Another 1 bbl brewer

[bendavanza]

Many of us have tried to make screens for the dip tubes, and surface area is key to keeping the flow going. I't not the amount of liquid, but the amount of hops for that liquid that require more surface area.

 

[MultumInParvo]

I know, I actually climbed inside one and just sat there for a minute and pretended I was the beer we were about to make

I guess when porter was big there was a battle of large fermenters among breweries. Some were so large they would even hold dances in them. How sweet is that?

 

[MikeRLynch]

So we may have solved our chilling issue. In talking with the local brewpub owner/brewer, he said that in his early days, he used a copper coil, immersed in water and frozen (in a bucket) and pumped the hot wort through the copper tubing. After a recirculation or two, the wort would be down to temp. Thoughts? My first hesitation would be that the copper would crack when frozen, but since the inside would be empty, it might not be an issue.

 

[paulthenurse]

I'd be nervous about ruining some nice copper pipe by doing that, Mike. Why not just use ice cubes, salt and water in the bucket?

PTN

 

[cryptonic84]

http://cgi.ebay.com/3bbl-Brewing-System-Microbrewery-Brewpub-Equipment-NEW_W0QQitemZ110456493216QQcmdZViewItemQQptZBI_Steam_Cooking_Warming?hash=item19b7b854a0

Gasp! daddy wants!!!!

 

[shadowmage36]

http://cgi.ebay.com/3bbl-Brewing-System-Microbrewery-Brewpub-Equipment-NEW_W0QQitemZ110456493216QQcmdZViewItemQQptZBI_Steam_Cooking_Warming?hash=item19b7b854a0

Gasp! daddy wants!!!!

Dear gods...I need to hit the powerball jackpot on saturday...NEED TO!

 

[beeraroundtown]

My friends and I have also been slowly piecing together a 1+ bbl system. Those damn stainless 55 gallon drums are hard to find.

I'll have to keep checking in on this thread for tips.

 

[flountown]

As for the iceblock bucket chiller idea, do what someone else said a few posts ago, Salt Ice Water. Adding some rock salt to a couple of pounds of ice and few gallons of water can affectively get the freezing point down to the mid-high 20's IIRC which allows you to have a cooling temperature colder than freezing and not have to worry about the expansion properties of freezing water.

 

[MikeRLynch]

I've heard of that trick with beer coolers before, sounds like a good option.

Expect many pics this weekend, tanks, brewhouse, electrical, water, etc

 

[Want2Brew]

As for the iceblock bucket chiller idea, do what someone else said a few posts ago, Salt Ice Water. Adding some rock salt to a couple of pounds of ice and few gallons of water can affectively get the freezing point down to the mid-high 20's IIRC which allows you to have a cooling temperature colder than freezing and not have to worry about the expansion properties of freezing water.

This sounds like a winner to me. Just make sure to keep the wort moving through the coil while it is in the cold brine so you don't freeze the the coil and bust it since the wort will have a higher freeze temp than brine. Good luck with your project, it looks like a lot of fun!

 

[MikeRLynch]

The Pics!

The 120 gallon HLT

Think they're 2" triclovers

Beefy

Mounted securely on casters

 

[MikeRLynch]

4 60 gallon tanks

Also with beefy ball valves

Apologies for the blurry. The detached garage we'll be using for the brewery. It hasn't been used in a lot of years, so it's a bit dirty. Cleanup will be documented, this is the "before" shot

 

[MikeRLynch]

Hoping to mount the HLT on the workbench in the back, so the high ceilings will be helpful.

As we found it. (Well, except for the beer bottles. Those are ours)

Not sure if we're going to use this hose that came with the tanks

The only lid, we may need someone to fabricate a few more

Overhead power, with is important for the heating elements we'll be using.

Oil tank converted into a woodburning stove, heats the entire garage. I call it the Devil's *******

Previous owners method of theft deterrant

 

[MultumInParvo]

I am on Brewery overload. Wow. Sweet stuff everywhere! You're giving my equipment some serious envy.

 

[Orfy]

Bump to publish

 

[Reno_eNVy]

This is really cool and I am super jealous. Can't wait to see the rest of the process. Good luck!

 

[MikeRLynch]

Bump to publish

Thanks for the props Orfy!

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

This is really looking good, and I wish you the best of luck. I really like the fact your doing this step by step.
The learning curve should be interesting and please keep us updated.

 

[thebigt85]

Looks promising! Can't wait to see the progress pics!

 

[MikeRLynch]

Cleaning out all the debris is the first step, and not surprisingly the one none of us wants to do. With holidays on the way, I'm not sure how much progess we'll get done. Instead I've been using the time to think about design, research, and poke around the posts on this board for ideas.

