Thought I'd share what I've been working on for the past year...

I'm currently living in Cordoba, Argentina.

I decided over a year ago to build a brewing system, and at this time, it seemed bigger was always better...
In retrospect, I wish I would have built a fully automatic electric 5 gallon system.

A little bit about my system.

-All three kettles are 230L (60 gallons more or less).
-Hard-plumbed with copper and stainless.
-Uses both electric heating elements and propane burners (Planned to be 100% electric, but each house here in Cordoba has a maxium of 32A 220V and electricity is very expensive!)
-Controlled by the BrewTroller
-Double chamber fermentation room, 1.8Mx3.8M (one chamber for fermenting ales and the other for keg storage and lagering)


Here first are a few pictures of the brew-sculpture.
The small kettle next to the HLT and MASH is my heat exchanger, it has a 5500W heating element and a copper coil inside.






Heat exchanger.


Water filter, Plate chiller, Oxygen setup and a bunch of copper pipe.


Electronic scales, one for hops the other for grain.


Speciality grain.


Bulk grain.


Grain mill.


Kegerator

100L of Edwort's Haus Pale Ale fermenting.


Control Pannel, plan on using the PIDs for controlling the gas, which is turned on manual at the moment.
They are SSR control, would this be a bad idea for controlling gas burners through an electronic valve?


Inside the control pannel.


Back of brew-system.


Outside look at fermentation chamber.


230L stainless fermentor, yet to be finished..


Thanks for looking, let me know if you have any questions, or something I should change.

Salud!

I'll be the first to say it. That is one SICK set up! Very nice.

That is AWESOME! What do use the heat exchanger for?

MachineShopBrewing said:

I'll be the first to say it. That is one SICK set up! Very nice.

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Thank you!

Nice work!

BenS said:

That is AWESOME! What do use the heat exchanger for?

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It is basically my HERMS but not located in the HLT because it takes too long to heat up that much water to change the MASH temp. With the small heat exchanger I can step-mash and control the temperature a little better.

It is basically my HERMS but not located in the HLT because it takes too long to heat up that much water to change the MASH temp. With the small heat exchanger I can step-mash and control the temperature a little better.

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Ah! Thats very inventive. I like it

That is a nice rig you have there.

Do you regularly make 230L batches? How long does that last you?

509inc said:

That is a nice rig you have there.

Do you regularly make 230L batches? How long does that last you?

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Just recently finished the system, I am doing 75L to 100L batches at the moment. I think my maxium in these kettles would be around 180L or so after boil off and starting around 215L.

Excellent work! You are an inspiration to people, like me, who are planning to go pro.
Thank you for taking the time to post all these pics.
Enough ass-kissing - time for questions.

If you can find the time, could you please provide a walkthrough of your brewday?
Also, could you please provide a electrical schematic?
Do you have any overheating-during-fermentation issues with your conical fermenter?

To answer your question, nope it's not a bad idea. In fact, I think that's the way you have to do it because I don't think the relays in the PIDs are rated high enough to switch solenoid valves, thus the need for the SSRs.

I want to go to Argentina to see the super hot women and Jordans cool brewery.


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Muy buen trabajo

EarthBound said:

Excellent work! You are an inspiration to people, like me, who are planning to go pro.
Thank you for taking the time to post all these pics.
Enough ass-kissing - time for questions.

If you can find the time, could you please provide a walkthrough of your brewday?
Also, could you please provide a electrical schematic?
Do you have any overheating-during-fermentation issues with your conical fermenter?

To answer your question, nope it's not a bad idea. In fact, I think that's the way you have to do it because I don't think the relays in the PIDs are rated high enough to switch solenoid valves, thus the need for the SSRs.

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I plan on recording my next brew day with my Iphone, so maybe that will help with a walkthrough.

I can take some pictures and label what is what of the electrical schematic, I am, however, no electrical expert. Just know enough to get the job done.

As far as overheating during fermentation. I planned on this being an issue, but with my last batch, I so no rise in temperature. However, that was just 100L. With 180L that could be a completely different story.

I'm really interested in your Heat Exchanger. How many feet of copper tube do you have in it? and what dia?

smoa said:

I'm really interested in your Heat Exchanger. How many feet of copper tube do you have in it? and what dia?

