Need Advice: How to scale down my brew rig?

[jd-santaclarita]

Hi all,
I have a bit of a strange situation that I am hoping to get some advice on. We just moved and my brewery is in complete disarray... I went from a 3 car garage huge backyard to a 2 car garage very small yard...nicer neighborhood, better schools for the kids...I took one for the team on "hobby space." I need to condense things quite a bit or give it up altogether, which I dont want to do. Here's what I have:

- Big old single tier rack, 2" square tubing, all welded, plumbed for propane, ring burners, it holds (2) keggles and (1) stainless pool filter for boiling (18 gal)
- 48q igloo cube MLT for smaller batch mashing
- 60q igloo cube MLT for bigger batches
- March pump with tubing and quick disconnects that connect to kettles/mlt's
- 48q SS turkey fryer pot
- couple stand alone turkey fryer burners
- extra keggle..cut top with no spigots yet
- I now have (2) separate 220v outlets in the garage

I usually do 12 gal batches using one of the igloos sitting on the single tier brew rack along with one of the keggles as the HLT, then I pump to the pool filter boil kettle. Its been a good setup, but I have been wanting to make it "easier" and faster overall to make it easier for me to brew more. I've been so busy at work and life that I barely brew anymore. I am hoping that the move that is forcing me to scale down the footprint will also allow me to make it easier, faster, more automated possibly, etc to make brewing a little more a part of my busy life.

With all that said, I have tried to do some research to figure things out and I am a bit confused overall on what would be a good direction. I was orignally thinking about a smaller 5 gallon batch electric setup then ran across the whole BIAB brew in a bag thing which is really intriguing since it would cut my footprint down to 1 boil kettle and some bags. I just don't know what to do..and dont have a lot of time to figure it all out since i have a mountain of brew stuff hogging the whole garage that needs to get cleared out in short order.

I would love to hear any advice on what you would do.

Thanks a ton,
JD

 

[weirdboy]

By scaling down are you talking about stovetop, or still trying to keep it in the garage and giving up the brewstand, or something else?

Have you already checked out this: Countertop Brutus 20?

Now this setup is only really good for 2.5-3 gallon batches, but with 220V and some bigger elements you could easily scale that up to 5-10 gallons.

 

[weirdboy]

Also, although you can certainly do BIAB with a single vessel, in my experience it ends up being more like 1.5-2 vessels. I mean, I sorta need a place to put stuff during the sparge/lauter and that place ends up being another pot or bucket when I do it.

 

[jd-santaclarita]

Thanks. I'll have to check out the counter brutus. I'm not really looking to go stovetop or anything that drastic. I would like to keep things in the garage or brew on the patio still, I just need to be able to store it easily and much more compact than a 4' single tier rack with 3 monster kettles, 2 big igloos + all the stuff to go with it.

Ideally I would be able to consolidate down to 1 or 2 vessels, remove the brew rack, simplify the process a ton to make for easy brew days with a lot less fuss and dedicated attention the whole time, etc. Icing on the cake would be to automate things to the point where i can fill up the water the night before, wake up to hot strike water, mash in, have coffee, make kids breakfast, start the boil, do whatever needs doing for 90 minutes, pour into fermentor and quick cleanup.

Not sure if thats feasible, but thats my goal.

Forgot to mention....I also have a temp control box I made with a PID controller and SSR for temp controlling (lives in tackle box)...as well as a 1000w bucket heater.

Thanks,
JD

 

[Coldies]

Congrats on the new house but a bummer on the brewing space. I'm in the same position as you with a small back yard. I have a single tier 2 vessel with a pump rig that is smaller than your average propane bbq.

 

[jd-santaclarita]

Thanks Coldies. I'm really on the fence about what to do. I'm a little nervous to go from a full blown AG rig that I spent a small fortune on building over the years to basically a turkey fryer pot and a mesh bag. I love the idea of saving space and the simplicity...I'm just scared that a year down the road after all my gear is gone...I'll be saying "man..i wish i had my AG rig back...I just dont like this biab method". I really dont know though...without any real experience though.

Thanks,
JD

 

[FishFace]

Blichmann top tier

 

[weirdboy]

What are you going to do with your existing rig? Just sell it?

