Countertop Brutus 20

Here's what's arguably the most clever (and space-saving) bit. Chiller and pump all in one package:

How difficult (and/or practical) would it be to replace the coils with a plate chiller?

mengel said:

Here's what's arguably the most clever (and space-saving) bit. Chiller and pump all in one package:

How difficult (and/or practical) would it be to replace the coils with a plate chiller?

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Trivial, really. Plenty of room to plumb a plate chiller inside the bucket. I know at least one other CB20 builder went that route.

jkarp said:

Kona Brewing Longboard Lager, baby!

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mmmmmmmm... my favorite when I was in Hawaii last summer. When swmbo came home a month or so ago with a 6-pack of it, reporting that she found a place by where she works (in NY) that has it... let's just say she had almost a good night as I had

jkarp said:

Trivial, really. Plenty of room to plumb a plate chiller inside the bucket. I know at least one other CB20 builder went that route.

Click to expand...

Well this may be the first of many questions as I have determined this is the exact setup I need lol. As I am gathering the pieces to put this all together, I already have a "Chillout" 10 plate chiller from homebrewstuff.com that I would like to integrate into my system. I am wondering if anyone has suggestions about how I could mount this to the bucket, and how I would set up all the plumbing and fittings (and would this actually function similar as if I had the CFC). I figure this chiller should more than suffice for 3.5g batches. By the way jkarp....this system is ingenious, thanks for sharing!

Reviving this thread as I am building this setup. I read Jkarps article on BYO and decided to go for that instead of a full fledged herms. I won't be using a CFC but an IC. I have a few questions though:

What would happen if one would start recirculation right after dough-in? You might be able to do step/ramp mashes in your coooler this way.

What would be the max feasible volume (that goes into the fermenter) for a 1.050-55 beer? As Jkarp I am going to use a 5gal cooler for mashing.

Hey HBT. Long time, no visit.

I just happened to notice Blichmann got a patent on RIMS, specifically, a two-vessel RIMS system. Dunno where I'd find the time, but I'm sorely tempted to invalidate it.

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=8993273

I know this thread hasn’t been active, but hope I can still get some feedback. I’m curious about kettle material in this build. Seems aluminum is good when heat source is external due to thermal properties, but may fight against us when heat source is internal as it may lead to more heat escaping. Do you think SS is best for electric kettles? Is the heat transfer out of aluminum negligible? I know jkarp insulated his aluminum kettle in the original build. I assume for these reasons. Would it be necessary to do the same with a SS kettle?

Stainless steel has a much lower thermal conductivity than aluminum, but for this application, it shouldn't matter enough to make the change. The insulation in this project is more needed because of the single 120V heating element.