jcmcdowell
Well-Known Member
FIRST- I live in a small town and we are working toward opening a nano in Montana. We have a propane 3 keggle system now and I have the bits and pieces for a 55 gal drum 3 vessel electric system.
SECOND- we want to add a whiskey distillery to the operation as well. 330 gallons of beer distills down to about 1 50gal barrel for aging. Some distillers don't boil the wort, some do.
EDIT: We want to open a (legal) nano brewery and micro distillery in a town of 750 people
That being said.
I have a chance to buy a 500 gal round SS creamery tank that is jacketed (for cooling) with a lid for cheap. I'm thinking it would be great to be able to use the tank as both mash tun and boil kettle- hence the BIAB method. Welding is not an issue.
HEAT- I've seen boil kettles used for stills that use a 'bain marie' method to boil the mash for distillation. I could heat the vessel by installing 6- 5500w 220v elements to a PID (3 phase power) and filling the jacket with high temp veg oil (smoking temp 400 deg). I know expansion is 10-20%- the jacket would be open to the atmosphere with an vertical expansion pipe, it doesn't need to fill the jacket completely, just above the elements.
HLT- I could run 2-3 instant hot water heaters in series to step up the ground water temp (from 45 deg on avg) with the last unit being adjustable to dough-in temp and sparge temps (I have 200amps 3 phase power and 200 amps single phase power available).
Getting all that out of the way- I was thinking of the 300l Braumeister method but after picturing cranes, hoists, hot grain, I decided to take a step sideways.
Since the method involves pumping wort UP through the malt pipe and recirculating that back into the outer vessel, what about have a malt pipe OUTSIDE the main vessel. I have a 55 gal SS drum that I could put a raised false bottom, bottom inlet with valve, and a top 'screen' with a port that goes back into the main vessel. Similar to Braumeister- use two screens for each with the finest in the 300 micron range.
Both vessels would be insulated on the exterior.
The wort is pumped UP through the exterior malt pipe and drains back into the main vessel.
No vorlauf needed.
Sparge in a traditional 3 vessel method by reversing pump from bottom of malt pipe into main vessel. A sparge head sprays water into top of malt pipe until gravity is hit or volume (including the 55 gal of liquid is accounted for).
Kettle is heated to boiling- process continues like normal.
Malt pipe vessel is on tippy dump to safely clean out.
LIMITATIONS- how much grain you can put in the malt pipe vessel. 300 gallons of beer would need about 600 lbs of grain (12 bags) for a 1.050 ABV beer.
ISSUES- efficiency. Because the RIMS and traditional sparge method, any ideas what the efficiency range would hit?
I've read a few posts from Aussies on JUMBO or large scale BIAB but they were still picturing lifting a bag.
It sure would save a lot of space, electrical wiring, plumbing, and dumping & cleaning of the malt pipe vessel is easier than getting into the 500 gal creamer tank and shoveling it out by hand.
Budget wise, buying a $60,000+ system is not an option.
So WHADDAYA think?
SECOND- we want to add a whiskey distillery to the operation as well. 330 gallons of beer distills down to about 1 50gal barrel for aging. Some distillers don't boil the wort, some do.
EDIT: We want to open a (legal) nano brewery and micro distillery in a town of 750 people
That being said.
I have a chance to buy a 500 gal round SS creamery tank that is jacketed (for cooling) with a lid for cheap. I'm thinking it would be great to be able to use the tank as both mash tun and boil kettle- hence the BIAB method. Welding is not an issue.
HEAT- I've seen boil kettles used for stills that use a 'bain marie' method to boil the mash for distillation. I could heat the vessel by installing 6- 5500w 220v elements to a PID (3 phase power) and filling the jacket with high temp veg oil (smoking temp 400 deg). I know expansion is 10-20%- the jacket would be open to the atmosphere with an vertical expansion pipe, it doesn't need to fill the jacket completely, just above the elements.
HLT- I could run 2-3 instant hot water heaters in series to step up the ground water temp (from 45 deg on avg) with the last unit being adjustable to dough-in temp and sparge temps (I have 200amps 3 phase power and 200 amps single phase power available).
Getting all that out of the way- I was thinking of the 300l Braumeister method but after picturing cranes, hoists, hot grain, I decided to take a step sideways.
Since the method involves pumping wort UP through the malt pipe and recirculating that back into the outer vessel, what about have a malt pipe OUTSIDE the main vessel. I have a 55 gal SS drum that I could put a raised false bottom, bottom inlet with valve, and a top 'screen' with a port that goes back into the main vessel. Similar to Braumeister- use two screens for each with the finest in the 300 micron range.
Both vessels would be insulated on the exterior.
The wort is pumped UP through the exterior malt pipe and drains back into the main vessel.
No vorlauf needed.
Sparge in a traditional 3 vessel method by reversing pump from bottom of malt pipe into main vessel. A sparge head sprays water into top of malt pipe until gravity is hit or volume (including the 55 gal of liquid is accounted for).
Kettle is heated to boiling- process continues like normal.
Malt pipe vessel is on tippy dump to safely clean out.
LIMITATIONS- how much grain you can put in the malt pipe vessel. 300 gallons of beer would need about 600 lbs of grain (12 bags) for a 1.050 ABV beer.
ISSUES- efficiency. Because the RIMS and traditional sparge method, any ideas what the efficiency range would hit?
I've read a few posts from Aussies on JUMBO or large scale BIAB but they were still picturing lifting a bag.
It sure would save a lot of space, electrical wiring, plumbing, and dumping & cleaning of the malt pipe vessel is easier than getting into the 500 gal creamer tank and shoveling it out by hand.
Budget wise, buying a $60,000+ system is not an option.
So WHADDAYA think?