Morebeer Brewsculpture User manual

Single–Tier Manual • MoreBeer.com • 1–800–600–0033

Single-Tier

BrewSculpture™ Manual

The

MoreBeer!

Warning

BrewSculpturestm are designed for outdoor use only. Hot water and open ﬂames are dangerous

and can lead to serious injury or death. Please practice safe brewing at all times.

Invoice Number:

2 Single–Tier Manual • MoreBeer.com • 1–800–600–0033

Single–Tier Manual • MoreBeer.com • 1–800–600–0033

Table of Contents

Page 2

• Table of Contents

Page 3

• Introduction

• Tools Required For Setup and Maintenance

Page 4–5

• Setting Up Your

MoreBeer!

Single-Tier BrewSculpture

Page 6–15

• Brew Day on Your Single-Tier BrewSculpture

Page 15–16

• Cleaning & Storing Your Single-Tier BrewSculpture

Page 16–17

• FAQ

• Tips & Tricks

Single–Tier Manual • MoreBeer.com • 1–800–600–0033

Congratulations!

You now ofﬁcially own a

MoreBeer!

Single-Tier BrewSculpture. These systems are the next level in homebrewing, and are

designed to make your upcoming brew days convenient, efﬁcient, and easier. The Single-Tier BrewSculpture is our most

popular system, with a large increase in not only home breweries, but commercial breweries as well! In this manual,

we’ll go over the proper setup of your BrewSculpture, how we recommend you use it, how to clean it and proper stor-

age. We’ll hopefully be able to answer most of your questions in this manual, however, if there’s anything that you’re

not seeing or have questions about after reading through, please don’t hesitate to give our customer service team a call

or email – we’re here to help!

Toll Free: 1.800.600.0033 Or Email: [email protected]

Cheers!

So you’ve just received your Single-Tier BrewSculpture,

and like a kid during their birthday, you’ve torn through

the wrapping, and have all of your new toys lying in front

of you. Once you’ve gotten through it all, you should be

looking at the following items:

• 1 x – Stainless Steel Single-Tier Stand

• 3 x – Stainless Steel Heavy Duty Kettles

• 1 x – False Bottom Screen For Mash Tun

• 1 x – Sight Gauge For Hot Liquor Tank

• 1 x – Stainless Steel Sparge Arm Assembly

• 1 x – Copper Heat Exchanger

• 2 x – March Pump Assembly

• 1 x – Whirlpool Assembly on Boil Kettle

• 6 x – Tubing Setups

• 2 x – Casters (Two Caster Wheels Total)

• 1 x – Wheelbarrow Arm (Under Boil Kettle)

• Gas Piping Assembly and Burners

If you ordered the digital package, your sculpture should

include all of the above items, as well as the following:

• 1 x – Control Panel

• 1 x – Combination Valve / Solenoid Valve for Hot Liquor

Tank Burner Assembly

• 2 x – Thermowells for Digital Temperature Probes

Tools Required For

Setup and Maintenance

• 1 x – Hot Liquor Tank Float Switch Assembly

• 1 x – Stainless Steel Sparge Arm Float Switch Assembly

• 2 x – Temperature Probes For Control Panel / Thermow-

ells (Hot Liquor Tank and Mash Tun)

NOTE: Your digital BrewSculpture will not include an ex-

tension cord for the control panel. Due to us not knowing

how far your BrewSculpture will be from an outlet, we do

not include this. Please purchase a standard three-prong

extension cord of the appropriate length to power your

digital BrewSculpture separately.

Most of these items should have come assembled; how-

ever some of them may require adjusting or assembling.

If any of these items appear to be missing, please notify

our customer service team. Tools that may be required for

assembling and maintenance are:

• Flat Head Screwdriver (Hose Clamps)

• Phillips Head Screwdriver (Pump Head)

• Crescent Wrench (Quick Disconnects, Ball Valves)

• Plumber’s / Teﬂon Tape (Any Male Pipe Threads)

• Line Brush (Tubing Assemblies)

• White Scrub Pads (Cleaning Kettles and Frame)

• Extension Cord (Needed For Pump Assembly or Control Panel)

Introduction

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Single–Tier Manual • MoreBeer.com • 1–800–600–0033

Setting Up Your

Single-Tier BrewSculpture

With all of the included items and aforementioned tools in front of you, you’re ready to setup your BrewSculpture.

