Still:
- I built a 1.5" boka slant plate column almost 2 years ago. Never ran it, biggest problem was that I had trouble getting a good connection to what was going to be a stove-top stock pot of a boiler. After resurrecting this project, decided to go with attaching it to a keg with a 2" tri-clamp. If I had to do it all over, I would have gone 2" column from the start. From what I've read, way more bang for the buck and probably a lot simpler in terms of attaching to keg.
- Speaking of 2" pipe, i got really lucky yesterday and scored almost 8' of 2" copper pipe from a guy on Craigslist for $60 USD. Since I'm taking my time and not rushing completion of the boiler and controller I'm really tempted to build a 2" as my first rather than take all the time to clean the 1.5" and run it with a cleaning run and sacrificial run and then decide to build a 2". We'll see.
Boiler:
-15.5gal keg with 2" tri-clamp. Got the keg for $40 off CL a couple years ago.
- Heat source is 4500w 240v ULWD straight foldback heating element. I've thought through a lot of options for how to attach it to the keg and I think I have a solid plan now.
- First I bought a 1" threaded female copper adapter, I think Rad and some others talk about that as an option in the heating element thread. Plan was to solder that to the keg and run the ground wire to a screw down on the base of the keg. There were some things I didn't like about that. Then I saw a link to one of the distiller/brewery places where they used a tri-clamp fitting that was threaded. That would work great, except I don't have a metal lathe. Then I saw that I can order a 2" SS ferrule fitting and cap and so here's the new plan. I think it will work well and allow me to disconnect between runs, use the opening as a drain for easy cleaning, keep the element out of the way and clean, and cap the opening to keep dirt/bugs/rodents out.
Controller:
- Going to build a controller combining several ideas that have already been done here and adding a bit of my own. Everything is going to go in a junction box.
- Using a 40A SSR controlled with a 500k ohm linear pot. The relay is on a heat sink, and going to put a fan in the box to help with heat.
- I'm putting a master on/off switch on one side and a relay bypass switch on the other so that I can bypass the relay during the initial heating phase and just run the element full out without generating all the extra heat in the box.
- Like some other folks, I'm going to mount an amp/volt meter just for the fun of it and also as another indication of power level. Also going to put a meter on/off switch just so it's not on all the time.
- Putting a female outlet in the side and wiring the cable coming from the element to terminate with a male plug so that the controller is also able to be moved/used independently of the boiler.
- I'll run ~6' of cable out of the right side that will terminate in a male plug that will go into the wall. Top of the box will look something like this when done:
Wash:
- 8 Gallons of BW sugarwash finished fermenting sometime last night. Checked this morning, SG was right around .98, checked ABV and it was right at 9%. I'll give it a few days to clear and take my time working on finishing the boiler and controller. Encouraging to see that it worked like a charm. This will be used for my sacrificial run.
I'll take some actual pictures when I start putting stuff together.