Have you also checked out Brouerij Kabouter's single-vessel design?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/blogs/...ewery-design-series-single-vessel-system.html

Also ScubaSteve has a somewhat similar system, all-electric and with some automation:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/single-vessel-all-electric-ns-nc-brewery-158608/


I guess I am curious if you're keeping the stand (i.e. is that the part that's taking up so much space) or if it's all the other associated stuff. I would think if the bulk of your system fits on the stand, you're going to have a hard time reducing the footprint unless you go BIAB or similar.

 

[jd-santaclarita]

Thanks for those links, they look very intruiging. Something about the single vessel with a SS basket makes it feel more "real deal" than the bag setup. That maybe just the gearhead talking though as i assume it serves the same purpose. I'm wondering where you get a fine mesh ss screen to cover up the holes in the basket though...seems like it would have to be a really fine mesh to prevent it from leaking grain into the boil.

As far as the brew rack...I'm not 100% sure. I might have to sell it as its pretty big overall. Probably not until i get a working system though.

Thanks,
JD

 

[corncob]

I was planning on building a big rig like yours (still pretty new to the game), but I don't have a garage at all--just a couple of sheds, and a back patio. I want to brew bigger batches,etc., like everyone does. Also I am cheap.

Recently I stumbled across http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/. This site is full of info about parti-gyle brewing--like from the days when large kettles were very expensive. After that I googled "parti-gyle" for a bit and found all kinds of other stuff.

The plan I have developed is to have a huge mash tun, and three turkey fryers in the 8-gallon range. They come cheap pre-owned, and take up very little room when not being used, which is key for my situation. You don't need a pump because you can lift and pour 7 gallons of near boiling water no problem. There are actually several redeeming things about this kind of setup, I think.

I gotta go, but I will post more later.

 

[corncob]

Right, so you have a large mash tun--either a big cooler or converted keg, and three seperate small pots and burners. Strike water is heated in one (or more) of the small pots. First runnings go back into it. Each of the others are used to heat and runnoff a second and third time. That gives you 3 boils, started just far apart enough to get one chilled with the IC (+pond pump and mush tun full of ice water--I'm in the South) before the next one comes off the boil. Whirlpool each and siphon into three fermenters in desired quantities to produce 3 five-gallon batches of 1-3 kinds of beer. Pitch. Fermenters go into spare bathtub with two pond pumps: one to circulate water around them, and one, wired to a temp controller, that periodically pumps some of the bath water up into ice water-filled cooler, which drains by gravity back into the tub to regulate bath temperature.

Fifteen gallons in one brewday, which takes an extra hour or so (theoretically, right). Only one big vessel. The burners and pots stack in one corner. No big rolling frame. No sanitary pump/lines/valves. No extra fridge. But you do have to wash extra kettles (at least they aren't very deep), AND you have to be willing to give up a bathtub for a few days. Of course if you have a garage, you could chill in a really big rubbermaid tub, or several, out there. And no fly sparging.

Is that a crazy plan? I am in the process of getting everything together to try this. I guess I'll find out if no one talks me out of it first.

 

[TrevorRuggiero]

I was struggling with the same issues: Limited space and limited time. As a result I have been working on a semi-automated 10 gallon brewing rig for the past two years. I have finally gotten it to the point that I can brew with it, although there is still much more I could do with the automation. Basically I use two converted kegs, one has 2 120V elements in it as well as 50 feet of coiled copper tubing with separate inlets and outlets. I use a single pump and several solenoid valves to control where the water/wort goes. I heat the sparge water in the keg with the elements and copper tubing, that then goes into the other keg that I use as my mash tun. The left over water gets transfered to a igloo cooler that sits above the mash tun. When the mash has finished I transfer back into the keg with the elements and then fly sparge by gravity from the igloo cooler. Once I hit my target volume I boil in the same keg I used to heat the sparge water. Once the boil is finished I connect the hose to the 50' of copper tubbing already inside the keg and can cool down 10 gal in about 10 min. The copper tube inside my boil kettle also allows for a RIMs set up, although I have not tried that yet. This has turned into a pretty pricy set up, but the only thing I lift or move now are the grains, everything else is just a flip of a switch. If you interested I can email you some pics (this forum won't let me post pics...).

Good luck!

-T