These instructions are for the basic setup of all Single-Tier BrewSculptures. There will be an extended list of

setup parts and instructions for our Digital Single-Tier BrewSculptures at the bottom of this section. Let’s start

at the right of the BrewSculpture, and work our way to the left…

The far right burner location is going to be where we position the hot liquor tank. The hot liquor tank is the

vessel that will heat and store your sparge water, which is used to rinse all of the sugars from the grains in

the mash tun, and into the boil kettle after you’ve ﬁnished mashing. This kettle will be placed on the bottom

burner tier, and will need ﬁve items installed on it. These are: A ball valve and quick disconnect on the bottom

coupler, a stainless steel maximizer on the inside of that bottom coupler, a sight gauge adapter to the coupler

on the side of the kettle, the sight gauge will install in this adapter’s small 1/8" hole, and last, but not least,

your 3" Face x 2" Probe thermometer. You’ll also need to install the heat exchanger in the hot liquor tank prior

to re-circulating your mash and sparging.

The middle burner location is where you’ll position your mash tun. Your mash tun is where all of the grains

will be during the mashing and sparging process, and will receive ﬁve things during setup: A ball valve and quick

disconnect combination, a 3" Face x 6" Probe (the probe will protrude into the grain bed), the perforated false

bottom screen, and a stainless steel maximizer. First, install the ball valve after wrapping plumber’s tape on the

bottom coupler. Next, screw the stainless steel maximizer into the inside of the bottom coupler, with the bend

in the tube aimed down toward the bottom of the kettle. With this in place, take the perforated false bottom

screen, and insert it into the kettle with the single-handle side facing upward. It is important that this rests

ﬂat on the bottom, with minimal gapping between the screen and the sides of the kettle. Once this is in place,

we’re ready to screw the thermometer into the top coupler using 3–4 wraps of plumber’s tape. We’ll attach the

stainless steel sparge arm assembly to the side of the mash tun after we’ve doughed-in.

The left burner location is going to be where your boil kettle goes. You’ll be able to tell your boil kettle and

mash tun apart from the hot liquor tank, as the boil kettle will have two MPT ports in the kettle. With this

kettle in front of you, we’ll want to install four things: Two ball valves and quick disconnects, the 3" Face x 2"

Probe thermometer, and the stainless steel elbow. One ball valve will thread on to the bottom coupler (using

3–4 wraps of plumber’s tape on the kettle’s male threads), the thermometer will thread into the top coupler

(also with 3–4 wraps of plumber’s tape on the thermometer’s male threads), and the elbow will thread into the

inside of the bottom coupler’s threads, inside the kettle (no plumbers tape required - if it leaks it will just be

leaking inside the kettle). The second ball valve will install on your whirlpool coupler, and the ½" MPT x 3/8"

Barb elbow will install to the inside of this coupler, facing sideways.

Your March Pump assemblies should come with mounting brackets pre-mounted to the frame. To install your

March Pumps, simply slide the pumps’ mounting plate into the BrewSculpture-mounted bracket. Your pump

should be installed so the "inlet" faces down towards the ground and the pump "outlet" faces up. Note: The

pump outlet will be labeled on your pump head with the word "out".

The casters and control panel (not a standard option) should come pre-mounted. If these are not included

or installed, please call our customer service department.

Single–Tier Manual • MoreBeer.com • 1–800–600–0033

Digital Single-Tier

Additional Equipment Installations

If you ordered a Digital Single-Tier BrewSculpture, you’ll also need to install the following pieces of equipment

prior to use:

Hot Liquor Tank:

The hot liquor tank will also need to have the ﬂoat switch assembly (on stainless bracket – not the sparge arm)

installed and plugged into the left side of the control panel. This will plug into the input labeled “HLT”. Then,

you’ll need to install the 3" thermowell into the remaining coupler, wrapping 3–4 layers of Teﬂon tape around

the male pipe threads. Insert the thermowell labeled “HLT Temp” into the thermowell, and plug it into the

right side of the control panel.

