100 gallons...

[Grimsawyer]

What size pump is needed to push that much wort around? How long does it take to drop the wort to 80*? do you cool the whole batch at the same time or chill it as you pump into fermenters?

 

[Arkador]

What size pump is needed to push that much wort around? How long does it take to drop the wort to 80*? do you cool the whole batch at the same time or chill it as you pump into fermenters?

I think it is a pretty standard pump size. It took about 20min to pump the boil kettles full.

We chill while filling the fermenters, 2 CFCs chill it as fast as we fill...

 

[paullymb]

If I didn't live 1300miles away I would total be joining that brew club !

Nice rig.

 

[TheMan]

Wow...is all I can say. Extremely cool!

Did anyone else notice it looks like the guy is holding a miniature fermenting bucket in the second picture? lol

 

[eschatz]

That's one bad ass setup! Here I am thinking about scaling up to 10 gal batches. I need another zero!

 

[rsmith179]

That is SICK!! :rockin:

 

[claytr]

Where did you get your 55 gallon drums?

 

[ohiobrewtus]

Agreed, that setup freaking rocks.

 

[Arkador]

Where did you get your 55 gallon drums?

no clue. They can be found on craigslist ocasionally .

 

[nickpgoodman]

Hey guys. That's me in the pic with the cigar.

We got one of the barrels on Ebay and one from Craigslist if I recall.

The HLT used to be one of those whirlpool deals they use for sports.

The most grain we have mashed at once is about 280lbs.

The pump we are using is a 1/4 HP march pump, it has a bit more oomph that the 1/25 HP motors we use in our regular brewstands.

The burners for the boil kettles have no problem getting to a rolling boil, but with the kettles being so tall it's tough to keep the boil under control. If we only boil about 35 in each kettle we can keep a nice rolling boil.

Efficiency wise, 75-80 is common but we have also had days where we've hit 85 or higher.

 

[TurboBrew]

Look I'm famous! I'm the one in the red shirt and I have to agree with everyone, it's an awesome setup.

 

[Arkador]

Look I'm famous! I'm the one in the red shirt and I have to agree with everyone, it's an awesome setup.

I need to add pictures of you and your Yeast Starter adventure from that day.....

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

I just wanted to ask, do you guys allow applications to join? Then I just need to find a job, find a place to live, move. Man too much hassles, I'll just live vicariously.
F...... Awesome. Looks like a good time was had by all.

 

[Hambone]

holy schnikies! that's incredible

 

[Arkador]

I just wanted to ask, do you guys allow applications to join? Then I just need to find a job, find a place to live, move. Man too much hassles, I'll just live vicariously.
F...... Awesome. Looks like a good time was had by all.

this thread alone has recruited 2 new members to our club..... we are setting up plans to fire it up again in September and October (too hot here now, at over 100degrees)

 

[Arkador]

the new kettle for the big brew system came in today. We were originally looking for around 150 gallon capacity, but this one is a whopping 170 gallons. Here it is! We have a bit of welding to do, we will be replacing the piping on the bottom with a smaller 1.5" tri-clamp fitting and then building a stand for the burners. We'll hopefully start working on the stand and burners this week or next.

 

[nickpgoodman]

We got a great deal on this kettle.

If there are any stainless welders/fabricators on the board that live in the area that want to help let me know.

We have two holes on the bottom that have less than stellar looking welds, we plan to cut them out and weld a solid patch in place.

You can't tell from the pic, but the bottom is actually sloped just a bit, so we are going to put the valve on the upward part of the slope, that should leave most of the trub on the lower slope.

I have 4 of the 23 tip multi-jet burners I picked up locally, that should be more than enough btus to fire this thing. We will also build a windscreen/heat shround around the bottom too.

 

[Arkador]

Look I'm famous! I'm the one in the red shirt and I have to agree with everyone, it's an awesome setup.

Here are a couple more pics of you on the bigbrew day..

