New bigger equipment: Stout Tanks

[Hoosierbilly]

new stuff came in!

 

[Hoosierbilly]

40 gal HLT, 65 gal Mash, 75 gal BK, 80 gal conical

 

[rsklhm10]

Despite that 40gal HLT being big in most respects, those pictures make it look extremely small. Even still, extremely awesome setup.

 

[weirdboy]

Nice stuff, but the sizing seems kind of weird. Don't you have to fill up your HLT twice during a brew if you are actually utilizing the extra space in the MLT and BK?

 

[Flomaster]

Nice stuff, but the sizing seems kind of weird. Don't you have to fill up your HLT twice during a brew if you are actually utilizing the extra space in the MLT and BK?

fill, heat for strike temp, pump into mash tun
fill sparge water, heat while mashing...

easy peazy my neezy.

I'd rather save the $$$ it would cost to fill that thing for all water required to brew 50 gallons at once, not to mention the time it takes to heat that much water.

-=Jason=-

 

[Runyanka]

Well played sir!!!

 

[Hoosierbilly]

Bingo...yeah, i guess it's not the typical sizing

I batch sparge

-heat strike water in bk
-pump to mash tun and dough in
-heat sparge water in bk
-sparge from mash --> (through trub filter to keep any grain out) --> 40gal HLT
-pump sparge water from bk to mash tun (vorlauf) and pump back to bk (through trub filter)
-pump contents of HLT back to bk
-boil
-chill
-ferment

for right now im just pumping from therminator to a 7.5 gal kettle and dumping into top of fermenter about 5 gallons at a time...it works just fine, i dont brew often enough to try to eliminate every little inconvenience...but its fun experimenting with trial and error and making changes/improvements to the process

 

[Hoosierbilly]

It wouldn't pump through the hop rocket, I had 4 oz in it so maybe that was too much for it...without that in line it pumps perfectly through the trub filter and chiller. With the valve wide open it was chilling it down to about 90* so I had to back it down to get it cooler. I think next time I brew I am going to fill the HLT with a couple bags of ice or a couple 5 gal bucket frozen blocks and water and pump that through the chiller to get a cooler input temp compared to the garden hose and hopefully speed up chilling, even though it still didn't take too too long to chill.

 

[weirdboy]

fill, heat for strike temp, pump into mash tun
fill sparge water, heat while mashing...

easy peazy my neezy.

I'd rather save the $$$ it would cost to fill that thing for all water required to brew 50 gallons at once, not to mention the time it takes to heat that much water.

Yeah that's sorta my point. Can you really heat 20-40 gallons of water from tap to sparge temps in an hour?

 

[bigbeergeek]

Yeah that's sorta my point. Can you really heat 20-40 gallons of water from tap to sparge temps in an hour?

Look at that burner configuration... I'm sure he can!

 

[Hoosierbilly]

Ha, yea, on my first brew (and only so far) I heated up 20-25 gal to 170 in with plenty of time to spare, maybe took roughly 30 min, can't remember what my temp was from the faucet.

And while the strike water was being heated in the bk I measured out the sparge water into the HLT, so that way I saved some time by just having to pump it from the HLT to the bk right after starting the mash, this pump moves stuff quickly!

 

[ciphin78]

Okay, I'd like to start by saying "Awesome!" and "Wow!". Now, I'd like to ask a question in all earnest. As someone who's been quite content with brewing 5 and 10 gal batches for the last 7 years I can't imagine brewing 50 gal of any one thing. If you are not a pro-brewer, what could you possibly with that much beer? Seriously, I'm not trying to offend or be rude in any way, i really just want to know. Oh, and how much propane do you go through?

 

[bigbeergeek]

for right now im just pumping from therminator to a 7.5 gal kettle and dumping into top of fermenter about 5 gallons at a time...it works just fine

I'm curious why you can't pump directly into the fermentor? Your system no doubt works -- I'd imagine being able to walk away from the system and not have to pause the pumping/chilling to dump 5 gallons of cooled wort into that beast of a fermentor would be ideal. Can't you connect the cooled wort line to one of the ports on the fermentor to fill?

 

[Hoosierbilly]

Yea I could but the fermenter is about 40 or 50 feet away and I don't want to buy that much tubing, especially because I won't be brewing that often...if I were brewing every month then I would probably do it, but I won't need to/wouldn't be able to brew every month hah

 

[bigbeergeek]

Yea I could but the fermenter is about 40 or 50 feet away and I don't want to buy that much tubing, especially because I won't be brewing that often...if I were brewing every month then I would probably do it, but I won't need to/wouldn't be able to brew every month hah

Ah-ha. I knew there had to be something I was missing. Brew on, you beautiful bastard!