Mash Tun:

The mash tun will also need to have its thermowell installed, however this thermowell should measure longer

in length, so as to reach closer to the center of the grain bed. The temperature probe labeled “MT Temp” will

plug into the port on the left side of the control panel labeled “MT Temp”. The ﬁnal port on your control

panel is where the sparge arm ﬂoat switch wire will plug in, once the sparge arm is ready to be installed (after

doughing-in).

Pump:

The pumps will need to be plugged into the power box on the control panel, rather than into the wall. Make

sure the “Pump” light is NOT on prior to plugging in, to avoid running the pump dry!

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Single–Tier Manual • MoreBeer.com • 1–800–600–0033

So you’ve gotten your whole BrewSculpture setup, and can’t wait to start brewing! We’ll go through the process

of doing so, and will try to help keep your brew day as quick, easy, and efﬁcient as possible. We would like to

start by recommending that once all of your kettles have been setup, you may want to do a water run starting

with 4–5 gallons in your mash tun and hot liquor tanks. Re-circulate the water in the mash tun, then move the

tubing around to mimic a sparge into your boil kettle. This is not only done to remove any dust or stainless

shavings from manufacturing, but is also recommended so that you understand how everything connects and

It’s important to have the following items ready at the start of your brew day:

Wort Chiller — Used at the end of your boil to quickly cool your wort to yeast pitching temperatures.

Measuring Bucket — To measure your mash and hot liquor tank water volumes, and to act as a sanitizer bucket

throughout the brew after this has been performed.

Propane Tank — Should be at least 2/3 full for a standard brew day.

“BBQ” Lighter — Should be long enough to keep hands away from burners while lighting.

Ingredients — May sound like a no-brainer, but it’s better that you make sure all grains / hops are there prior

to starting!

Fermenters — It’s best to have your fermenter or fermenters cleaned and ready to sanitize before the brew, but

if not, have them around so they can be cleaned during the brew.

Other Tools — Spoon, mash paddle, refractometer, note pad, etc.

Brew Day on Your

Single-Tier BrewSculpture

Single–Tier Manual • MoreBeer.com • 1–800–600–0033

ﬂows prior to brewing with wort. Another thing to look for while performing the water run is any leaky threads

or tubing – better to leak water than wort!

At this point, all of your kettles should be setup, and now you probably have a couple pieces of equipment

sitting around. These would be your pieces of tubing with quick disconnects, the copper heat exchanger and

your stainless steel sparge arm. The stainless sparge arm will install on the mash tun’s kettle wall, and the height

is adjustable.

With all of your kettles setup, all other items in front of you, and a craving to brew like you’ve never had before,

let’s get started! We’ll want to use a measuring bucket to measure the appropriate amount of water for our

mash tun. There are different grist ratios that work well for different brewers and breweries. If you’re using long

tubing lines, you may want to start with more water (since there will be some liquid that is not in contact with

the grains while it recirculates through your tubing). With our Single-Tier BrewSculpture, we recommend start-

ing with a 1.3–1.4 grist ratio, and moving up or down from there. This number is how many quarts of water

per pounds of grain you’ll be using. An example of how to ﬁnd out the amount of water you’ll need (or how

to get your grist ratio) is below. Let’s say your recipe for 10 gallons will include 20lbs of grain. In order to ﬁnd

out how much water (in gallons) you’ll need in the mash tun, we’ll use this equation:

1.3(qts) x 20(lbs) = 26qts / 4(4 qts in a gallon) = 6.5(gallons)

We’ll want 6.5 gallons in contact with our 20lbs of grain to achieve a 1.3:1 grist ratio. If we were to ﬁll our

kettle with 6.5 gallons though, we wouldn’t have it all in contact with the grains. There will be what we call

“dead space” under the false bottom: Water that is not in contact with grain. We’ll need to account for that

in our equation, and add that volume of dead space to our 6.5 gallons. In our 15 gallon kettles, we’ll have

approximately 2 gallons underneath the false bottom. Therefore, we’ll want to measure out 8.5 gallons to

achieve a 1.3 grist ratio. In our 26 gallon kettles, we’ll have approximately 2.25 gallons underneath the false

bottom, and will also have more grain (larger batch), so the equation should be re-run with 2.25 gallons of

dead space in mind.