"bet ya won't drink it..."

What did you get, $27 for drinking that starter on a dare?

 

[bhatchable]

wow. everything, including brewing rigs, are bigger in texas

 

[ajwillys]

Hey, what kind of burners are you using on the 55 gal drums? Are they the usual 23 or 32 tip wok burners?

 

[WortMonger]

I'm just curious if you can use something like this in a real brewery? I mean, do they allow homemade equipment or is it like kitchens where you have to have coded stuff. This thing is awesome and I want to build one now!!! Great job.

 

[Nwcw2001]

Yes you can use this in a pro brewery. It doesn't need to certified. As long as you have food grade things you should be fine.


Check out this nanobrewery they built their own

 

[WortMonger]

Thanks! I am just thinking of a way to not have to spend an arm and a leg but still have big enough equipment. Stainless brewing equipment is just so expensive.

 

[WortMonger]

My thinking on this, and what is making me a little excited, is no mucking out of a manhole from a tun. This mash tun, if constructed right (permanent wheels), could yield a mash cart as a second function. Simply unhook your sanitary tri-clover fittings and wheel it onto the farmers trailer to take to his farm to dispose of. They would be cheap enough to make as many as you needed for tuns/carts.

It used to take me over an hour to muck/clean a 15 bbl tun. These, look like you could skip mucking out and transport to the trailer with just one person. I'm thinking based only on what we had to do, which was a minimal 2 person job and required a come along to get it in the trailer. Any thoughts on this possible aspect? Easily move-able, larger scale mash tuns that are basically their own dumpsters? Wouldn't you have the ability to go as large as your kettle could handle (just by adding tuns), and go as small as one tun for pilot batches. Thinking out loud and hoping to get good feedback either way.

Again, you guy's tun has inspired me and thank you for it.

 

[Arkador]

My thinking on this, and what is making me a little excited, is no mucking out of a manhole from a tun.

We do a 2man bucket bregade, and just take it to a compost pile. It took about 15 bucketloads to empty it.

I'm just curious if you can use something like this in a real brewery?

One of our local breweries used this rig to brew a pilot batch of one of their brews if i recall correctly.

Hey, what kind of burners are you using on the 55 gal drums? Are they the usual 23 or 32 tip wok burners?

Hopefully Nick will see this thread updated and chime in on this. I believe the new 170gal boil kettle is going to be fired by 3x 23tip burners.

 

[FireNightFly]

Very nice!!! I need to hit the lottery or something, i so want one in my basement =D

 

[WortMonger]

I'm excited because it won't take winning a lottery to afford something along these lines.

 

[nickpgoodman]

We have 2 x 55 gallon boil kettles. One of them is just fired with 3 of your standard hi-pressure turkey fryer burners, all 3 fed from 1 20lb propane tank, the other kettle is fired by what we named the mexi-burner, it's a huge freaking cast iron burner about 4 times the size of one of those cast iron turkey fryer burners. Either kettle has 0 problems bringing 45 gallons of wort to boil.

Here's a pic of the 3 burner stand, only one I have handy. I'll have to get a pic of the new burner.

The new 170 gallon kettle will be fired by 3 of the 23 tip burners with the ability to shut one off once a boil is reached.

Duh, forgot about the pics on the first page, you can see the second stand and the end of the other burner.

 

[ReeseAllen]

Check out this nanobrewery they built their own

While looking for deals on craigslist a week or two ago, I came across these guys trying to sell their entire brew setup. They got kicked out of their rental unit, apparently, and I guess they're just getting rid of everything rather than find a new location. Bummer.

 

[Nwcw2001]

While looking for deals on craigslist a week or two ago, I came across these guys trying to sell their entire brew setup. They got kicked out of their rental unit, apparently, and I guess they're just getting rid of everything rather than find a new location. Bummer.

They posted on ProbBrewer.com as well, but pulled the add because they got a bit more time from the landlord.