 

[Hoosierbilly]

No offense taken by any mean. I would have the same question. I just always seem to find myself with no beer left, after going through all the work brewing up 5 or 10 gal and after sharing with so many friends and family, and having the guys over for the weekends, I typically find myself with a very lightweight corny...basically by the time it's at it's best it is all but gone...so I was wanting to be able to do some 1/2bbl and 1 bbl batches. So I had been looking at some bigger equipment (stout tanks). I was initially looking at the 40 gal conical that 'fits in freezer' or whatever, but then I was like well the 50 gal doesn't cost much more. Then I was like well if I'm going to get the 50 gal, the 80 gal is not too much more than the 50 and it is super sweet. So hopefully I did my math right and I should be able to brew a 2 bbl batch if I ever really wanted too at some point using the sizes I purchased, not the conventional sizes but I saved like 500 bucks by getting the 40 gal HLT as opposed to 65 gal or whatever. I have always batch sparged and have been getting around 82% efficiency so I plan on sticking with that for now. And The price difference between a 1 bbl set up and a 2 bbl set up was small compared to the difference between a 2 bbl set up and their 3 bbl set up, so I felt like what I got was a good medium. So when i got my school loans in i pulled the trigger for this and layed down the deposit. I also wanted to leave the option open to be able to get the license and all to start selling once I get out of school for a little bit, because i plan on working a few long days a week so I should have the time and hopefully the money to possibly do so if I ever thought I wanted to go that route, and I figured this size would make it feasible to get started maybe with the addition of another fermenter or two and what not, although quite small, others do it with the same or slightly smaller stuff...it would be more for hobby and the love for it than income, but that would be way down the road and I'm not necessarily planning on it, but it is an option. So that's kind of my thinking.

 

[Hoosierbilly]

Oh and propane!
I did a 1 bbl batch, i used about 21 gal for strike water and about another 21 for sparge, being that it was my first time brewing with this stuff, I underestimated/forgot to take into consideration how much get the 65 gal mash tun would suck up, so the mash started around 125 instead of 152 or whatever I did. Luckily I have a one banjo burner under the mash tun for such instances, so I had to bring that up to temp which didn't take as long as I expected. I also had to add a few extra gallons to the mash because it was super thick even though I was using 1.5 qt/lb: didn't take into consideration the volume under the false bottom.

Didn't use a noticeable amount for heating the mash up. From the other 3 burners between heating strike and sparge water and the boil those tanks were still all at least over half full, maybe closer to 2/3 full (using regular 20 lb grill tanks). I weigh them next time if I remember.

So less than I expected

 

[Lynux]

Jesus! The only issue I see is being able to control your fermentation temp. Is that fermenter jacketed with glycol?

 

[Hoosierbilly]

No it's not jacketed, I'm going to make some sort of insulated chamber around it using my upright freezer with thermostat to cool it...but for now I just keep my house at around, oh, 56* for a week or two until fermentation slows down haha

 

[bigbeergeek]

I wish that were an option for me! The wife and 18 month old wouldn't dig it... I'd love to make due with sweaters etc indoors... it would be fun/cheap.

 

[Sacdan]

Looks great!

 

[evantwomey]

So when i got my school loans in i pulled the trigger for this and layed down the deposit.

Let me get this straight: your student loans came through, and promptly purchased a 50 gallon brewery?

 

[Hoosierbilly]

Let me get this straight: your student loans came through, and promptly purchased a 50 gallon brewery?

yeah, why not hah


I ordered them from John at stout tanks, great guy to work with

 

[Hoosierbilly]

well, i paid the deposit first, in the spring, then it was 6 months until it was time for them to ship out and time for me to pay the remaining balance, by this time i had received my next round of loans for this fall semester, so it was split up...and selling the old brewing equipment helped pay for it too

 

[warex]

Using student loans to build a brewery should be a crime!

 

[Hoosierbilly]

why?

 

[Smashing]

Using student loans to build a brewery should be a crime!

why?

Probably cause he didn't think of it first....

 

[joeybeer]

Federal student loans ?? Not to be a d!ck but this is the next big financial bubble that's about to pop.. I'm pleased no one gave me 30,40,50,100k when I was 18 - God knows what I would have spent it on...

My advice would be to figure out how to pay for the liscence to sell it, because the degree ain't going to pay what they say it will, and you're gonna be stuck with the bill (+ interest)

 

[Hoosierbilly]

yea, i'll be in a slight bit of debt by the time I graduate, around 300K, so I figured 4k extra wouldn't make that huge of a difference, but having this as a hobby helps makes life somewhat enjoyable which is nice considering the hours I spend in class and studying, I consider it a school-related expense (at least that's what I tell myself)...and I try to save some money by not going out to the bars 8 times a week, buying the coolest cars, newest gaming systems, etc like some people do...

 

[joeybeer]

Sweet Jesus, 300K !
What/Where are you studying ?