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Sawdustguy

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I am knee deep in retrofitting my natural gas fired E-RIMS with automation and re-plumbing with all stainless steel. My brother is an extract brewer who has done a number of "all grain" brews with me and is now interested in an "all grain" system for himself. He has a son in culinary school at Johnson and Wales so he is on a very tight budget. A college buddy of mine is part owner of a resturant supply business and can get me a three bay stainless steel sink for very little money. Since I am automating with a brewtroller I can give my brother my old Auber PID's and a few other diddys. Fortunately my brother lives in our Pop's house who had 200 amp service added before he passed away, so it can be an electric system. My question is this. Could we use a three bay stainless sink as the basis for an electric brewery using one bowl for HLT, one for MLT and one for BK? It would look like the one pictured below:

021643360-540-44372.jpg
 
I am knee deep in retrofitting my natural gas fired E-RIMS with automation and re-plumbing with all stainless steel. My brother is an extract brewer who has done a number of "all grain" brews with me and is now interested in an "all grain" system for himself. He has a son in culinary school at Johnson and Wales so he is on a very tight budget. A college buddy of mine is part owner of a resturant supply business and can get me a three bay stainless steel sink for very little money. Since I am automating with a brewtroller I can give my brother my old Auber PID's and a few other diddys. Fortunately my brother lives in our Pop's house who had 200 amp service added before he passed away, so it can be an electric system. My question is this. Could we use a three bay stainless sink as the basis for an electric brewery using one bowl for HLT, one for MLT and one for BK? It would look like the one pictured below:

021643360-540-44372.jpg

There is no reason this would not work! In fact, this was going to be a Brutus Ten at one time!

Still, there are a LOT of possibilities with something like this. I still have ideas to use a sink like this. Right now, I would like to have at least a one bay just to set it up as a "water station", where I would make my RO water, add what chemicals I might need for the style, and have an electric heating element to pre heat the water, then pump it over for brew day...
 
I would be concerned about heat transfer between the HLT and the MLT. Your HLT temperature is going to be higher than your mash temperature and lots of heat is going to keep flowing in from the HLT through that steel wall.

If you got really lucky, the heat loss out the front/back/bottom/top into the atmosphere might be roughly the same as the heat coming in from the HLT. I wouldn't count on it though :)
 
A thought: If you used the center sink as a sort of water prep station, like Lonnie Mac mentioned, you could use the left sink as your HLT and the right as your MLT. That way the passive heat transfer between the HLT and MLT would be greatly reduced.

You'd need to bring over a separate apparatus to handle the boil, but the nice thing about that would be that after you've transferred the wort to the boil kettle, you could clean out the sinks while the boil is happening. The central sink with a working drain would be amazingly useful.

This sort of setup would lend itself pretty well to a HERMS arrangement, if you ask me. Your HLT and MLT are integral to the structure and a HERMS coil could be hard-plumbed in pretty easily.
 
I like the results from using a stainless sink for a mlt. It was just about the perfect size for my rig, and draining from the center worked real well. Used spray foam to insulate and plan on sheeting the outside with ss sheeting.

One little tidbit I can pass on, the threads on a sink drain are square and did not want to match well with the 1.5" SS adapter I used. About a half hour of careful work with a honing stone made the threads more like the npt on the 90* adapter.

As far as ReeseAllen's concern, couldn't you just put the HLT on one end, the MLT on the opposite end, brew kettle in the middle? Just covering the brew kettle section during the mash would probably serve to insulate, as few things insulate as well as air.
 
I like the results from using a stainless sink for a mlt. It was just about the perfect size for my rig, and draining from the center worked real well. Used spray foam to insulate and plan on sheeting the outside with ss sheeting.

One little tidbit I can pass on, the threads on a sink drain are square and did not want to match well with the 1.5" SS adapter I used. About a half hour of careful work with a honing stone made the threads more like the npt on the 90* adapter.

As far as ReeseAllen's concern, couldn't you just put the HLT on one end, the MLT on the opposite end, brew kettle in the middle? Just covering the brew kettle section during the mash would probably serve to insulate, as few things insulate as well as air.

I knew there were others who have used something like this before...

I recall something from many years ago with some system using a three-bay sink for each process. I think there is even one for sale from some company now...

These things are just begging to be made into a brewery!
 
Oh man, I LOVE the possibilities of this! I wonder where I could get one at a decent price around here...
 
Do the sink tubs share a common wall between them or is there an air pocket between each tub?

sink.GIF
 
I would be concerned about heat transfer between the HLT and the MLT. Your HLT temperature is going to be higher than your mash temperature and lots of heat is going to keep flowing in from the HLT through that steel wall.

If you got really lucky, the heat loss out the front/back/bottom/top into the atmosphere might be roughly the same as the heat coming in from the HLT. I wouldn't count on it though :)

No worries there. You can keep the HLT temp at say 3-4F above mash temp for 50 minutes, then set the controller to sparge temps. I think running a HERMS on this would be pretty practical.

I would insulate around the whole rig.
 
I think finding one without common walls like sawdustguy posted would be ideal, and it would make fitting lids easier as well. I agree, HERMS would be really nice in this.
 
I like the looks of that last sink, SDG. Getting a bit of sink envy here.


If you go the spray foam route for insulation, there are large containers available that will save quite a bit of money and hassle. It's also important to note that not all spray foams are built alike. The two part stuff is much better than the ones that are moisture activated. (in a former life, I worked for the folks who invented expanding foam)​
 
how much is 'very little money'?

if he only has $200, but has time to scrounge, I'd buy two kegs, a turkey burner, and a pump.
(actually, that's what I *did* do).
 
how much is 'very little money'?

if he only has $200, but has time to scrounge, I'd buy two kegs, a turkey burner, and a pump.
(actually, that's what I *did* do).

Why? In the original post I mentioned he wanted it to be an electric system which is much cheaper than running back and forth for propane refills. I can get a decent one new for $350 (cost) from my buddy Brian. I may aslo keep my eyes peeled on the used market. I am giving my brother two PID's, a pump, my manual ball valves, my old DIY immersion chiller to use as a herms coil and any copper pipe or fittings I had left over from my original build. All he needs is two SSR's, elements, some fittings and some silicone tubing. Besides, legal kegs are not so simple to come by in this neck of the woods not to mention the fun we would have building it together. It is really cold here now so this will be a spring project.
 
Have you seen this website?

http://www.brewmation.com/

Yup....That website actually planted the seed for my brothers system. I figured we could build it for way less than $750 with getting a good deal on the sink, and the left over parts I will donate from my brewery automation retrofit project. I will give him a pump, the PID's, the ball valves, some left over copper fittings, two 96" lengths of 1/2" copper pipe, a 20 amp GFCI, the 12 ga. wire and the lugs and terminals. He will have to buy the sink, elements, a couple of SSR's, a couple of RTD's, some silicone tubing and any other fittings he needs. We will be insulating the sinks and see where the build takes us. There will be no control panel as the switches and PID's will be mounted into the backsplash.
 
I am going to go and see one of these in action very soon. These breweries are tight. Can't wait. I'll let you know if I leave with one (after which point I'll have to change my forum name!!)
 

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