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VacuBrew All Grain Brewing System

afribrew

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Hi, just wondering if anyone has had any experience in using the VacuBrew All Grain Brewing System from MoreBeer.com (http://morebeer.com/view_product/9115//VacuBrew_All-Grain_Brewing_System) ? It has supposedly been tested with great success, but there is very little info on the internet with regards to it's pro's and con's.
 
Well the system has these issues which may (or not) be of any moment:
1) The humidity output by  hot fluids  may cause damage to the pump if there are rust-able components.
So check out the pump.  If it's all polymer than you are golden.    I'd say the pump  should have both polymer construction  and a back flow elimination filter.  The filter can be pretty much any kind of filter media which you  can replace or clean & sanitize for  each brew cycle.    You can't use  those little HEPA inline filters  some fol;ks put on the O2 injections systems  because of throughput problems.   You could probably use one of those cheap water filters with the disposable cartridges that they sell at the BORG..  

Don't use a vacuum cleaner because no matter what any one tells you  back flow is a reality.  Take from an old school ultra high vacuum engineer.

and
2.) seals seals seals.  Unless the pump is a  fairly  high CFM through-put pump the smallest of seal failures may be too much for the pump to overwhelm and certainly a handful of small leaks will stop the system dead.  .  You will learn the value of petroleum jelly  as a sanitary edible vacuum grease and all round brewery lube very quickly. Best to buy it in the little tubes.  Seals on such a system  I like the pots and the Tun  are going to be more of an issue than  in a fluid pump system  because of their larger diameter.  Large diameter seals are more finicky than lit little ones.  Ask any one with a conical.  Every once in a while they fail to get a good seal on the fermentor  and their air lock behaves as if nothing is happening.  The first time it happened to me I was betwixt and between even pitched yeast a second time before I realized that my 18" diameter seal around the lid  had not seated properly. 

Other than those two things, there is not one reason in the world why you can't move all your brewing fluids using vacuum.

 
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