Zoid
Member
Hi - First time poster, long time extract brewer.
I'm looking for help/ideas/comments on building a 30 to 40 gallon system. In short, I have a unique opportunity to design and build a hobby system, using commercial materials, utilities (steam, glycol, potable soft water, potable hot water, etc.), plc control and skilled sanitary welders. Sorry for what will be a long post, but I want to be detailed to get good input.
I'm a process controls engineer with extensive experience in dairy systems. I am involved in building a new processing facility. I know the owners well, we are friends. They have offered (in exchange for beer, of course!) to let me design and build a system using spare parts they have aquired.
FERMENTER - I have found a roughly 50 gallon, 60 degree cone bottom tank. I just need to wrap a coil around it, insulate it, make a sealed lid/airlock, and connect glycol. Comments?
BREW KETTLE - I have several possible 50 - 75 gallon steam jacketed tanks with agitators. I'm thinking that I can just apply steam and run the agitator at 30 - 60 rpm or so. Comments?
MASH TUN & HLT - This gets more challenging, I am not familiar with all the necessary design criteria at this larger volume.
HLT - I assume I should be using a tank that is steam heated and will hold 40 gallons or so? I have a ~50 gallon jacketed tank that could have an agitator attached, tank's about 22" dia x 30" high. I'm thinking agitation is a good idea to stabilize heat xfer, but is it necessary? Comments?
MASH TUN - I have several options, none are perfect. All could have a false bottom added.
Option 1: ~ 70 gallon processing tank with scraped surface agitation and steam jacket, about 30" inside diameter. Cons: small TOP access hatch (10" x 15"), NO side access hatch. Not really suitable for pivot style dumping of spent grains. Cutting a side hatch is a remote possiblilty, but tough since it is jacketed.
Option 2: Tank I mentioned as HLT candidate, but then I need something else for HLT. Pro: This tank could probably be pivoted to dump grain. It also has a small 6" side access opening, pretty small for emptying grains?
Option 3: ~ 36" round tank, ~36" high, no top, no agitation, no jacket. Odd cone bottom - it is side cone, that is, the cone tapers to one side of the tank, not to the center. Cone is about 10" deep. Is this a problem - this cone would hold probably 7 - 10 gallons of water BELOW the grain bed, unless the false bottom was actually in this funky cone. Might be able to modify the cone to reduce this volume. I can fab a support over the top for sparging/agitator, etc. Grain could easily be shoveled out.
Questions:
- I assume that there is a minimum and maximum recommended grain bed thickness? Wouldn't this be directly influenced by the tank diameter and batch size? It seems to me there has to be a correlation...
- For this size batch, I am guessing that (very roughly) the grain bill could be 80 lbs to 120 lbs or more. Is agitation required/recommended? Seems to me it would be a necessity....
FWIW, pump(s) will probably be air powered double diaphragm, rated for 200+ degrees.
Any comments are welcome! If you think I'm whacked for trying to do this, say so!!
I'm looking for help/ideas/comments on building a 30 to 40 gallon system. In short, I have a unique opportunity to design and build a hobby system, using commercial materials, utilities (steam, glycol, potable soft water, potable hot water, etc.), plc control and skilled sanitary welders. Sorry for what will be a long post, but I want to be detailed to get good input.
I'm a process controls engineer with extensive experience in dairy systems. I am involved in building a new processing facility. I know the owners well, we are friends. They have offered (in exchange for beer, of course!) to let me design and build a system using spare parts they have aquired.
FERMENTER - I have found a roughly 50 gallon, 60 degree cone bottom tank. I just need to wrap a coil around it, insulate it, make a sealed lid/airlock, and connect glycol. Comments?
BREW KETTLE - I have several possible 50 - 75 gallon steam jacketed tanks with agitators. I'm thinking that I can just apply steam and run the agitator at 30 - 60 rpm or so. Comments?
MASH TUN & HLT - This gets more challenging, I am not familiar with all the necessary design criteria at this larger volume.
HLT - I assume I should be using a tank that is steam heated and will hold 40 gallons or so? I have a ~50 gallon jacketed tank that could have an agitator attached, tank's about 22" dia x 30" high. I'm thinking agitation is a good idea to stabilize heat xfer, but is it necessary? Comments?
MASH TUN - I have several options, none are perfect. All could have a false bottom added.
Option 1: ~ 70 gallon processing tank with scraped surface agitation and steam jacket, about 30" inside diameter. Cons: small TOP access hatch (10" x 15"), NO side access hatch. Not really suitable for pivot style dumping of spent grains. Cutting a side hatch is a remote possiblilty, but tough since it is jacketed.
Option 2: Tank I mentioned as HLT candidate, but then I need something else for HLT. Pro: This tank could probably be pivoted to dump grain. It also has a small 6" side access opening, pretty small for emptying grains?
Option 3: ~ 36" round tank, ~36" high, no top, no agitation, no jacket. Odd cone bottom - it is side cone, that is, the cone tapers to one side of the tank, not to the center. Cone is about 10" deep. Is this a problem - this cone would hold probably 7 - 10 gallons of water BELOW the grain bed, unless the false bottom was actually in this funky cone. Might be able to modify the cone to reduce this volume. I can fab a support over the top for sparging/agitator, etc. Grain could easily be shoveled out.
Questions:
- I assume that there is a minimum and maximum recommended grain bed thickness? Wouldn't this be directly influenced by the tank diameter and batch size? It seems to me there has to be a correlation...
- For this size batch, I am guessing that (very roughly) the grain bill could be 80 lbs to 120 lbs or more. Is agitation required/recommended? Seems to me it would be a necessity....
FWIW, pump(s) will probably be air powered double diaphragm, rated for 200+ degrees.
Any comments are welcome! If you think I'm whacked for trying to do this, say so!!