Boil kettle condenser - no overhead ventilation needed

[OdeCloner]

@BrunDog Thank you for this design. I just did my first run from my basement, and am super happy with the results. It's flawless. I built the 1.5" version for my 20g Spike kettle. Boiling 13g of lager right now with no steam to be found.

 

[BrunDog]

Glad to hear! Loving mine too!

 

[aeviaanah]

The spray can go in any direction. They key is maximum mixing... if you come in from the side, get wide angle nozzles. Spraying water onto the sidewall serves no purpose.

I worked up a spread sheet using a picture you posted as a reference.

I plan to use 4" triclover assembly like shown below, using 90deg sprayer nozzles 70deg pattern in vertical tube.
https://www.mcmaster.com/#31975K12
The design will be similar in nature to Stouts version (thanks Auggie), trying to figure out why they went with 6" instead of smaller..
https://conical-fermenter.com/SP500CONDENSER-1325-Condenser.html
I'm estimating 6% for boil off but have no clue, It will be electric so I'm sure we can hit whatever boil off we want. You think 6% is a good starting point? I appreciate the help.

 

[BrunDog]

Your math is generally correct but seems impractical at this scale and spray water temp. I calculate needing a theoretical net spray volume ~80 gph. That's a lot of water to dump. You could target a lower boil-off, say 4%, but it might be hard to control to maintain a boil so I would stay with the current rate.

With this size boil, you might consider the standard vent stack as a more practical solution.

 

[aeviaanah]

Your math is generally correct but seems impractical at this scale and spray water temp. I calculate needing a theoretical net spray volume ~80 gph. That's a lot of water to dump. You could target a lower boil-off, say 4%, but it might be hard to control to maintain a boil so I would stay with the current rate.

With this size boil, you might consider the standard vent stack as a more practical solution.

Can you elaborate on how you figure 80 gph? Spray water temp was conservative based on ground water average, it can be much lower if we pull from CLT.

 

[BrunDog]

That's the math. Your own math above is 36 * 3 = 108 gph. That is why you have a surplus of cooling power. My 5 gallon batch boil off is 1 gph, yours is 10, hence why you need 10x the cooling power of my ~7.5 gph spray rate.

 

[aeviaanah]

That's the math. Your own math above is 36 * 3 = 108 gph. That is why you have a surplus of cooling power. My 5 gallon batch boil off is 1 gph, yours is 10, hence why you need 10x the cooling power of my ~7.5 gph spray rate.

Ah my bad, I was looking at the cell as a total. Even after plugging this in at 40degrees sprayer temp, we would be using 72 gallons total. I’ll reevaluate this with my partner..

 

[BrunDog]

You could get creative and pump the spray/discharge water through a radiator/fan as an liquid:air heat exchanger. It will create local heat but if you put that remote to your working space, it would work. You could use a grant (or bucket, etc.) which can overflow into a drain as you boil off the 10 gallons. That would only require a few gallons of water to start with.

Alternatively, you could pass the through a steam through a high flow liquid:air radiator directly I suppose!

 

[cegan09]

I finally bought an 11 gallon kettle to replace my 8.5, so I'm going to finally jump on this bandwagon and build a setup that I can use 100% indoors. It'll likely take me a couple months to get all the parts ordered and assembled, but I'm excited. Will be going with a 1.5" lid mounted version with a 6gph nozzle.

Between the larger kettle size and lower boil off I'm excited to finally do some true full volume BIAB instead of the weird pseudo sparge i've been doing.

 

[HarpuaScorpio]

Hey BrunDog, did you write the how-to in the new BYO mag?

 

[Spartan1979]

Hey BrunDog, did you write the how-to in the new BYO mag?

I was wondering the same thing.

 

[BrunDog]

I did!

 

[HarpuaScorpio]

I did!

That's awesome! Congrats! It's quite a remarkable project and deserves the spotlight. I was really hoping they didn't just have someone write up a summary of this huge thread.

 

[jahlinux]

I did!

You deserve a lot of credit! It’s an awesome addition to my basement brewery.

 

[BrunDog]

Thanks. They were great... reached out and asked if I would be interested in writing up the project. Good people over there!

 

[ancientmariner52]

I did!

