100 gallons...

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Arkador

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Wanted to share a pair of pictures of our homebrew clubs "Big Brew" setup. I am posting it here, because it is completley homemade.

Our last brew was $25 each for 5galons of unpitched wert.

our 100gal Mashton and the HERMS/HLT
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The Boil kettles
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60Minute boil
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Time to fill up and make sure everyone paid.
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We also boiled about 100pounds of crawfish.... this is nowhere near all of them.
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The Mashton is made from a 100galon tub. We made a Saisson this batch, with about 80galons of final product. The recipe called for 210 pounds of grain.

Our Boil kettle is actually 2X 55g drums.
 
cool. Is the HLT a commercial coffee urn ?

I am afraid I do not know what it is made of. I do know that the HERMS/HLT is 30 or 35gal, and has a 25ft copper coil inside, and is heated with propane.

The brewstand to the left of the HERMS is only there so we could heat water in it's HLT.
 
That setup is so huge that it's funny to look at! :D I would have the giggles the hole time brewing.:rockin:
 
any chance of us getting some pictures of the entire setup. I am REALLY interested in seeing the Mashtun and the HLT

Thanks

John
 
Very nice.
I guess everything is bigger in Texas. :)

I bet the neighbors are like, what are those boys doin over there? I think they're making moonshine!
 
Next time we fire it up (Late July) I will get some more detailed pictures and post them. I think the build was arround $1500 to complete this system. The wood planking arround the MLT is mainly there as a form for the expanding foam that was used to insulate it.

Some things not in the pictures..

mach pump
2x counterflow chillers
hose fittings
inside of the HERMS
propane burners
Sparge arm
bottom of the empty MLT

This rig was in existance before I joined. There are no electronics other than the pump. Everything is manually controled in the operation. The "Big Brew" runs with a continuous sparge (If I recall correctly)

It is a great tool to have in a homebrew club, it gives us an excuse to get together several times a year and make beer. We encourange people to try different things in the fermentation process. I think there were 18 5galon batches of this Sassion, and 8 different yeasts were used (almost everyone pitched at home)
 
I was just checking out the pictures again, and if you look at picture 4, you will see the HERMS on the left side of the picture, on the ground. The Sparge arm is leaning against it, and the wire braid drain from the bottom of the MLT is sitting on top of it.
 
Yeah I am really interested in the makeup of the Mashtun. I am interested in making a large mashtun and need something a bit more attractive than a cooler.


Thanks,

John
 
Those carboys should really be in milk crates...that cement is hard stuff...:p

This is why I brought an ale pail for my share.
Yeah I am really interested in the makeup of the Mashtun. I am interested in making a large mashtun and need something a bit more attractive than a cooler.
The MLT is based on the 100gal Rubermaid water trough
rubm4245.jpg

which has a drain on the bottom side (this is where we connected the braided drain line)
the unit was then wrapped in wooden boards similar to those that you would wrap a hottub in, and the cavity was filled with spray foam.

the top is made of a sheet of a HDPE sheet (Same material as a cutting board)
http://www.interstateplastics.com/detail.aspx?ID=HDPEcuttingboard-SN037
one end was cut off so that a hinge could be added and be bolted down to the top of the bin.

Once that was done, a hole was drilled in the anchor section of the lid to feed the sparge arm, which was done just like you would for any MLT but larger.
 
What part of Cowtown are you in? I'm up in Frisco and would be interested in 5 gallons of your finest at your next shindig. My main question is what efficiencies you get off the rubbermaid MLT? As far as i'm aware the efficiency is based on the MLT design, correct?

- Penn
 
What part of Cowtown are you in? I'm up in Frisco and would be interested in 5 gallons of your finest at your next shindig. My main question is what efficiencies you get off the rubbermaid MLT? As far as i'm aware the efficiency is based on the MLT design, correct?

- Penn

I think the efficiency on the Sassion was 75-80%. We get a good efficiency due to the continous sparge. (if you come to a brew, talk to Nick and James, they are the experts on this thing)

I am in Benbrook, which is the far south west corner of FW, but the club usually meets in North Richland Hills, I believe the next 2 scheduled runs of the bigbrew is in September and October. I forget what is scheduled for September, but i know October is going to be an Irish Red.

Go to our homebrew club website (In my sig) and sign up. You are probably about 45min from where we meet. We have a guy that comes from Granbury, and I am about a 30min drive myself. We are always looking for new members, meetings are the first Tuesday of the month.
 
Comparing size I like the little wort chiller in the 1st two pictures. But it looks like a counter-flow so it should do the trick aye?
 
Comparing size I like the little wort chiller in the 1st two pictures. But it looks like a counter-flow so it should do the trick aye?

it is a counterflow. We use 2 of them. the first one drops it to about 110-120degrees, and the 2nd drops it to about 80, ready to pitch. the first CFC is mounted to the stand, right next to the pump.
 
Found more pictures of the Big Brew!!! Remember, the 3tier brewstand is only there for the extra HLT

Another angle of the whole thing (I am the nerd in the orange hat) You can see the pump and CFC attached to the brewstand.
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And the final angle
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Mashing inside the MLT
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The drain on the MLT (catching the final runnigns)
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What's left after the final sparge. (You can see the rectangular imprint of where teh sparge arm was resting)
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Cleaning the MLT (the copper piece you see below the MLT is the sparge arm, it is longer than a carboy is tall..
img4450.jpg


Getting ready to filter and chill.
img4453.jpg
 
NRH isn't that bad as long as there's no traffic maybe 45 min door to door. 75-80% sounds good. That sparge arm must've cost a pretty penny using all that copper! Are the 55 g drums SS? Also, do you get a rolling boil w/ the drum being that tall?
 
NRH isn't that bad as long as there's no traffic maybe 45 min door to door. 75-80% sounds good. That sparge arm must've cost a pretty penny using all that copper! Are the 55 g drums SS? Also, do you get a rolling boil w/ the drum being that tall?

I think, but am not certan the drums are SS. They do not reach a roaring boil, but there is a little rolling to it. If you are willing to come for the next bigbrew (and see this monster in action), join our forums, come to a meeting, and meet some people first.
 
Thanks so much for that extra info! That is a BRILLIANT rig! I love everything about it!

I would love to play on that thing!!!

J~
 
What size pump is needed to push that much wort around? How long does it take to drop the wort to 80*? do you cool the whole batch at the same time or chill it as you pump into fermenters?
 
What size pump is needed to push that much wort around? How long does it take to drop the wort to 80*? do you cool the whole batch at the same time or chill it as you pump into fermenters?

I think it is a pretty standard pump size. It took about 20min to pump the boil kettles full.

We chill while filling the fermenters, 2 CFCs chill it as fast as we fill...
 
Wow...is all I can say. Extremely cool!

Did anyone else notice it looks like the guy is holding a miniature fermenting bucket in the second picture? lol
 
Hey guys. That's me in the pic with the cigar.

We got one of the barrels on Ebay and one from Craigslist if I recall.

The HLT used to be one of those whirlpool deals they use for sports.

The most grain we have mashed at once is about 280lbs.

The pump we are using is a 1/4 HP march pump, it has a bit more oomph that the 1/25 HP motors we use in our regular brewstands.

The burners for the boil kettles have no problem getting to a rolling boil, but with the kettles being so tall it's tough to keep the boil under control. If we only boil about 35 in each kettle we can keep a nice rolling boil.

Efficiency wise, 75-80 is common but we have also had days where we've hit 85 or higher.
 

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