New Welder

Got my new MIG welder the other day! Can't wait to fire this thing up and start burnin' some metal!

We're gonna do big things together baby. Big things. 

Keggle Build

This week was an exciting week in the ongoing process of my Brutus 10 build. Over the past few days, I finished converting all three kegs into keggles (keg+kettle...get it?). These three keggles are a huge part of the brewing system and with them completed, this marks a giant step in my build! I could even use them to brew with now if I wanted to.

I did my best to document each step of the build and will attempt to describe them here with pictures and with any little tidbits of knowledge I discovered along the way to hopefully help anyone reading this blog who wants to attempt this project in the future.

Let's begin with all of the materials, shown here:

These are the three kegs before being converted. The box contains all the weldless valves and thermometers that I described in my first post, as well as some random tools that I took to school with me. 

I arrived at school and brought everything in. The first thing I did was mark out my cut on the top of each keg. I used the star design that is on the top of the kegs as a guide and just connected the points to form a circle. I didn't worry about it being perfect because I knew I was going to grind it down anyways so I could grind out any imperfections then to try to get it as close to a perfect circle as possible. But really, as long as there is a hole in the top of the keg, whether it is perfectly circular or not does not really matter. 

Once I had each keg marked, I set up my plasma cutter. Here is everything all set up:

I should have taken the picture before I made the cut but oh well. Here you can see the plasma cutter all hooked up with my awesome welding mask on top of it (thanks mom!). I have some very limited experience with plasma cutting so I was a little nervous about getting these to come out right. Here I am cutting away:

It turned out to be way easier than I expected. By resting my right hand in the center of the keg, I was able to make a really smooth circular cut. I did one segment at a time and then rotated the keg after each cut so I could stay in the same position and keep everything steady. After making all the cuts, I ground them down with a grinding wheel and then smoothed them out with a wire wheel. The wire wheel did a great job at finishing up the edges so they are not sharp at all. Here is what the completed cut, all ground down and smoothed out, looks like:

As you can see it is not a perfect circle. But it is pretty darn close! Especially for free-handing it. I was very satisfied with the end result. 

Okay now is when things started to take a turn for the worse. Now that I had the tops off, all that was left was to drill two holes in each keg so that I could install the ball valve and the thermometer. To accomplish this task, I purchased a unibit (or step bit). These little buggers are pretty expensive if you want to purchase locally. So I found a cheap one on Amazon. It had really good reviews, including from homebrewers, so I thought it would be alright. It made one hole and completely crapped out on the second one. I will say that the fault was partly mine for not using any cutting oil, which I forgot. But even with oil, I couldn't see this thing lasting long enough to make six holes. $12.50 down the drain. Oh well. 

Defeated but not ready to surrender, I packed the kegs and supplies back into my car and headed to Wal-Mart, initially looking to purchase another unibit. They did not have any. But what they did have was these hole saws:

I had to buy the set because they didn't sell the 1" saw individually. At $35, it was a little pricey. But a new unibit would have been that much or more so it wasn't really any different. I also picked up some cutting oil. These hole saws were amazing. I definitely recommend them over a unibit. With a little bit of cutting oil and some even pressure on the drill, they cut right through in no time. I was very impressed. I was able to cut all six holes with no difficulties. And the saw is still sharp!

After cutting the hole, I attempted a dry fit with the valve and thermometer and discovered the hole was just a little too small. Even though the instructions called for a 1" hole, the bulkhead was just a tad bit larger than this. I got out my rotary tool and ground the hole just a little bit and this was enough do make the bulkhead fit through. Also, this allowed me to clean up the edges of the holes which were pretty ragged from the saw. 

Now the time had finally come to install the valves and thermometers. First, I took the kegs inside and gave them a good cleaning to clear out all of the metal shavings and oil. After a good scrub, I took them back out to the garage for the final step. 

The ball valves and the thermometers went in really easy. All of the fittings come from MoreBeer with teflon tape but I took this off and put on my own. I tightened them down as tight as I could get them. And here is the finished project:

Ta da! I am very happy with these results and I can't wait to start using these things. Though it was a lot of work and extremely frustrating at times, this was a very fun build. Looking forward to piecing this thing together! Stay tuned!

First Post

I decided to start a blog to document my Brutus 10 build. This is my first time ever experimenting with blogging so forgive me if it isn't beautiful or if things get all screwy. Gonna do my best to document each step in the build. From materials selection and purchasing all the way to brewing with my brand new system (which won't be for awhile)!

First off, many of you might be asking what Brutus 10 is. Brutus 10 is a single-tier, semi-automated brewing system. The heat of the mash tun and the hot liquor tank are constantly monitored and controlled using two temperature controllers. Other aspects, such as the transfer of hot water into the tun and hot wort into the kettle, are carried out manually with the assistance of pumps. Here is what it will look like when finished:

Pretty beautiful huh? I plan on using three 15.5 gallon kegs instead of those nice (and crazy expensive) kettles. I was able to procure two of these kegs locally and one more was gifted to me by a very good friend of mine who just so happens to be an amazing brewer himself. Here they are, waiting to be cleaned and converted into keggles:

My plan is to cut the tops off of each of these kegs and add a ball valve and thermometer to all three. One will serve as the mash tun, one will be the hot liquor tank and the third will be the boil kettle. For the MT and the BK, I plan on using kettle screens that will screw into the back of the ball valve. I have never been a big fan of false bottoms. I have tried a couple and neither of them worked as well as the kettle screen. So I am going with those. I still have not decided on what I will do for lids. More on this to come.

I recently ordered the parts for the kettles from MoreBeer.com and they arrived today. Here they are:

I went with weldless thermometers and valves as these will be the easiest to install. Part numbers are as follows:

• Stainless Steel Weldless Spigot Part No. WL301
• Kettle Tube Screen Part No. AG420
• 6" Stainless Steel Weldless Thermometer Part No. WL311

All of these parts came from MoreBeer.com which is a really awesome homebrew supply website with incredibly affordable prices. As I mentioned, these are weldless fittings, which means all I need to do is drill holes in the kegs and screw them in. However, I do plan on welding them on in the future.

Speaking of welding, I plan on doing all of the welding and electrical work myself. I am currently enrolled in the Welding Technician program at EHOVE Career Center so the welding part should not be a problem. I recently picked up a small MIG welder from eBay for an excellent price so I will be able to do this work in my garage. As for the electrical stuff, I have some limited knowledge in this field but overall, the wiring of Brutus 10 does not seem all that complex so I am confident I will be able to do it. I will worry more about that when the time comes.

To give credit where credit is most certainly due, Brutus 10 was designed by Lonnie McCallister, an aircraft engineer from Houston, TX. He published his full build plans in the November 2007 issue of Brew Your Own magazine and this is where I am getting my information. However, the materials list in the front of the plans is pretty outdated so, using this list as a base, I made my own materials lists with updated prices and part numbers. Here it is:

 

I am sure there will be many other small bits and pieces that I will need to add to this list as I start to assemble everything and I will update it and repost when I do. 

As you can see from the materials list, the total cost for everything will be just under $2000, not including miscellaneous other parts. While this may seem steep, it is really not bad at all when you look at the price of purchasing one of these systems pre-built. For example, the equivalent system on MoreBeer.com starts at $5400. And that's before shipping! Of course, I do not have the money to purchase all of these parts and start building right away. My plan is to slowly piece it together over the next year, purchasing one or two of the necessary parts every month or so. It will take awhile, but the reward in the end will totally be worth it. And I will keep this blog updated every step of the way! 

Thanks for reading! Look for more posts soon!