-tiered system with the HLT on top, and the MT and boiler on the lower level. I gravity fed the sparge water into the MT, and pumped wort from the MT to the boiler. Again this made some pretty good brew, but after a few more years I figured out a better way (again).

I was concerned about the pumping of wort, cavitation, and the potential for a leak in the plumbing and oxidation of the wort. So I reconfigured it so the Mash tun was on top, gravity feeding the wort to the boiler. I use the pump for moving strike water and sparge water from the HLT to the mash tun, to recirculate wort in the mash tun, and to move the finished wort thru the counterflow chiller to the fermenters.

Brew System

One of the problems with hard plumbing a system is the priming of the pump and cleaning of the lines. I figured that if I could design a wort path that was continuously downhill to the lowest point, and I created an outlet at that point, then the system would be self priming via gravity. So I set out to design a wort path that would enable the drainage of any of the vessels WITHOUT running the pump. If this worked then there surely wouldn't be any problems pumping wort or water, or cleaning the lines.

I can feed the pump from any of the 3 vesselsm and the output of the pump tees into two output paths: one goes to the counterflow chiller (mounted behind the panel, below the HLT) and the other is to pump water (or recirculate wort) into the mash tun. The input from the mash tun, and the output to the mash tun are flexible vinyl tubing, which enables me to do several things: disconnect for vorlauf until grain no longer appears, then reonnect and pump to continue recirculation; disconnect the lower line and move it lower to allow the pump to prime; move the output to anywhere it is needed; connect water or CO₂ to either line for cleaning/blowout of the lines; etc. The next picture shows the front panel and all the plumbing lines in detail.

The output from the counterflow chiller is at the lowest point, and has a dial thermometer inline to monitor output temperature. The tan colored tubing is neoprene, which is tolerant to boiling temperatures. During the last 15 minutes of the boil I recirculate boiling wort throught the counterflow chiller and back into the boiler to sanitize the chiller and output lines, then I'll continue to recirculate the wort during cooling until the output temp is where I want it.

I didn't like the amount of cold break that was making its way into the fermenters, so I added an immersion chiller that is fed with water from the counterflow chiller, giving me even quicker cooling in the boiler. I have a false bottom in the boiler, and use whole hops, so it sets up a good filter bed to filter out the break material. This sill allows me to cool 12 gallons of boiling wort to 65°F within about 15 minutes, or to about 55°F for lagers in another 5 minutes or so. At this time I divert the output to the fermenters, and get clear wort in the fermenters.

At the extreme lower left is a connection for a garden hose for a continuous water supply during the brewing session. I use a high quality rubber hose to prevent that vinyl garden hose taste. This line tees up to an activated carbon filter located behind the black panel which is controlled by a ball valve, and the output (just to the left of the word 'Filtered') connects to a standard racking hose. This is my filtered brewing water, and the hose is long enough to reach any of the 3 vessels. Continuing on, the water line tees again to a garden hose spigot. I made up a 10' hose with spray head for general cleanup. Then it goes to a ball valve controlling the water input to the counterflow chiller, and the water continues upward out of the chiller to the back of the rack, tees to an outlet behind the boiler to supply the immersion chiller, and goes along the back toward the left for the final discharge of the wastewater. I often collect this in the mash tun (after it is cleaned out during the boiling process) for further cleaning of the boiler and plumbing lines.

The primary design factor of the system is that all of the plumbing lines are set up so that with all valves open gravity will drain the lines completely. This makes it much easier to clean and dry the lines and close them off to keep them clean between uses. About every 5th or 6th brew session, I'll pump PBW thru the whole system to clean it.

Front Panel

This detail of the front panel shows all the critical elements. The panel is 3/16" aluminum that I picked up from the scrap yard. The pump is your standard March hi-temp pump, mounted to the surface of the panel. An extra piece of aluminum was mounted to the panel and bent around the pump to shield the pump from liquids, and barely visible to the right is a standard household outdoor light switch for controlling the pump. The power cord is an extension cord with the receptacle end cut off and wired into the switch.

All my plumbing is 3/8" OD copper tubing. In retrospect, I would increase this to 1/2" OD, which would match the ID with the size of the pump bore. I may do this some day, but it would require 6 new ball valves and about 30 feet of tubing, plus all the fittings, and a rebuilding of the CF chiller, which is 7/8" OD copper tubing outside to eliminate potential damage due to the proximity of the HLT burner. Most of my connections are done using flare fittings, as they are more prone to dissassembly/reassembly than compression fittings. Connections of the vinyl tubing to the copper are with worm drive stainless clamps, and I keep a nut driver handy (notice the shelf below the mash tun) for quick use on these connections as needed. When I'm ready to begin recirculation of the mash (vorlauf) I'll disconnect the line from the mash tun and drain into a pan, pouring it back into the tun. Once the wort is clear of grain I reconnect the line, and begin moving the wort to the pump and back into the top of the MT. After it runs clear, I close the output of the pump and turn it off, then open the boiler valve to allow the wort to feed gently into the boiler at the bottom. I batch sparge, so after the first charge is drained into the boiler, I'll close off the valves and begin pumping sparge water into the top of the MT. I repeat the vorlauf step, then continue filling the boiler.

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