Home Distiller

To brew allgrain (or malt) washes isn't allways easy... So I had a look at a few homebrewers's sites and I've been inpired by some of their brewing vats...And I decided to build my own...
The goal is to have a 50 liters vat with filtering purpose, grain rincing purpose, insulated to keep 60-65°C for an hour or two...
Here's a little report !

A bear (EDIT : beer, not bear ) keg will be the vat. First step : open it :

Finished :
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The filter is made with an SS braided water conduit (3/4" diameter, 80 cm long) of which the inner rubber tube is removed.
To remove this rubber tube implicates to cut the ends and to replace the fittings that hold the braided SS thread in place. I did that with pieces of 2 copper tube one inside (15 mm) and one outside (19 mm). All the fitting is brazed with SnAG whith a special SS/Cu fluid.

After cutting the threads and soldering :

With a copper T , without soldering to allow cleaning :

Next step is to make the "shower"...
One meter of 15 mm copper tube, re-heated, the formed in a circle. You see on the pic the wood model for bending the tube. Little 1,5 mm holes were drilled, in 2 rows : one hrizontal (to spray the center of keg) and the other a little oblique (to spray around the keg). I drilled a hole every 3cm in each row.
Bending the tube :

First test :

In the keg :

Tubes are passing trough the keg with 15 mm / 1/2" fittings, one on each side of wall, with Teflon joints.

View of the all thing assembled :

Now, soldering of intput and output tubes :

Insulation with PU cutted plate...


I complete insulation with PU foam : That's terrific !!!

And after cutting and (light) sanding :

I still have to :
- make a wood covering,
- put 2 valves,
- make a motorised mixer,
- make a boiler to heat the water...

To be continued ...

Buja -- that is beautiful! One of these days, I am going to have to get around to copying that.

Yet another example that this forum is, by far, the best resource on the web.

Aidas

I like the way ya insulated it.

Quite clever.


Look into "batch spargin'"... it might save ya alot of work in yer brewin'.

So, are you going to ferment in there too? I have always fermented 'on the grain' and then include some of the grain when distilling.

But, right now, straining the mess after fermenting is just that; a MESS!

I only have the one 20 gallon SS pot and I use that for everything, cooking, converting, fermenting, and distilling. I filter between those last two steps.

sweet setup man, great work

Man thats outstanding! You are an artist for sure.I have a brewpot keg with the same braid setup,and drain but I just use it for the boil.My mash tuns are 2 - 5 gallon coolers with false bottoms.I use a 15 gallon cooler for my sparge tank.That sparge shower you made is the best design that I have seen.
wineo

Having only ever done cheating sugar wash variants, I'm pretty clueless to the whole mashing/sparging thing. Is it possible to get a tutorial on the use of your brewing vat?

Thanks for your comments...

MickeyT, I don't ferment in this setup... Just brew and strain... And I don't ferment on the grain.

When finished and tested, I'll post a little article about how it works...

Work is goin' on... I just finished the wood cover on the vat.
Banding is made of SS steel...

What else can I say other than it looks pro?

That looks beautiful.

I would look into brewing beer if I were you. Most folks don't sparge (rinse) grains before fermentation when they are distilling. You give up a lot of potential alcohol when you do. Instead most people just ferment right on top of the mash, it is integral in the flavor of certain alcohols, such as sour mash whiskey.

Read on the parent site :

Should you ferment on the grain, or sparge the grains ? Ian Smiley suggests..
If you're doing an all-grain mash of corn, rye, and or wheat, just ferment it all on the grain and strain it out later. It'll strain much more easily and efficiently after the fermentation. In fact, this is exactly what the commercial whiskey distilleries do.

If you're making an all-barley-malt malt mash, you should sparge the grains out after mashing. Again, this is the way the commercial malt whiskey distilleries do it. However, keep in mind that malt mash does not undergo a kettle-boil the way an all-grain beer mash does, so you must limit the amount of sparge water you use or you'll over dilute the mash.

I did this way a few times, but "manually"... This brewing vat will do the same, but much easier...

