Anyone have any pictures of the Blichmann "Tower of Power"?

I saw the setup at NHC and could only find the below picture. Would be great to see some more (that weren't blurry).

This page has a few more pictures: http://fhsteinbart.wordpress.com/2011/06/

I'm quite sure once they launch it, it'll be everywhere(in the homebrewing world, anyways)

Cheers!

I loath cell phone pics with a passion. Never mind the sideways stuff, it's like "Jeeze, that might be really interesting, but I can't tell from that pic!"

And from the linked article: "a gas silininoid valve to control the flow of propane into the burner."

"Silininoid"? I weep for the future.

Anyway...You ever wonder if the folks at Blichmann are just messing with our heads?

Cheers!

day_trippr said:

I loath cell phone pics with a passion.

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Theyre not all bad. This is my favorite swimming hole taken with my HTC phone.

day_trippr said:

And from the linked article: "a gas silininoid valve to control the flow of propane into the burner."

"Silininoid"? I weep for the future.

Anyway...You ever wonder if the folks at Blichmann are just messing with our heads?

Cheers!

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Hahahahahaha, I can't stop laughing. I hate misspellings, but have realized the internet is a very dumb place.

And yes, they're just messing with our heads. There is no understandable reason that they need to create something like this. I mean, they're engineers, so they overcomplicate to simplify, but still.

Is this thing designed to support a HERMS system (i.e., fire the HLT) or a direct fire mash tun?

This thing looks interesting. Any idea how much it costs.

bumstigedy said:

This thing looks interesting. Any idea how much it costs.

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It's a blichmann, if you have to ask, you can't afford it.


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has anyone heard an update for when the tower of power is going to be available?

wildwest450 said:

it's a blichmann, you can't afford it.


_

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fft

wired247 said:

Theyre not all bad. This is my favorite swimming hole taken with my HTC phone.

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That looks remarkably like the Youngs River Falls in Astoria.

BigLuke said:

That looks remarkably like the Youngs River Falls in Astoria.

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White River Falls a bit to the East of Tygh Valley OR. Much warmer and sunnier than Astoria, OR.

You know what they say about Astoria. They might as well call it Toria 'cause theres no Ass there.

djnelson said:

has anyone heard an update for when the tower of power is going to be available?

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A friend asked John Blichmann a question about their top tier system and at the end of the email he commented the temperature controller would be coming out in "another couple of months"

It's on their website now. http://www.blichmannengineering.com/TOWER_of_POWER/TOWER_of_POWER.html

cool. any chance there will be something larger than thumbnail size to view?

d_m_s_00 said:

It's on their website now. http://www.blichmannengineering.com/TOWER_of_POWER/TOWER_of_POWER.html

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It refers to the system as a RIMS system, but wouldn't it be more accurate to call it a direct fire system?

Also, why would you want a controller for the HLT? Maybe for automated fly sparging or something?

I don't get it, what is it for? I see what looks like PIDs at the top? Someone shed some light please!

I "assume" the controller is similar to the Gas control for dummies thread https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/gas-temperature-control-dummies-116632/ which would mean it turns the burner on and off at the set point. If that is true, it would be awesome because I wanted to automate my direct fire mash, but I don't want to have to learn how to build one. The stand looks like it has a flow meter on it with a low flow adjustable sensor. It’s probably just a way to see how fast your recirc or your sparge flow is and alert you to a stuck or slow recirculation so you don't scorch your mash. I'm interested to see it in action for the offical run down on how it works!

Where's the horn section?

Blichmann knocking the competitions "The refrigeration thermistors and even industrial thermocouples our competitors use will only get you to within a couple degrees at best" is a bogus claim at best. Auber PID/RTD combo will get you accuracy to tenths of a degree for not a lot of $$$.

Yes, it turns the gas burner to the mash tun on and off based on mash temperature and also controls a pump to recirculate the mash (purely to prevent scorching and filter through the grainbed, since the pump is not pumping through a RIMS tube or HERMS coil).

I'm still stumped on why they have a separate controller for the HLT though, unless someone wants to do an automated fly sparge, but that would be more trouble than it's worth IMO.

Any word on cost?

I'm guessing a Top Tier + Tower of Power + 3 Boilermakers + Therminator and other accessories will easily be in the range of the Sabco and MoreBeer setups.

It looks you will need to have some kind of a brew stand to use this.

Here's a high-res image link to one of the temp modules on Blichmann's site:
http://www.blichmannengineering.com/TOWER_of_POWER/photos/Single_control_module.jpg

bumstigedy said:

It looks you will need to have some kind of a brew stand to use this.

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This is definately just an add on to your current gas fired system, one unit per burner. In the description it says they can be ganged to control multiple burners. The coolest feature is the magnetic flow switch on the sight tube to monitor for slow flow.

Ok, I take it all back - this TOP thing looks very cool indeed! And of course, plenty blingy

Cheers!

Here is an article on the tower. It looks awesome!

http://homebrewacademy.com/blichmann-tower-of-power

I'm really curious about the cost of this thing. Planning a Brutus 10 build in the spring (I was lying in the comments of that post) and a Brutus 10 + Tower of Power would be a thing of beauty.

Rich_S said:

Is this thing designed to support a HERMS system (i.e., fire the HLT) or a direct fire mash tun?

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Both. Either.

bumstigedy said:

This thing looks interesting. Any idea how much it costs.

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The full shebang is something like $600-$800 depending on options from what I recall. That is from a conversation I had with one of the Blichmann guys (not John) during the demo at NHC. Keep in mind that that is for one controller, and the demonstration unit I believe has two controllers (one for HLT, one for mash recirc).

The way it is demonstrated is basically a RIMS configuration, but there is nothing from preventing you to set it up as a HERMS or other configurations, either. You don't need a TopTier or other Blichmann stuff to use it, although obviously it also is designed to work with their other products.

I've had a great time brewing with all of my blichmann gear minus my auto sparge. Looking forward to hearing more reviews about this and seeing what the official MSRP comes out to be.

Very cool. Where is that swimming hole located?

wired247 said:

Theyre not all bad. This is my favorite swimming hole taken with my HTC phone.

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Any updates on the tower???

I think it has been renamed to The Tower of Patience.

Blichmann vaporware?

Tower of Power? Sounds like an old porn movie.

Frank Zappa lyric, from Bobby Brown

I've got a Blichmann Tower of Power in my garage right now... It's kind of making for a distracting day at work.

Where did u get the tower and how much and what's included

The homebrew store I work at got one and my friend and I were assigned to test it out. They're not available anywhere yet as I don't think they've even set pricing yet. I've got a post running here
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/got-test-out-tower-power-last-night-325707/

http://www.blichmannengineering.com/TOWER_of_POWER/TOP_Owners_Manual-V1.pdf

Looks great!! I need one.