Bringing History To Life

Apologies for the cliche, but in my defense, I’m misusing it anyway. About 2 years ago, our friend Susan forwarded us an email from Matt Becker, of Brewery Becker in Brighton (My comments bolded):

Fwd: [AABG] Anyone want some stuff?

Brewers,
  I’m looking to get rid of some stuff, anyone interested in any of this?   Some can just be taken.

There is

3 Roll mill with bucket …naw
HERMS system with HLT, Mash, Boil kettle.   Needs new brains …nope
12.2 gallon conical fermenter with a heat wrap belt. …no
A jockey box with cold plates …got one
A heated shaker bath …hmm, probably overkill
Some glass carboys …pass
A turkey fryer with burner and parts …definite pass
Some Hoff Stevens kegs …scrap ’em!
Pierre Cellis’ lauter grant. …SKREEEEEEEK! WUUUUT?

Any interest?   Thanks,

Matt

Scrolling through the attached pictures, there it appeared:

That beautiful old copper and brass contraption belonged to the late Pierre Celis, serial brewery founder and brewer responsible for reviving and popularizing Hoegaarden style Witbier. When I saw that, I rectally extruded a clay-based masonry unit! (Sh!t a br!ck) Forthwith, Skip called Matt, and acquired the grant.

The lauter tun is a large vessel with a slotted plate in the bottom which allows separation of the sweet liquid wort from the solids in the mash. A grant is a fixture similar to an oversized wall sink, with a series of taps, each of which draws from a different point under the lauter tun, allowing the flow to be balanced across the entire width of the vessel. The clear wort is pumped or gravity-fed to the kettle, where it is boiled. This particular beauty has 8 taps, with a big honking drain valve in the center.

Now, it should be pretty clear that our teeny 5 barrel brewery doesn’t need something on this scale. But this thing is sort of a sacred relic of brewing history, in addition to being objectively beautiful. Thus we figured we’d display it in the taproom, maybe with a little plaque. And of course, because I can’t stop making work for myself, we’re making it into an animated fountain. (Hence the “bringing history to life”) Here’s where we started:

The massively heavy bronze 4-way flanged fitting tenuously attached to the bottom center had to go, but it left a bunch of holes. I needed a copper patch approximately 6 inches across. Fortunately, we have lots of scrap copper pipe of all sizes; a 6″ length of 2″ copper, cut and unrolled, fit the bill just so.

The other hole above is where the massive drain valve mounts. I removed it temporarily to gain working room, and to lose ~50 lbs. Hope it holds water!

To test that, we had to move to the next phase- connecting the two drain tailpieces to some kind of recirculation system. An initial idea, tested and rejected, was to have a cistern located above the fountain feed the taps via gravity, with a sump pump under everything refilling the cistern. The flow rate when more than one valve was open was somewhat underwhelming. Subsequently, Skip produced a pump he had, of the pool filter sort, that was good for about 60gpm, and was pretty quiet running. Bonus was the integral filter basket. Here’s the first test:

That’s more like it! Before we’re said and done, I’ll be adding a union into the PVC for serviceability. Now to control the pumps’s output. We need a manifold; which means another trip to the scrap copper pile.

Each branch off of the manifold will feed one of the 8 taps in the grant. (There’s no real reason for the ‘Pan flute’ arrangement of the valves, other than we thought it looked cool.) On/off flow control is by dual pilot valves of the sort used in motion-sensing restroom faucets. They switch on with a short 5V pulse, and off with a reverse polarity one. Now, to get something to supply said pulses:

That oughta do it. The gizmo is based on an Arduino single board microcontroller, as per my usual, and housed in a JIC box salvaged from our demolition phase. Time to put it all together:

I must say, it turned out pretty much like I envisioned. For now, it’ll be partially disassembled until it’s time to install it. It’s going to be mounted on a brick knee wall, with the manifold etc mounted above, similar to the test rig. I’m really looking forward to the final product.

A bit more about the history: In 1966, Pierre Celis started Brouwerij Celis in his hometown of Hoegaarden to revive the local, popular style of witbier which had last been brewed by the now defunct Tomsin brewery in 1957. In a few years, he established a new, larger brewery, Brouwerij de Kluis (Cloister), which was lost to a fire in 1985. By then de Kluis had developed a following outside the immediate region, and in 1992 Pierre founded a new Celis Brewing in Austin, Texas, managed by his daughter Christine. In a story familiar to many in the industry, interest in the brewery was sold to Miller to fund expansion, and the family lost control. Miller closed the business in 2000, having no idea what to do with a craft specialty. The brand and brewery gear was eventually acquired by Michigan Brewing Company in Webberville, MI, who produced the beers from around 2002-2012, when they, too, went out of business. (Quite a story in its own right…) When MBC’s assets were auctioned off, Matt Becker acquired the grant along with a bunch of kegs, etc. This takes us back to the start of this post.

One last tidbit: I was showing off the fountain-in-progress to my friend Mike (AKA Brewgyver) and he asked, “Which of Pierre’s breweries was it from?” I realized I didn’t know for sure- the grant was obviously quite old, I guessed 1940s at the absolute newest. One thing I did know, though, was that Christine Celis had established a new Celis Brewing Co in Austin, so I wrote to her. And here’s the story:

The grant is from the lautertun that my dad brought over in 1991 and was installed in our brewery in Austin. The brewhouse was installed first and the building was built around it. It was an amazing project and a beautiful brewery!
All that copper was hand beaten produced in Germany. It sat empty in a brewery that closed during WWII therefore my dad put it to good use in Austin.

I’ll send a picture of a picture with the image of the complete brewhouse and where you can see clearly the grant. (This will be later this week)

Keep that valuable piece of history and I’m glad you will be displaying it in your taproom.

So there we are. Incidentally, the copper dome from the mash tun is part of the taproom at Celis Brewery today. Check it out here.

UPDATE: got the pics from the brewhouse as installed in Austin in the 90s. Thanks, Christine!

I am positively drooling over the green tile….