Uncle Jesse wrote:What else can I say other than it looks pro?

Thanks Jesse... From you, I take this for a great compliment !
Two years ago, before I find Tony's site and your forum, I never heared anything about brewin', distillin'... nor solderin'... You all learned me averything! Thanks men!

Nice work Bujapat.

Bujapat,Man,that thing looks great.I think you have found your calling!
wineo

I've seen quite a few brew set ups (like HERM's and such) but never one with such a good finishing. You should be very proud of it.

you are a good reason to keep walonie and flanders together

I don't think it's here the best place to talk about belgian politics... But I know a few reasons (other than me) to keep Belgium united... I've a lot of "vlaamse vrienden" and I've more things together with them than with some frenchmen...
Sorry for this "out of topic" message!

I'm pro-belgium. and i think it would even be better if the country was more united then it is right now.
but you're right, this isn't the place.

Bujapat wrote:Read on the parent site :

Should you ferment on the grain, or sparge the grains ? Ian Smiley suggests..
If you're doing an all-grain mash of corn, rye, and or wheat, just ferment it all on the grain and strain it out later. It'll strain much more easily and efficiently after the fermentation. In fact, this is exactly what the commercial whiskey distilleries do.

If you're making an all-barley-malt malt mash, you should sparge the grains out after mashing. Again, this is the way the commercial malt whiskey distilleries do it. However, keep in mind that malt mash does not undergo a kettle-boil the way an all-grain beer mash does, so you must limit the amount of sparge water you use or you'll over dilute the mash.

I did this way a few times, but "manually"... This brewing vat will do the same, but much easier...

Interesting, the first half of the quote says to ferment on the grains while the second half says to sparge and runn off the wort before fermentation.

Really you can do it either way. Traditionally, distillers worts are not sparged. However, this practice is becoming more and more common in the industry.

Some people ferment "grain-in", some don't. Some recipes work better than others for this. There's no really set rules, so experiment until you find whatever makes you happiest.

The vat and the mixer are finished...
An old bread machine is the base of the mixer

The axis is made of copper tube, the mixer's arms are SS.

Mixer fixed on the vat cover :

Vat top finition :

View of the all setup :

Next week-end, I begin the water heater vat : another 50 l keg and a wash machine resistance 2000 + 1000 Watts... It would do the thing!

Wow, you are a true craftsman! I'm seriously losing sleep fantasizing about copying your work and making one for myself!

Well, it isn't finished yet, but I don't resist telling you the suite of the building.
So I'm busy with the water boiler, which will be warmed with a wash machine resistance : 1000 + 2000 Watts.
First, make the hole, which has to be precisely fitted to avoid leaks :

Very easy to put the resistance in place, the rubber joint is crushed (don't know if this is the right term ?) by srewing the nut, and so is the resistance fitted in place, without leak.

To protect contacts (and my hands...!) I sticked an electrical shunt box (once again, don't know if this is the right term ?) :

Each part of the résistance will be controled by a color lighted switch inserted in the box cover... Later, I'll buy an electronic PID temperature controller, like this :

For now, here's the setup :

Green switch for 1000W, red one for 2000W.
Détail : contacts soldering :

I wish I have 4 hands!!!

nice work!!!... but i would have used crimp-on spade terminals instead of soldering would make any adjustments easier.. LOVE the mash tun though thats just stunning

These craftsmen just do this to make the rest of us drool! hehe

Just kidding. I've been a homebrewer for about 15 years now and that's one of the best mash tuns I've seen made at home for home use.

I may have went with a false bottom instead of the cut pipe as far as catching the runoff ... but it probably doesn't matter much. It may depend on what you intend on mashing mostly.

It looks like a top notch set-up.

~r~

Very nice work. A high standard for the rest of us to aim for.

I for one couldn't achieve that level of work!

I would buy this setup, as I know I certainly couldn't achieve that sort of craftmanship.

Bujapat, you should put a price on this setup -- I bet I'm not the only one who would come out to Belgium to buy a setup like that. And I'm not kidding.

Aidas

, for you that must be more then 2000 km!
it would be a very expensive mash tun