Ok I am getting my stuff together for my brewery build and as most builds it will be a work in progress. My biggest hassle so far is sourcing kegs (It's pretty hard here in NZ with some people wanting $80-100 per keg, ok of my budget since I can wait till the scrapyard has them in at $40!)
I have 2 kegs so far, so I thought why not start with a 2 vessel system and upgrade when I find my last keg (plus I want more sankes for fermenting in but that's another story )
My final plan is a 3-vessel-single-tier-1-pump-batch-sparge homebrewery (mouthful!) So I wanted my build to go towards this goal to reduce rework, e.g. make the 3 vessel frame instead of just 2 vessel.
I had a few ideas on how to get away with only 1 tier and only 1 pump with only 2 vessels - build a rims tube and use it as a on demand water heater for sprage water then step the sparge up to mashout with the rims. Then I remembered the Brutus 2.0 concept of recirc'ing the wort from the BK-HLT-BK till it was well mixed. Only problem is that both these ways need more equipment than I want to invest in (right now) with either a rims tube or another pump needed.
So then came my brilliant idea (or brain fart, I'll let you guys decide) - Process flow for my "stop-gap" system:
Heat strike water in BK,
Dough/mash in (pump strike water to MLT with grains),
Mash,
Heat sparge water in BK,
Pump sparge water into MLT,
Recirc MLT until happy I have got all I will get out of the grains,
Pump wort to BK.
A quick (rough) check on volumes for a 10 gallon batch:
10 gallons into fermenter
1.5 gallons boil off
1.75 gallons grain volume - ~22# grains for 1.050 @ 65% eff (0.08 gallons/# or 0.32 qt/# from a thread on here somewhere)
Equals
13.25 gallons (just enough room)
Any thoughts guys & girls?
I have 2 kegs so far, so I thought why not start with a 2 vessel system and upgrade when I find my last keg (plus I want more sankes for fermenting in but that's another story )
My final plan is a 3-vessel-single-tier-1-pump-batch-sparge homebrewery (mouthful!) So I wanted my build to go towards this goal to reduce rework, e.g. make the 3 vessel frame instead of just 2 vessel.
I had a few ideas on how to get away with only 1 tier and only 1 pump with only 2 vessels - build a rims tube and use it as a on demand water heater for sprage water then step the sparge up to mashout with the rims. Then I remembered the Brutus 2.0 concept of recirc'ing the wort from the BK-HLT-BK till it was well mixed. Only problem is that both these ways need more equipment than I want to invest in (right now) with either a rims tube or another pump needed.
So then came my brilliant idea (or brain fart, I'll let you guys decide) - Process flow for my "stop-gap" system:
Heat strike water in BK,
Dough/mash in (pump strike water to MLT with grains),
Mash,
Heat sparge water in BK,
Pump sparge water into MLT,
Recirc MLT until happy I have got all I will get out of the grains,
Pump wort to BK.
A quick (rough) check on volumes for a 10 gallon batch:
10 gallons into fermenter
1.5 gallons boil off
1.75 gallons grain volume - ~22# grains for 1.050 @ 65% eff (0.08 gallons/# or 0.32 qt/# from a thread on here somewhere)
Equals
13.25 gallons (just enough room)
Any thoughts guys & girls?