I think we've decided that the HLT will be mounted up high, and will feed the mash tun via gravity. Also we're going to use triclover fittings to step down the ball valves from 2" to 1/2" QDs, so we can use the sanitary high temp hose and a march pump from homebrew stores. We can source 1/2" hoses and fittings much easier than 2" (which is way too big for our purposes anyway).

We're still working on the details. There is no water in the garage, and the only source is hand-dug well water that we'd have to pipe in from a spigot about 30 feet away. The water quality concerns me, so we'll be doing a series of small test batches to see what the profile is. I'm not sure how to fix the water if it isn't what we're looking for, but I guess we'll see after the batches are done.

 

[DRoyLenz]

I'm not sure how to fix the water if it isn't what we're looking for, but I guess we'll see after the batches are done.

I don't pretend to be an expert on this, especially since I just started researching this last night. But I would think if you're using well-water, a nice Reverse Osmosis system might be in order. That way you can build up the water just how you want it.

 

[bendavanza]

Mike
Many of the march pumps have 3/4" inlets/outlets, and you could find silicone hose to match. I think with the quantity you are dealing with, the 1/2" might seem slow. I could be wrong, though. And RO may be your best bet, considering how sulfury well water tends to be (at least where I live, maybe yours is amazing). RO is generally slow, though unless you buy a big system. You could set it up to fill the HLT over a few days, unless you're planning to brew every day.

 

[MikeRLynch]

Eesh, not sure about RO. I know the principle, but I'm not sure it's in the budget. I'm desperately hoping the well water produces good beer, but even if it does I'm concerned with it changing with the seasons (this well is over a hundred years old.) Right now water quality/quantity is our biggest hurdle. The reason we're using the 120 gallon tank as HLT is so we can gradually fill it up over the course of a week or more and not drain the well (the house still needs it). This way we can use the HLT as more of a holding/hot water tank for all brewday operations, including cleanup.

 

[Pangea]

Eesh, not sure about RO. I know the principle, but I'm not sure it's in the budget. I'm desperately hoping the well water produces good beer, but even if it does I'm concerned with it changing with the seasons (this well is over a hundred years old.) Right now water quality/quantity is our biggest hurdle. The reason we're using the 120 gallon tank as HLT is so we can gradually fill it up over the course of a week or more and not drain the well (the house still needs it). This way we can use the HLT as more of a holding/hot water tank for all brewday operations, including cleanup.

I'd recommend a simpler approach. 2 filters. One for removing sediment and iron. The next one is a carbon filter to remove other tastes, like chlorine. I use an activated carbon filter for my 1.5bbl setup and love it. I'm just carbon filtering my city water. McMaster has all kinds of filters and housings. Check them out. Apologies for picture quality, but see my filter as an example (the blue thing):

 

[MikeRLynch]

Removing sediment and iron is certainly something we should do, but the well water won't have any chlorine in it. Activated charcoal seems to work better with municipal water sources. We're the only ones who use this well.

BTW if I may be so bold, your setup is dead sexy

 

[Pangea]

Removing sediment and iron is certainly something we should do, but the well water won't have any chlorine in it. Activated charcoal seems to work better with municipal water sources. We're the only ones who use this well.

BTW if I may be so bold, your setup is dead sexy

Yes, you may be right about the activated carbon filter. They're cheap and could be used for more than just removing chlorine. It removes other sources of taste and flavor in water. I dont have any data to show if it would affect well water, but I'd recommend looking into using the carbon too. Just my $0.02.

About my setup - just wait until you see it fully setup and in action. I'm getting my couplings welded on this holiday weekend and can then install the 20,000 watts of brewing power, argh argh argh! The hlt and mlt are both controlled by PID to electric elements. The mlt is an external element. The boil kettle heat is controlled with a potentiometer to regulate the intensity of the boil and allows control to a consistent boil off rate.

 

[DarksideFermentation]

OP, i would get a welder and have him cut the nice 2" valves off the bottom of the tank, patch the holes with a small piece of SS, and reattach the valve to the side of the tank, probalem solved. thats not a hard job for a decent welder.

 

[MikeRLynch]

That's a LOT of welding, and unfortunately not in the budget. The existing outlets will work fine I'm sure, we just need a decent false bottom. I have a little experiance with welding (mig only) and given the equipment, I'm sure I could get some stuff done, but we're doing this on a shoestring. Don't fix what aint broken

 

[MikeRLynch]

Lag in updates, I know. Life gets in the way.

The building we'll be using

The water source is the spigot in the foreground, we need to bury it and run it the 30 feet into the brewhouse.

Before pic, a little smokey

Lots of old haz-mat to deal with

 

[MikeRLynch]

Sparkin up the Devils *******. It was 40 degrees today, but that thing throws so much heat I ended up in a tshirt.

100ft copper 1" tubing, somehow aquired for free. Complicated insurance thing, no time to get into it now

Not sure what to do with it yet, might have to use it to run the water from that spigot in front

Sketching out floorplans