And another month has past and yet I still find myself having to order more items and await their delivery before I can get started brewing on this new system. I only have two orders outstanding and one I know will be here this next week and the other I have my doubts will ever show but I have been wrong before. We shall see. 

A little bit has happened since my last entry here. I attached all the bell's and whistles to the system, that I had on hand, and did my first water test which turned out great. Sure there has to be some tweaking here and there but for the most part it all worked as expected.

Lets start off with what the guy's at my employers shop did for me. I needed a way to mount the 40 plate Heat Exchanger,

and I thought how nice a stainless steel plate attached to the underneath side of the wooden brew stand would look so I made a few measurements and went over to the shop and POW!

And so I mounted it, and the Heat Exchanger to it, and it looks like.......

And while I was thinking of building a wooden stand, and staining it to match the table to mount the pumps to, stainless steel would not only look awesome but will stand the test of time. So I again made a few measurements and took my pumps with me so we could lay out the hole configurations so we could use the punch machine and I wouldn't have 28 holes to try and drill by hand. Anyone who has ever drilled stainless steel knows exactly what I am speaking of. In any case, I only have the wooden table to drill to fasten the stand to.......

And then we have.......

The empty holes you see on either side of each pump are for splash guards eventually.

So the pumps came with their own cords with molded plugs already attached. I had to cut the plugs off and lengthen the cables and install the twist-lock plugs that I had ordered months ago. This meant that I had to butt-splice the wires and then use heat-shrink tubing to waterproof the connections.......

With everything hooked up and the control panel operating correctly I decided to do a water test........

And then I got things heated up a bit.......

 And after about an hour.......

And so I rotated the water around through to the Mash Tun and then through the HERMs-Coil until the water temp matched with that of the HLT. I then transferred the water over to the Boil Kettle and cranked up the heat a bit.......

At this point I had already a rolling boil. Here is a video of what I had at about 197 degrees Fahrenheit.

!Warning! 

I am no videographer or movie star. Just a good ol'boy trying to get his brew on. 

And here are a few still photo's of the set-up.......

When the rest of what I have ordered makes it here I will get things ready to do another water test but this time will include the Chill Water Chamber where I have over 30 gallons of water at 34 degree's Fahrenheit to pump through the 40 plate Heat Exchanger to reduce the boiling wort to 70 degrees or lower.

But for now it is time to dim the lights.......

And enjoy some relaxation while I kick back and drink a cold craft beer and watch a little..........

I will try to post in the next week, or two, as I am waiting for a couple of items to show up and as I said I will be posting on the Chill Water Test. I will also be posting on the first brew day with this system so stay tuned and support your local craft breweries.

Brew Strong!

More to come.......