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25 feet of 3/8 copper tubing

I need to put a small electric motor on it to keep the temp even through-out the HE

Wow. That's a step above my dream rig. I'm jealous. How hard is it to buy grain, hops down there?

suh wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeett!!


Nice work on the panel.

What kinda beer are brewing? Do the locals enjoy it?

big_al_in_k-zoo said:

Wow. That's a step above my dream rig. I'm jealous. How hard is it to buy grain, hops down there?

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I am lucky that there is a homebrew shop in this town, however, I am very limited to what I can buy.

Here is my selection for hops
http://www.todocerveza.com.ar/insumos-lupulos.html

And for malt
http://www.todocerveza.com.ar/insumos-maltas.html

What boggles my mind is no one down here practices good sanitation.
The LHBS doesn't even sell anything for sanitizing and they recomended I use rubbing alcohol...which isn't cheap at all. Thankfully the last time I was in the USA I bought a few 32oz bottles of StarSan.

arturo7 said:

suh wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeett!!


Nice work on the panel.

What kinda beer are brewing? Do the locals enjoy it?

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Just made my first batch last Saturday.

I plan on making mostly ales for the time being, made Edwort's Haus Pale ale for my last batch. I hope it comes out great!

Everyone is very excited about my set-up, basically because you can only buy heineken, budweiser, stella artois, quilmes, brahma and a few other typical pilsners.

I don't know what people are going to think if I make a Pliny the Elder clone...

Awesome System Dude!!

I'm hoping to be able to build something like that, possibly a smaller scale.

wildwest450 said:

I want to go to Argentina to see the super hot women and Jordans cool brewery.


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My Sediments Exactly!

Did you think about using the Therminator as your heat exchanger for HERMS?

It might be a bit tougher to dial in but I think with a PID it wouldn't be a problem.

In all honesty, the women are extremely hot here...mainly a mix between Italian and Spanish.

I recently visited a near-by German town, they have a few brewerys but are just locally exported. So you have to travel to the town Villa General Belgrano to try their beers.

That is a really nice setup. I'm also jealous that you are living in Cordoba. I visited that city a few years ago. Your in wine country down there. Some really really good Malbec's from that area.

weirdboy said:

Did you think about using the Therminator as your heat exchanger for HERMS?

It might be a bit tougher to dial in but I think with a PID it wouldn't be a problem.

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I thought about it, but at the time there was a debate about grain particles getting stuck in the plate chiller. Also I was just going to use a RIMS for my MASH but at the same time, there was a debate about the heating element scortching the wort.

So in the end, I built the heat exchanger, which works very well.

steinsato said:

That is a really nice setup. I'm also jealous that you are living in Cordoba. I visited that city a few years ago. Your in wine country down there. Some really really good Malbec's from that area.

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Yes, you are correct. More the Mendoza area but there are a few winerys near by. And yes, the Malbecs are extremely good! Thats all I drink when I drink wine...

jordanpace said:

In all honesty, the women are extremely hot here...mainly a mix between Italian and Spanish.

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And Latinas are my weakness!

Very nice set up !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Absolutely amazing! Congrats!!

Im_Lars said:

Very nice set up !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Thx!

jcav said:

Absolutely amazing! Congrats!!

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and thank you!

I like the 'Don't mess with Texas' sticker!

Wow!!!!!

Awesome setup

pattatat said:

I like the 'Don't mess with Texas' sticker!

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had to represent!

hammis said:

Wow!!!!!

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Thx!

toolboxdiver said:

Awesome setup

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Thanks, after one year of building this machine, its nice to hear all the positive feedback.

Very cool!

Dream setup !! But ill have to get a house before i get into something maybe half that scale..... Great job

Absolutely gorgeous!

What's your fermentation area setup like? It looks like you're just relying on ambient to control temps. Have you taken a temp reading from inside the fermenter during active?

J e a l o u s

Mischief_Brewing said:

Absolutely gorgeous!

What's your fermentation area setup like? It looks like you're just relying on ambient to control temps. Have you taken a temp reading from inside the fermenter during active?

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I am just relying on the walk-in-cooler to cool the wort down. I set it 5 degrees cooler thinking the fermentation would warm up and throw off my desired temperature.

However, I kept taking readings of the temperature and it was just a few degrees at the most warmer than the cooler.

I'm sure it will differ from beer to beer but I'm hoping that just setting the walk-in-cooler a little colder, will correct the fermentation temperature.