Brewtus 10 Clone Finished (minus electronics), with pics

Northern Brewer General
1

So, at long last, I have finally finished my Brewtus 10 clone. Thought I’d celebrate by sharing some pics with the group.

I had the unit welded by a local guy, and did the gas plumbing myself. It’s really nice and got it for a reasonable price. It’s by-and-large mild steel (not stainless), with high-temperature paint, due to cost. The grate on top is stainless; the diamond plate is aluminum.

Soon: inaugural brew day. Later: install the pump (and a second pump), and a plate chiller. In the distant future: I’ll spend a small fortune on electronics, I’m sure.

Cheers!

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Pics, with gas plumbing.

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3

Looks good congrats.

4

Nice. I hope to knock something half that good this summer.

5

That mesh looks solid. I used an 1/8" SS mesh on my first BK burner, it holds up to the heat great.

You have a rig that will last a lifetime. :cheers:

6

That is pretty awesome. Nice job!

7

Wow… Looks great. You will have to let us know how the first brews go. Good friend of mine built one last summer, automated it, and loves it.

8

Good stuff. Question, how are you going to recirc? Using a false bottom in kegs and pumping through the HLT? Or using a grant? I’m just delving into the HERMS idea and wondering about how to make this work.

9

All great questions. I am poor (baby #2 due in a couple weeks), so I’m basically using this as a glorified manual brew stand for the immediate future. I plan on using a cooler mashtun until I can scratch up enough cash to purchase a kettle mashtun… I’m partial to Blichmann’s kettles, so it’ll be a while, I think. I dislike the look/feel of re-purposes kegs.

A cooler should be ok. I’ve done a brief, 5-10 minute test burn, and the added space between burners (or perhaps the circular wind screens) seems to leave the space above a neighboring burner cool to the touch.

All this to say I do plan on using a false bottom and pumping for recirculation, but I reserve the right to change my mind when I finally get the cash. :blah:

10

Gotcha. I’d be starting out manual also. Right now I’m brewing using a single infusion/batch sparge in a cooler, and with my fine crush I frequently to have to rake the mash to keep things moving especially with the sparge. So I’m thinking that this might be an issue with a recirculating system.

11

I crush at 0.026", so mine is pretty fine, too. Once I get there, I’ll let you know. :slight_smile:

12

Exceptional work SK. Exceptional.

13

That is really nice. I guess you use the pump to move the mash to the boiler. IDK why but I have seen these frames with the boiler section lower for gravity feed. If you’re using a pump it doesn’t seem necessary.

14

I think you should watch it like a hawk the first time you use it. SS is slow to heat but after an hour+ of burner time, you may be getting up to plastic melting temps.

15

Nice set up, esp. the piping. It’s gonna be a pleasure to brew with.

With a pump it can be easy to compact a mash locking it up tight; definitely use a lautering system with as much surface area as possible.