Below are instructions for a brew day on a standard Single-Tier BrewSculpture. If you have a Digital Single-Tier

BrewSculpture, please see pages 11–15.

Once we have our strike water in our mash tun, we can attach the propane tank and ﬁre up the mash tun burner.

We’ll want to heat it up to a temperature above what you’re actually hoping to mash at, as that temperature will

drop once the room temperature grain is introduced and stirred in. This temperature drop will be dependent on

how much grain will be used, how much water you have in the mash tun, and what the ambient temperature is

where you’re brewing. Due to this, it’s hard to recommend how far above your mash temperature you’ll want

to heat your water to prior to doughing-in. A wide, general range would be between 6–12 degrees above what

you’re hoping to mash at. Example: If you’d like to mash at 150°F, dough-in at 156°F–162°F.

While your mash tun water is heating up, let’s measure out our sparge water in our hot liquor tank. We recom-

mend using slightly more than the desired end volume in your hot liquor tank. For example – if you’re hoping to

end with 11 gallons in your boil kettle prior to transferring to your fermenters, measure out 13–14 gallons into

your hot liquor tank. This volume mixed with the volume you’ll be putting into your mash tun will combine to

Brew Day

Instructions By Model

Standard Single-Tier Brew Day

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Single–Tier Manual • MoreBeer.com • 1–800–600–0033

be more than enough for the pre-boil volume in your boil kettle. NOTE — These measurements are general, and each

batch or brewer will vary. We highly recommend taking good notes and using these in future batches to perfect your brewing style

and recipes. We’ll be aiming for around 10°F above the targeted mash temperature for our sparge water during

mash. Since we’ll be re-circulating our mash through the heat exchanger in the hot liquor tank, we don’t want

it to be the same temperature (then you’ll slowly lose mash temperature), but we also don’t want it to be too

hot, as this could pull astringency from the grain husks, or potentially halt enzyme activity.

Once we’ve gotten the mash tun to the desired “strike temperature” (the temperature that the grain will strike

the water while doughing-in), it’s time to dump and stir the grain into the mash tun. Start pouring the grain

into the mash tun, distributing it as evenly as possible and stirring constantly with a mash paddle. This is done

to help prevent dough balls and clots that will reduce efﬁciency, and possibly contribute to a stuck sparge.

With all of the grain inside the mash tun, double check the temperature to make sure it’s where you want it,

and attach the stainless steel sparge assembly. At this point in time, we’ll want to start our timer for one hour,

or however long you’ll be mashing for, and connect the appropriate tubing for recirculation.

The Flow of the Tubing

Re-Circulating the Mash:

Single–Tier Manual • MoreBeer.com • 1–800–600–0033

From the mash tun’s ball valve, we’ll run the longest length of tubing down to the March Pump inlet. Run

one of the other tubing lengths with (2) quick disconnect ﬁttings from the pump outlet to the heat exchanger

inlet (right female QD), and the other one of those tubing lengths from the outlet (left male QD) of the heat

exchanger to the inlet of your sparge arm assembly. You’re now ready to re-circulate your mash! Meanwhile,

the hot liquor tank will probably be getting close to our target temperature soon, so keep an eye on that and

turn the burner off once we’ve reached that temperature.

The conversion from mashing to sparging is rather simple. We’ll want to close the mash tun’s ball valve, as well

as the ball valve on the March Pump and sparge arm. Move the tubing running from the mash tun’s ball valve

to the hot liquor tanks ball valve. Take one of the tubing lengths with (2) quick disconnects and connect the

Mash Tun ball valve to the inlet of the left side pump. Take another tubing length with (2) quick disconnects &

connect the outlet of the left pump to the boil kettle ball valve. With the hot liquor temperature at 170°F (or

slightly higher), open the hot liquor tank and March Pump ball valves all the way. Now crack the sparge arm

assembly’s ball valve and turn on the pump. The liquid level should now be dropping in the hot liquor tank,

while rising in the mash tun. Once 2–3" has gathered on top of the grain bed, open the boil kettle ball valve,

and crack the mash tun ball valve – now we’re sparging!

