I was thinking (ok, daydreaming) about a potential electric brewery on my horizon. When thinking about the design and details, my goal is to keep it as simple as possible. Basically, a two tier system- one level for the kettle with heat elements (higher) and the other level just for mashing (lower). The electric kettle would heat the mash water AND act as a boil kettle.
When thinking about moving water & wort, I started thinking about the typical paths with piping and a pump. Alternatively, I thought that instead of moving hot water and wort with a pump why not use gravity exclusively. Obviously that works initially to dump the hot water into the mash tun, but when done mashing, how do you get the wort back to the HLT for the boil.
So I came to the theory of having the mash tank on a shelf that can be elevated up and down. Either manually or with a motor. The unknown is what is an efficient gear/mechanical system to raise a small (~20"x20") but heavy (70+ lbs) platform. Gears? Worm screw? Pully's? That way, after the mash is done the platform could be raised up above the HLT so gravity could be used to drain the wort back to the HLT pot.
Benefits:
- Simpler design, less plumbing
- Could be cheaper if the cost of the materials/method to raise the shelf are less than the pump and plumbing
- Easier to clean because of less plumbing
Challenges:
- Method to mechanically raise and lower the shelf.
- Hoses or pipes from the HLT pot will have to be flexible or fixed (but removed when the shelf is raised or lowered)
When thinking about moving water & wort, I started thinking about the typical paths with piping and a pump. Alternatively, I thought that instead of moving hot water and wort with a pump why not use gravity exclusively. Obviously that works initially to dump the hot water into the mash tun, but when done mashing, how do you get the wort back to the HLT for the boil.
So I came to the theory of having the mash tank on a shelf that can be elevated up and down. Either manually or with a motor. The unknown is what is an efficient gear/mechanical system to raise a small (~20"x20") but heavy (70+ lbs) platform. Gears? Worm screw? Pully's? That way, after the mash is done the platform could be raised up above the HLT so gravity could be used to drain the wort back to the HLT pot.
Benefits:
- Simpler design, less plumbing
- Could be cheaper if the cost of the materials/method to raise the shelf are less than the pump and plumbing
- Easier to clean because of less plumbing
Challenges:
- Method to mechanically raise and lower the shelf.
- Hoses or pipes from the HLT pot will have to be flexible or fixed (but removed when the shelf is raised or lowered)