55 gallon SS system is operational

[Starderup]

We did a test brew this Sunday. It was a lot of fun, a lot of work, and we learned a ton. We still have to construct a decent frame, but our welder had this thing sitting out back and gave it to us for free, and I put two agri-supply burners on it, and it puts out enough heat that you don't want to stand too close.
Halfway through the brew, we decided to use the HLT for a BK, and didn't plan any further. When it came time to cool it, it was panic time. We hooked up my 50' IC as a prechiller, and ran that through a counterflow chiller, but it still came out too warm. The other guys used ice and wet t-shirts in front of a fan to bring theirs down to pitching temps, but I sanitized my IC and finished it off in about 10 minutes.
The dip tube was not installed yet in the DSC 1128 picture, but it is a perfect fit, and the 315HF pump absolutely vacuums (about half of) the bottom dry, and that is no exaggeration.
This thing is a beast. If you have never seen 40 gallons of wort at a full rolling boil, it is pretty impressive.

 

[Germelli1]

That is sexy

So you are only brewing 2.5 batches a year now right

What are you fermenting in or is the batch split between multiple people?

 

[Starderup]

That is sexy

So you are only brewing 2.5 batches a year now right

What are you fermenting in or is the batch split between multiple people?

This time, six people took five gallons. We wanted to start out small.When we get this dialed in, we will be able to do between 75 and 100 gallons of typical 1.056 ale, or smaller amounts of high gravity beer.
We figure our group will probably do 4-8 brew sessions a year. We can do our individual 5-10 gallon batches by ourselves as we wish, but our biggest issue now is - how do we feed this monster.
It was only about halfway full with 60 lbs of grain in it.

 

[Germelli1]

Very Cool! If you are into this sort of thing you guys should grab an oak barrel and use it to make a BIG batch of soured beer!

 

[Starderup]

Very Cool! If you are into this sort of thing you guys should grab an oak barrel and use it to make a BIG batch of soured beer!

Yeah, I definitely want to get a barrel or two. I love sour ales, and also want to do some oak aged brown, porter or something else.
We got a lot of flexibility with this system. Once we get it fully automated, we'll be able to reproduce batches every time.

 

[scotched]

That is impressive and scary at same time.

 

[jsguitar]

That is an awesome system!

One thought though. I'd consider swapping out those moly coated compression fittings with untreated ones since they're in the pot with the strike and sparge water. Some of us just bought some like that and I contacted Parker directly and talked to a tech guy where they make those and told him about doing something similar and he said "I wouldn't". Not sure how toxic it is but just an FYI. Awesome build though.

 

[Starderup]

That is impressive and scary at same time.

I'm with ya, man. It was pretty tough drilling into a $125 piece of perforated SS. Thanks to Swagman here on this forum. He cut it just like he said - a little bit big. That thing is tight.

I'll keep you posted on our progress. Next up is our cooling solution, and then a nice square tube frame.

Then, on to the automation.