1 BBL MashTun

Got a BrewBuilt 31 gallon stainless steel kettle for use as my MashTun. With the upgrade to the 1 BBL BK, I wasn't going to be able to mash enough grains to fill it and MoreBeer had a sale of 10% off earlier this month, so I jumped in and got the 1 BBL kettle with TC and false bottom. It is almost identical to the SS Brewtech I got, except it is a LOT shinier and has much better/larger volume etchings (and no valves or whirlpool fittings). This came with two TC fittings (similar to SS) and was identical in dimensions.

Keg Washer and CIP stand

Working on building a cheap self contained CIP pump / heater / storage cart (as well as functioning keg washer). It should be under $350 all total, as opposed to $6,000 like the one at the left, since it it mostly made out of PVC and plastic buckets. The most expensive part on here is the 1.6 hp lawn pump and the 240v RIMs heater and SS triclamp parts.  Much thanks to the posts and DIY projects at HomebrewTalk Forums.

RIMs tube heater

I have been using my HLT or BK to heat PBW cleaner for the fermenter clean up (5-7 gallons of water needed) with CIP spray ball.  Normally, this would be perfect to clean just with all my brew setup, but it is less and less convenient to do then.  I normally clean all the brew day stuff with scrub pad and bar keeps friend and hot water.  The fermenter is 2-3 weeks later and it really screams that it wants just 3 gallons of 180'F PBW.  Well, that is close to the minimum volume I can heat in my HLT and it is not great at getting all the liquid out of the vessel (it still has a dip tube and misses about 1/2 gallon on pickup).

Mash Tun Bottom Drain Upgrade

While recently riding shotgun on a brew day for a friend, Chris Stephani, I was intrigued to see that his mash tun utilized a normal half barrel keg, and had a bottom drain, based on the normal tap port of the keg used upside down. He has a flat silicon custom for that connection to a normal 1.5" TC. It drips just a very small amount, and I think he really wants to redo it, but it works. And best of all, it uses a very efficient bottom drain that leaves no lost head space or dip tube through false bottom. I was enamored...