Per TABC, we can’t tell you which bar we’re starting at or what bars we are planning on crawling to. We’re thinking 5-7 stops, ending on Rainey St, so there is going to be some serious crawling involved.

The event is free, except what you choose to drink at each stop.

RSVP to the Crawl on Facebook.

Sidenote: No one likes to wait to get a brew, so bring cash, it’ll speed up the ordering at each spot.

Hope to see you all there!

So, first things’ first.  We needed a grist case.  We had built the larger mill room months ago(remember?), and with some planning and a hell of a lot of geometry we proceeded to build our grist case inside it.  Essentially a silo, the grist case needs an angled bottom, so that the grain will flow toward the center and be taken away by the auger.  At the center, we have the auger boot mount, which guides the grain into the auger line, which carries it to the Mash Tun.  Measure twice, cut once was the rule of the day.  Check out those sexy angles.  We also put in a sight window, to see the level, and plenty of support for all that grain.

After that was complete, running the two lines(mill to grist case, grist case to mash tun) was next.  Measuring and cutting the auger lines and the holes through the ceiling of the mill room came first.  Once we had those lines laid out, we slide the auger(basically a long corkscrew that twists and pushes the grain along the interior of the line) into the line.  We set up and hung the Auger motors and attached the auger bearing assembly to the opposite sides of the auger line, which holds the auger in place as it turns.

And now it’s all done.  We can move the grain all over that brewery now.  Grain comes in tomorrow and we have a ton of updates to follow.  The brewery is almost ready for the first brew!  Soon, very soon.

The boiler setup and piping was a major undertaking.  Our outdoor boiler, if you’ve been following, was a used system.  First, we converted to the unit to propane(unfortunately our building didn’t have natural gas).  Jud performed a substantial overhaul, preparing the system for pressure testing, repairing or replacing the electrical components, and repairing or replacing valves and gaskets as needed.  From there, we began piping the system.

The main steam header, which takes steam to the Kettle and Mash Tun allowing us to heat and boil our brews, was a large 3″ pipe.  It is much heavier than it looks.  We had a few long runs, and each had to be properly sized, threaded, and angled ever so slightly so that any condensation in the lines would run downhill towards our steam traps and to the condensate return tank.

From the header, we drop down into the main mainfold, which controls the direction of the steam from the main valves as well as displaying the temp/pressure in the line.  The header/manifold and each exit from the tank needed a steam trap, both heavy and expensive, which allows pressure to build up in the tanks, but lets condensation pass through to be gathered by the condensate return tank.  The condensate is recycled through the system from the condensate return tank and back to the boiler.

Each pipe was measured, cut, threaded, and fit by hand.  As you can see from that one picture, some of the larger diameter threading was a little difficult.  This was very time consuming and each threading job was handled with care so as to go slowly and not chew up the threads, which had the potential to waste an entire length of steel.

Various hookups and copper lines were soldered, as you can see in the pictures, to either fill the condensate return tank or the boiler as needed.  Electrical components measure levels and control solenoids which auto-fill and pump condensate as required by the boiler.

All-in-all, a large task.  Thankful that it is over, we can move on to finishing out the rest of the brewery and prepare for our first brew!  More to come and soon.

We’ve made significant headway in accomplishing all of these jobs over the last few weeks.  I dislike incomplete blog progress entries, so we’ve been holding off until we finished at least one of them.  It looked like they were going to be finished around the same time, but we knocked out the insulation first.

In a nutshell, the glycol system and our glycol lines are a vital part of brewing.  Each fermentation and bright tank have jacket through which glycol(a refrigerant) flows.  We control the flow rate of the gylcol to alter the temperature in the tanks.  This allows us to control precisely what temperature we ferment our beer, as well as adjusting temperatures for clarification and aging, amongst other things.  Proper insulation of these lines is essential not only to maintain efficiencies, saving electricity, but also to prevent constant condensation, which would lead to mold growth and poor sanitary conditions around the lines and throughout the brewery.

I’ve included some pictures of the progress and completion of the insulation.  Believe me when I say that it was very tedious work and quite time consuming.  The insulation came in three foot sections, but most had to be cut by hand and fit to each section, then lathered with sealant to form a vapor barrier to prevent condensation.  Each fitting and joint had to be properly hollowed out and sized appropriately.  Not the most fun job in the world, but look at that final product.  Isn’t it beautiful?

More to come, and very soon.  We’ll post things as the progress and we get ready to brew.  The big day is almost here…I can practically smell the mash-in.

The cold room is also hooked up and cold, cold cold.  Turns out, showing temperature changes visually is pretty hard.  Take our word for it.  This is a busy week, but I hope to get the progress up as it happens.

After that was complete, we tested each of them for leaks and are now proceeding in putting up the headers, which connect the tanks to the main glycol unit.  You can see a cool pic of us posing in front of that bad boy.   Quite an impressive piece of equipment, our 10 HP unit from our friends at PRO Refrigeration has enough capacity to keep us super cool for the foreseeable future.

We’ve been overhauling our steam boiler, converting it to propane, and preparing it for hookup and testing.  All that is left is the actual steel piping, then can we test out that 1,000,000 BTU beast.  We also fenced in the boiler and propane to ensure no one got any ideas.

We have a ton left to do, but hopefully we’ll hit our target and be brewing by the end of the month.  Wish us luck and keep checking back for updates.