I decided to start building a brewing system

DrKarma · 03-03-2009, 07:17 PM

I have put together a table of content below to make it easier for viewers to find what they are looking for, original thread starts under the ToC.

HLT - Posting #5, #7, #9, #41, #42, #43, #51, #58, #66, #95, #96
MLT v1.0 - Posting #2, #27, #72, #95, #96, #148, #150
MLT v2.0 - Posting #152, #153, #154, #155, #158
Wort Boiler - Posting #4, #77, #82, #83, #84, #87
Brew Cart - Posting #65, #70, #84, #87, #95, #96
Control discussions - Posting #13, #16, #17, #18, #26, #28, #33, #35, #38,
KarmaControl (my controller) - Posting #24, #46, #52, #59, #117, #120, #121
Equipment (fittings, pumps etc) - Posting #39, #47, #151
Brew reports - Posting #103, #104, #105, #145, #146
Bottle dish washer - Posting #186
Sketches and Graphs - Posting #109,
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Hi all.
Going to publish the progress here as I build my system.

The background: A few years ago we decided to build a house. After a while we fired the contractor and finished building everything by ourselves. And after spending over 2000 hours post normal working hours in building your house - you get a bit less motivated to continue. This is the case with my garage which is next in line to have some construction done to it (the garage is there, but it's filled with moving boxes etc etc etc).

So how to get the motivation back?
Easy....decide to build a beer brewing system and when you have built it - you get forced to build a "brewing house" in the garage since you want to brew in a nice clean area.

Makes sense?
Probably not.

Fun?
Definately.

So once I decided to build a system, I started to scout the internet for inspiration and found homebrewtalk to be a great asset.

I plan to build an electric powered HERMS system.
HLT - 30 Gallon (120 litres) food grade tun
MLT - 30 Gallon (120 litres) food grade tun
Boiler - 33 Gallon (127,5 litres) stainless steel kettle

Pictures and construction starts in my next posting.

DrKarma · 03-03-2009, 07:30 PM

Last weekend I managed to find some time to start building.
The weekend before that I found an add in one of Sweden's most popular sell/trade sites - where a guy had 200 30 Gallon plastic tuns to sell and they didn't cost much at all. I didn't have room for 200 so I only bought 12 of them at a price of ~5 USD each - will use most of them as fermenters.
They came with great lids and a stainless steel ring to seal the lids on the tun.

I have attached wood ribs to the roller-ring on the tun.

Insulated between the tun and the ribs with polyurethane foam...a really expensive type that has good insulation values.

**Reverend JC** · 03-03-2009, 07:35 PM

welcome!

I look forward to watching the progress.

DrKarma · 03-03-2009, 07:46 PM

When I built the garage, I made sure to install a 3-phase socket (European so that would be 3x400 Volts, 1 Neutural, 1 Earth - 16 A).
So I have the power needed to build an electric powered boiler.

Keeping this in mind I decided to get a used expansion chamber (don't know the english translation for that - it's used to take up water pressure in your home). So I searched for one online and came across a welder that could weld something that would fit my needs.

So after a session in sketchup I sent him the sketch and instructions.
A week later I the boiler was delivered to me...amazingly fast and I didn't have to do welding myself (have not welded anything in stainless steel before so I am sure it would be a disaster if I had to do it myself).

This is the original sketch that I did - in the discussions with the welder I decided to increase the height with 100 mm (4")

The big hole is for the electrical element (6 kW) that I will put into the boiler.
The smaller hole is for draining the content after complete boil.

The result.

DrKarma · 03-03-2009, 08:07 PM

I bought three water boilers rated 2000W each in a store the other day.
Plan is to use them to heat the water in the HLT to the right levels.
So together with my soon to be wife I made an experiment with these to see how well they worked.

After doing some measurements I noticed that they actually only delivered 1650 Watt each, but in the graphs that I share with you (in case someone else have plans on doing something similar) note that where it says 2000W, 4000W and 6000W in the graphs - in the real world that would correspond to 1650W, 3300W and 4950W. So you can use the latter values for reference as a Watt is a Watt regardless of if you live in the US or in Europe.

First image shows how long time in seconds it takes to bring an (x-axis) volume of water from 9 C (48,2F) to boiling point. 100C (212F)
1 Gallon = 3,78541 litres

As the insulation in a water boiler (the one you use in your kitchen) is quite bad, it will be interesting (at least to me) to re-run this test later when I have created the HLT.

slimer · 03-03-2009, 08:12 PM

Subscribed.

Could the problem for the power be the result of the type of heating element that you're using?

DrKarma · 03-03-2009, 08:28 PM

The tuns that I have, they are quite thick. Take the thickness of a normal fermenting tun and multiply that by 5 and you get the idea.
Knowing the thickness of the material, I was a bit worried if I would manage to fit the heating elements from the water boilers (that by now had been under surgery).

But it actually went way easier than expected.

First hole cut out, using a hole saw attached to my cordless.
(38 mm)

Using the original seal from the water boiler.

Right tool for the job. (Just love that cordless 18V Hitachi of mine) but I think it would work with a DeWalt as well

DrKarma · 03-03-2009, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reverend JC

welcome!

I look forward to watching the progress.

Thank you.

Think this will take me about a month to complete, need to have it in operation before the spring gets here for real, as I intend to pay some of the people that will help me with the final touches on my house with beer.

And by "complete" I mean to get the first batches out of the system because I will do some brewing on it manually to see what I can and should automate.

DrKarma · 03-03-2009, 08:44 PM

Somehow part 2 got lost.

All three heating elements in place - have left room for where the heat exchanging coil will run (bottom "side" of the picture and between the heating elements).

No leaks! Here I have poured approximately 15 Gallons water into the tun to see if the seal can take the additional water pressure.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with the donors.

DrKarma · 03-03-2009, 08:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slimer

Subscribed.

Could the problem for the power be the result of the type of heating element that you're using?

Definately...after the surgery of the water boilers I could read the printing on the elements that they were between 1850-2200 W but I trust the calibrated AC power meter that I have, more than I trust what is printed on a heating element from a budget water boiler.

But I figured, as I will have the same setup for the HLT as I have for the MLT (wooden ribs, with that expensive PU foam that normally is used for heating appliances)...that the insulation value would be much better than if I went and bought more expensive heating elements for the HLT. So I lose some and win some.