We want to make sure that during the sparge we do not over ﬁll our mash tun, while also not running the

The Flow of the Tubing

Sparging:

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Single–Tier Manual • MoreBeer.com • 1–800–600–0033

Once we have our mash water in our mash tun, we can attach the propane tank, plug the BrewSculpture into

your wall, and ﬁre up the mash tun burner. We’ll want to heat it up to a temperature above what you’re actually

hoping to mash at, as that temperature will drop once the room temperature grain is introduced and stirred

in. This temperature drop will be dependent on how much grain will be used, how much water you have in the

mash tun, and what the ambient temperature is where you’re brewing. Due to this, it’s hard to recommend

how far above your mash temperature you’ll want to heat your water to prior to doughing-in. A wide, general

Digital Single-Tier Brew Day

grain bed dry. This will take a little ﬁne tuning of the ball valves on both the hot liquor tank and mash tun. The

sparge process should take between 45–75 minutes, so if it seems like your hot liquor tank will be dry after 20

minutes, it’s best to close both ball valves a little more to slow down the ﬂow. Finding that perfect ﬂow rate

may take a few batches, so make note on how far open you have the valves, and how long it took to sparge at

that position.

Once we’ve ﬁlled our boil kettle past the thermometer probe, it’s time to ﬁre up that burner to bring our wort

to a boil! It’s best to have the burner turned up all the way while getting to a boil, however once we achieve

a boil we may want to turn it down to help prevent a boil over. Make sure to close the ball valves of your hot

liquor tank, mash tun, and boil kettle once the desired volume has been collected in your boil kettle.

At the very beginning of the boil, you’ll most likely experience the “hot break”. This is identiﬁable by a layer

of foam forming on the top of your wort, and is a good thing unless it spills all over your BrewSculpture and

kettle! To prevent the hot break from a “boil-over”, either reduce the heat or spray the foam with water out

of a spray bottle. Blowing on the foam can help a little also, but only if the heat has been reduced ﬁrst. You

could try using foam control, or “FermCapS” (our part number AD290). Just add a couple of drops when this

foam starts to form, and this should help reduce it. After getting through the hot break, start your timer for

the length of the boil you’ll be doing. 60, 75, and 90 minutes are generally the most common boil times, but

depending on your brewing style and recipe, other times may be appropriate also. Through the boil, you’ll be

adding your hops, adjuncts, and other ingredients as the recipe calls for them. NOTE: Whole leaf hops will need

to be put into a mesh bag, as they will clog the ball valve if they’re not contained. While your wort is boiling, you can save

time by connecting the long piece of tubing to the mash tun ball valve, and open it allowing any extra liquid

drain into a bucket/drain.

With about 15 minutes left in the boil, we’ll want to start the whirlpool re-circulation. While the whirlpool

will be ineffective until we turn the ﬂame off and kill the boil, re-circulating through your tubing, pump, and

potentially your plate or counterﬂow wort chiller will help ensure that any possible wild yeast or bacteria that

happened to be there is killed by the boiling temperature of the wort.

At the end of the boil, we’ll turn the ﬂame off and allow the whirlpool to run for 1–2 minutes. After the 1–2

minutes is up, you can turn the pump off, and allow the whirlpool to settle. The reason we want to create this

whirlpool is to accumulate all of the hop sediment, grain particles that made it through during sparge, extra

proteins, etc. in the center of the boil kettle. Allow the whirlpool to settle in the center of the kettle for about

15 minutes (you can crack the boil kettle lid open to see if it’s still swirling around – if not then you’re ready to

transfer). If you’re using an immersion chiller, you’ll want to wait until your wort is at the desired temperature

prior to transferring. If you’re using a plate or counterﬂow chiller, you’ll be ready to transfer through the chiller

once the whirlpool has settled. To transfer into your fermenter(s), you’ll want to close the whirlpool ball valve,

disconnect the quick disconnect, and run that length of tubing to your fermenter(s). Make sure the kettle and

pump ball valves are open, and turn the pump on! NOTE: Transferring at a slightly slower rate will help ensure that

you do not create too much suction on the inside of your boil kettle, which will help keep the hop sediment to remain in the

center of the boil kettle.