Thank you so much! I've followed this thread for some time, but your article ties everything up with a pretty bow. Well done!

 

[enormous13]

Looks like Bobby might be offering up a kit soon for this, his Instagram had a "prototype" in action. Would be great to buy it all in one stop.

 

[aeviaanah]

You could get creative and pump the spray/discharge water through a radiator/fan as an liquid:air heat exchanger. It will create local heat but if you put that remote to your working space, it would work. You could use a grant (or bucket, etc.) which can overflow into a drain as you boil off the 10 gallons. That would only require a few gallons of water to start with.

Alternatively, you could pass the through a steam through a high flow liquid:air radiator directly I suppose!

At this point an exhaust fan is looking more and more attractive!! Thanks for all of your help, I appreciate it.

 

[Exception13]

I did!

Great write-up, both here and in BYO, Pete. Kudos!

 

[BrunDog]

Thank you [emoji120].

 

[Bobby_M]

Looks like Bobby might be offering up a kit soon for this, his Instagram had a "prototype" in action. Would be great to buy it all in one stop.

Good eye! The picture is pretty close to the finished design but I'll post some pics of the final one very soon. The tee is more like an instrument tee, but the side port is closer to the top to leave more space for the condensing. The bottom skips the TC flange, clamp and gasket and just has a 5/8" hose barb welded. Instead of a compression fitting as shown on the top, there will be a 90 degree shutoff valve with a push to connect fitting for the water supply. I'm planning to include some length of PE tubing and a female garden hose fitting on the far end. The sprayer tip is threaded in to a tube that is welded to the TC cap/adapter. The whole plan was to make it as compact and inexpensive as possible. I had great success running the 6gpm @ 40psi and reducing my normal power input of 60% down to 30%.

 

[schematix]

I had great success running the 6gpm @ 40psi

View attachment 577652

gph....

 

[Bobby_M]

gph....

Right. 360 gallons later....

 

[Mybuddypete]

Good eye! The picture is pretty close to the finished design but I'll post some pics of the final one very soon. The tee is more like an instrument tee, but the side port is closer to the top to leave m...

I'll pretty much buy one as soon as it is available Bobby. I bought the 18" RIMS tube with the welded cam lock fitting you sell last week and just used it yesterday for the first time and I am very impressed with the quality.

 

[kal]

Great article BrunDog! BYO had asked me back in May to 'review for technical accuracy' and frankly I couldn't find very much to comment on (other than an extremely minor typo or two). Congrats!

Kal

 

[BrunDog]

Great article BrunDog! BYO had asked me back in May to 'review for technical accuracy' and frankly I couldn't find very much to comment on (other than an extremely minor typo or two). Congrats!

Kal

Thanks Kal. I tried to pay more homage to you - your humbleness perhaps explains the edit!

 

[kal]

Ha! Yes, you noticed that. Cheers!

Kal

 

[Die_Beerery]

Thanks. They were great... reached out and asked if I would be interested in writing up the project. Good people over there!

And they pay. [emoji41]

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Good eye! The picture is pretty close to the finished design but I'll post some pics of the final one very soon. The tee is more like an instrument tee, but the side port is closer to the top to leave more space for the condensing. The bottom skips the TC flange, clamp and gasket and just has a 5/8" hose barb welded. Instead of a compression fitting as shown on the top, there will be a 90 degree shutoff valve with a push to connect fitting for the water supply. I'm planning to include some length of PE tubing and a female garden hose fitting on the far end. The sprayer tip is threaded in to a tube that is welded to the TC cap/adapter. The whole plan was to make it as compact and inexpensive as possible. I had great success running the 6gpm @ 40psi and reducing my normal power input of 60% down to 30%.

View attachment 577652

Awesome, please let us know when it's available!
@BrunDog I was wondering if that was you! Great job on the write up, I've been following this thread for a minute and still had some head scratchin that the article cleared right up. And Bobby taking it and simplifying things makes it even easier (and cheaper [emoji6]) than sourcing and building. Plus, despite some entitled a$$hats out there [emoji85] [emoji86] [emoji87] I know his customer service is top notch!

 

[BrunDog]

And they pay. [emoji41]

Any compensation will be donated.