Need Advice Building New Setup (55 Gal SS Drums)

[PedroBrew]

Greetings!
So, I'm acquiring new equipments, already bought three stainless steel (AISI 304L) 55 gallon drums and I need some advice, since I have no experience with large equipment.

First, that's my old system:

"Sparge Water", "Mash (with false bottom)" and "Boil".
- I don't touch the grainbed, I just leave the pump circulating continually during the mash;
- Fly sparge (60 ~ 90 min);
- My efficiency is about 70% ~78%.

Now, that's one of the drums I got (I'll cut the top):

Scratch of the new build (based on my old setup):

Plan to build a full SS stand;
Larger burners (high pressure);
Plan to use all conecttions 1/2" stainless steel;
01 SS Sanitary Pump;
01 SS Wort Chiller 30 Plates;

My questions:
1) Do I need to use motorized blades, since it's a larger amout of grains and the grainbed can be compressed? (The blades would destroy the grainbed and ruin my filtering system?)
2) Connections 1/2" would be a problem for that size? (Do I need 3/4" or it's not not required?)
3) One wort chiller of 30 plates is enough?
4) Should I change my whole system to adapt to the size? (which kind of system do you recommend?)

***Apologies for grammatical errors, I'm from Brazil, my english is not 100%.

 

[PedroBrew]

Someone?

 

[stevehaun]

Your english is great!
You do not need motorized blades. I brew on a similar system using a 55 gal SS drum for my boil kettle. I use a 55 gal HDPE (blue plastic) barrel for my mash tun.
1/2' plumbing will be fine.
I use a Blichmann therminator and can chill 30 gal of boiling wort to 60F in about 30 min.
Good luck!
steve haun

 

[dmcman73]

You could always install a 1.5" Tri-Clover fittings on the barrel that way you can swap out fitting sizes easily in the event you want to go bigger.

As for the Mash-tun, if you motorize it it won't destroy the grain bed. You'll only be mixing as you mash in. Once you're ready to drain off and sparge, you'll stop the motor, vorlauf to setup the grain bed and clarify then drain. As long as you don't turn the motor back on, it won't destroy the grain bed you just setup.

You don't have to motorize it but it will help. If you do motorize it, you'll need a mixing paddle that will have paddles all the way up the shaft so that it can properly mix the grains.

For the chiller, I wouldn't know if 30 plates is enough, the most I brew is 10 gallons and I use a CFC and that works. If you are doing a one pass chill (from the mash, through the chiller and straight into fermentor) then I don't see why it shouldn't be enough.

 

[madscientist451]

Agree with DMC re: the larger fittings. You could also get a large BIAB bag to use with your false bottom tun and wouldn't have to be concerned with stuck sparges or if the grain bed is settled or not.. An overhead hoist set up would make pulling the bag out to dump the spent grain an easy operation. One thing you didn't mention was maintaining your mash temperature. Are you going to control the burner manually?

 

[stevehaun]

If you have someone to tig weld triclamp fittings, by all means do it. It will be more flexible if you increase the size. I disagree about BIAB. I think that makes no sense for batch sizes bigger than a barrel.

 

[dmcman73]

Even if you don't have someone that can TIG weld stainless properly, they do make and sell weldless TriClamp bulkheads: https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/tc15wlf.htm

 

[PedroBrew]

Your english is great!
You do not need motorized blades. I brew on a similar system using a 55 gal SS drum for my boil kettle. I use a 55 gal HDPE (blue plastic) barrel for my mash tun.
1/2' plumbing will be fine.
I use a Blichmann therminator and can chill 30 gal of boiling wort to 60F in about 30 min.
Good luck!
steve haun

Fantastic. That's all I wanted to know!

One thing you didn't mention was maintaining your mash temperature. Are you going to control the burner manually?

For now I will manually control them, but I think in future automate the process. I'll attach those thermometers

Even if you don't have someone that can TIG weld stainless properly, they do make and sell weldless TriClamp bulkheads: https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/tc15wlf.htm

I think I can't find those pieces here in Brazil
And 1.5" are like 3x more expensives than 1/2"

 

[PedroBrew]

I'm planning to build it:

In a sculpture like this:

With this kind of gas piping:

Questions:
- Flow rate will be enough for the whirlpool?
- It's ok to use 1/2" for gas piping?

What you guys think?
Any other suggestions?

... just realized that I forgot about chilling, i'll draw something
I'll probably put it on the way to the fermenter, before O²

 

[madscientist451]

If you have someone to tig weld triclamp fittings, by all means do it. It will be more flexible if you increase the size. I disagree about BIAB. I think that makes no sense for batch sizes bigger than a barrel.

So why does larger than 31 gallons for BIAB make no sense?
Colorado Brewing Systems makes single vessel Nano Brew rigs in 50 and 100 gallon versions, which is brew in a basket instead of a bag, so I suppose it makes sense to that manufacturer.

http://www.cobrewingsystems.com/col...-nano-brewer-dual-professional-brewing-system

Spiedel also makes a 200L or about 52 gallon single vessel brew system.

So just wondering what is the downside to single vessel brewing in a 55 gallon drum.