Single–Tier Manual • MoreBeer.com • 1–800–600–0033

1. Turn on the propane supply.

2. Turn the multifunction valve to “Pilot”, located to the left of the burner behind the shield, and is labeled:

On, Off, and Pilot.

3. Press in and hold the multifunction valve knob and light the pilot light at the burner.

4. Continue pressing in the valve knob for 45 seconds.

5. On releasing the valve knob, the pilot should stay lit. If not, check the thermocouple to ensure that it is

in the ﬂame of the pilot. Do not use the system if you suspect a malfunction.

6. Once the pilot stays lit, turn the multifunction valve to On. BE CAREFUL - as this will ignite the burner.

Make sure your face, hands, clothing, and anything ﬂammable are away from the burner BEFORE turning

the valve to the "On" position.

While your mash tun water is heating up, let’s measure out our sparge water in our hot liquor tank. We

recommend using slightly more than the desired end volume in your hot liquor tank. For example – if you’re

hoping to end with 11 gallons in your boil kettle prior to transferring to your fermenters, measure out 13 to

14 gallons into your hot liquor tank. This volume mixed with the volume you’ll be putting into your mash tun

will combine to be very close to the appropriate pre-boil volume in your boil kettle. NOTE: These measurements

are general, and each batch or brewer will vary. We highly recommend taking good notes and using these in future batches to

perfect your brewing style and recipes. We’ll be aiming for around 10°F above the targeted mash temperature for our

sparge water. With the hot liquor tank ﬂoat switch and temperature probe installed in the kettle and plugged

into the control panel, we’re ready to set our controller. Pushing the “SET” button will begin this process, and

you’ll have the option to choose Fahrenheit or Celsius. Press the “SET” button again to view the current set

point. This can be raised or lowered with the arrow buttons, and should be set to where you want your hot

liquor tank’s temperature at. Pressing the “SET” button again will allow you to change the differential. The

differential will allow a “swing” of temperature. We recommend keeping this at “1” – which will turn the burner

on as soon as the temperature falls 1 degree below the set point. Setting the differential at 5 will allow the hot

liquor tank to fall 5 degrees below your set point before turning the burner on. After setting your differential,

press the “SET” button again to choose cooling (C1) or heating (H1). Make sure this is set to heating (H1). At

this point, press the “SET” button again to view the current temperature – nothing should be blinking at this

point. We can also set the mash tun’s controller at this point, but will not want to have the pump plugged in,

Lighting the Pilot:

range would be between 6–12 degrees above what you’re hoping to mash at. Example: If you’d like to mash at

150°F, dough-in at 156°F–162°F.

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Single–Tier Manual • MoreBeer.com • 1–800–600–0033

as it will instantly get turned on and run dry (which is bad!). Everything on the mash tun should be setup the

same as the hot liquor tank, other than the temperature set point (set this to whatever you’d like to mash at).

Once we’ve gotten the mash tun to the desired “strike temperature” (the temperature that the grain will strike

the water while doughing-in), it’s time to dump and stir the grain into the mash tun. Start pouring the grain

into the mash tun distributing it as evenly as possible and stirring constantly using a mash paddle. This is done

to help prevent dough balls and clots that will reduce efﬁciency, and possibly contribute to a stuck sparge.

With all of the grain into the mash tun, double check the temperature to make sure it’s where you want it, and

install the stainless steel sparge assembly. After the sparge arm is installed, plug the ﬂoat switch into the control

panel. At this point in time, we’ll want to start our timer for one hour, or however long you’ll be mashing for,

and connect the appropriate tubing.

The Flow of the Tubing

Re-Circulating the Mash:

From the mash tun’s ball valve, we’ll run the longest length of tubing down to the March Pump inlet. Run one

of the other tubing lengths with (2) quick disconnect ﬁttings from the pump outlet to the heat exchanger inlet,

and the other one of those tubing lengths from the outlet of the heat exchanger to the inlet of your sparge arm

assembly. You’re now ready to re-circulate your mash! Meanwhile, the hot liquor tank will soon be getting

close to our target temperature, but will turn off automatically once the set point has been reached. During

the mashing process, we’ll want to have the pump plugged into the “PUMP” outlet, and have the dial on the

right of the control panel switched to “Temp. Switch”.