Home Super Brewery Build: Hybrid Electric/Gas 3BBL Build

Sorry guys, have to post this. Wiring of sub panel is in....

 

Is it safe to let your electrician talk on the phone and drink while trimming out a panel?

 

I would say it's safer than *not* letting him talk on the phone and drink while trimming out the panel.

 

Sub'd...and a little jealous.

 

Finished up the cold room today. 6" on the ceiling, 6" on the back wall, 5" all other walls.

 

Got any info that that bad boy? How hot can u get with it?

 

It's a Rinnai RU98EN 9.8 GPM.


Rinnai RU98EN 9.8 GPM Outdoor Ultra-NOx Condensing Tankless Natural Gas Water Heater
Rinnai

It's got a super low activation flow rate and should be able to deliver 160 degree water (strike) at a rate of about 5GPM and 185 degree water (sparge) between 3 and 4GPM. I'm building an interesting herms recirc loop as well that I'll post some info on later in the week.

 

Great looking build

 

Thanks! Believe it or not, hoping the inaugural brew will be on Memorial Day if all goes well! Talked SWMBO into letting me put a 50" TV in the garage to monitor brewery operations (and more importantly football!)

 

And cost?

 

About $1400. Depending on your flow requirements you can step down to a lesser model and/or a non condensing unit (heat exchanger made out of stainless = condensing vs copper) the non condensing units are less efficient but it's not that big of a deal. Current federal tax rebate on this model (93% efficiency) was $500. I've been experimenting with a lower cost used Noritz I bought on CL and it has worked great but won't go above 160 degrees. It easily shaved an hour off of my brew day.

 

Great idea with the on-demand hot water heater! I usually crank my gas water heater all the way up the night before a brew to help save me time with heating of strike and sparge water. I just have to remember to tell SWMBO that the water is going to be REAL HOT.

 

I guess the other comparison is between the tankless and a 3bbl hlt, that is probably going to cost towards that $1k mark and be less versitile. Good work

 

How are you planning to chill? I'm setting up a 3 vessel system and don't particularly feel like redoing all my recipes for a big hopstand/whirlpool.

 

I will leverage plate chillers like the ones found here:
http://www.brazetek.com/products/de...t-exchangers/60-plate-brazed-heat-exchanger-1

I scored one in the deal with the two used glacier kettles but haven't used it yet.

Here is what I'm currently using:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/tandem-therminator-plate-chillers-346862/index2.html

But I also have to consider leveraging the two built in CFC that I am leveraging for the HERMS side (although I think they would be underpowered for the cooling that I'm looking for)

Located here:
http://www.williamsbrewing.com/STAINLESS-CONVOLUTED-COUNTERFLOW-CHILLER-P3152.aspx

I'm still working out the details....

 

Still, even with the large surface area of that plate HEX, or dual blichmanns, it's still going to take a while to drain the kettle. Are you concerned about your aroma additions?

My initial thought was something similar- a big BPHEX with a coil prechiller. However, I still think I'm going to have to flow the wort pretty slowly and don't want the whole kettle sitting at 200F until it's in the fermenter. I'd want to recirculate the cooled wort back into the kettle to get the total temp down quickly, but am concerned about cold break clogging the chillers.

 

I worried about the same until I used the dual therminator rig on 20 gallon batches and it worked great to recirculate and cooled down quickly while maximizing late hop additions. I never had an issue with cold break clogging my chillers and cleanup was a snap. I will have to play with this set up and test both the BPHEX vs the CFC for these batches.

 

That is awesome- thanks so much for the feedback. I guess I'll try it out until it doesn't work. Bigass BPHEX here I come.

 

Trenching to the sewer connection for the sink installation.

 

Nice hole. Must have been fun digging in between those bricks and gotta love that clay dirt.

 

You might want to think of getting hot water heater use it as a storage because the on demand might no keep up with washing kegs or if your going to get bigger. Just loop it together with some checks then your hot liquor tank at your desire temp and put in a hot and cold hose bib Wolford makes one.

 

Got the keg washer covered:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/sanke-keg-washer-build-386630/

So I'm trying to do without a HLT in this design due to space constraints. If this doesn't work out I'll most likely go down that route.....

 

Ongoing and I actually hired someone to do it as last time I fixes a broken main that damn clay with the roots killed my back....

Rough plumbing going in tomorrow.

 

what are you going to use for your glycol lines? I did a lot of plumbing work at a brewery in Portland I ran most of his glycol line is Zurn Pex and it work awesome.

 

No glycol planned. We built a Peltier based cooling system for H/C conicals that may use depending on the ambient temp of the garage after all this insulation (the only wall that gets direct sun will have 8 inches of insulation since we furred out the wall). I may also consider cooling the garage to 65 as I do mostly ales in the 65-70 range. For crashing/carbing the unitanks will get rolled into the cold room.

 

Started building the panel tonight. Ebrewsupply.com provided a really nice kit and set of drawings. Since this isn't your run-of-the-mill eBIAB system there are a handful of changes. Besides twice the number of some components, 6awg cable is required for each of the 50amp circuits. If you haven't worked with #6 wire, it's a pain. Really stiff, and doesn't like tight radius bends. Perhaps this picture will put in perspective...



Here's a pic of the panel thus far. All the wire you see is the huge #6 stuff. I had a heck of a time figuring out a layout that will fit everything in this 16" x 16" panel. I'll still have to get creative with a few components. BCS462 will be secured to the left inside wall of the panel. Still need to run the neutral to the bus.

 

Awesome Evan! Looking good! Trench is done and plumbing tomorrow. Forgot to tell you that the glacier tanks fermenters shipped today! Should be in by the end of the week!

 

Awesome! You didn't say they'll be here by the end of the week! Will they fit in the box out front?

 

Dunno, might be making some room on Friday : (

 

Plumbing rough in today, should be ready for drywall after tomorrow.

 

Sorry for your loss. I know that stand was (is?) your fifth kid...

 

Meant to work on the wiring, but my Lost Abbey growler got in the way. Kiddies, take note. Beer and electricity don't mix. Cheers!

 

Where did you get that filled in Nor Cal? Lol. Their 7th anniversary party is this weekend - will you be coming down?

 

lol. This one is tough to let go of, but it is going to a good home..... You drank that whole growler of LA and didn't save me any???? WTH!

 

I was down at Miramar a couple weeks ago visiting my sister and brother-in-law. We stopped by and tasted a handful of beers. Grabbed a growler of Judgement Day. Good stuff!

Haha. Christy helped, she had a glass. We are going back in a couple weeks, I'll bring you your very own growler! I still have another one full of Stone Anniversary needs to be killed...

 

Mmmm I have a 22 just waiting for me to open.

 

After selling my 2/3 BBL system and a fermenter yesterday, I had to stop by the loading dock and pick these beasts up!

 

That looks great, Another question did you put in a floor drain or a floor sink in the floor to catch water when cleaning stuff?

 

No, going to run a water Channel on the floor and whatever hits the floor will either get squeegeed out the door or hosed out.

 

Today's effort, powered mostly by beer : )


Drilled the pilot holes for the rebar with a cordless hammer drill as I only had 16" clearance, what a pain. Basically one battery charge per 4" 1/2" diameter hole for the rebar. Cleaned, then poured about 400 lbs of concrete to extend the landing to the cold room.