New bigger equipment: Stout Tanks

[Hoosierbilly]

dental school...its not cheap easy or fun...(well, some of it is fun)

 

[Hoosierbilly]

So a couple of my lids got damaged while shipping (shipping company decided to disregard the "this side up" and the "do not stack" labels all over the packaging)...the lids for these things are very very heavy duty stuff and they were extremely well packaged and protected, im not sure how the shippers managed to bend them like they did but they were no where close to fitting. John was very pleasant to work with and did the right thing and sent me new lids to replace the bent ones...all on his dime. You can imagine how I felt to wait 6 months and get bent lids because of the worthless shipper. And the shipping truck was supposed to have a lift gate and fork lift with it for delivery at my house, but the driver said something to the effect that the lift gate was broken on the truck etc. etc. I guess I was too excited to be mad at the time though and lifting them out of there wasn't too hard. Again, John did the right thing and sent me brand new ones. I cannot say enough good stuff about him. I cant wait to do business with him again. And anyone that is thinking about buying from him, I would strongly suggest it, YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED with the quality of the materials or the way he does business! Thanks again John!

 

[grouperdude]

killer setup

 

[cbraun77s]

I would go all electric with this set-up. But then again, you already configured those big ass burner rigs.

 

[akthor]

I hear you there! Myself and 3 or 4 friends can empty a corny in one football game. Sometimes I have 20+ people here. I am moving to 10 gallon batches and a brewstand with pumps so hopefully I will expand production. As it is I have no pipeline. I am thinking when my brewstand is assembled the first thing I will do is use each vessel as a BK and due 3 - 10 gallon extract batches at once before moving to all grain. That way I can fill 6 corny's and with the end of the NFL season and MLB a ways away I can start up a pipeline that will last

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.

 

[ShorelineBrew]

DUDE NICE SETUP! Burners are EPIC! Hey you should move out to Seattle and we can really put that setup to use... Brew more beer

 

[HippyHooch]

Thats a great set-up. I think you planned it out just right. It is fun to make changes and add things as you go. Way to go!

 

[joelrapp]

Just found this, really awesome. What part of Indy are you in?

 

[BeerguyNC61]

Awesome setup!!
Off topic question alert!!
Is that a Belgian Malinois in the first photos??

 

[Hoosierbilly]

Thanks, he's a German shepherd, a lot of people think he's a Belgian I think because he's darker than most German shepherds, he's about a year old in the pics

 

[BeerguyNC61]

So have you used that monster system yet? And how long does it take to drink all that brew?

You must be the most popular classmate in dental school!!!

 

[Hoosierbilly]

There are about 10 or so of us that brew, I've only done one 15 gal and one 20gal batch on it so far, the second batch was a pale ale and went much smoother for the most part, on the first batch which was a wheat the hoprocket clogged up because it was my first time using it in-line from the BK to the chiller and I didn't know until later that they redesigned one of the screens inside of it because, well, the original screen didn't allow it to work well, so I ended up dumping the 4 oz of whole leaf hops in the fermenter instead...ended up being way way way too much dry hopping and, i gave it a couple months but it ended up being a dumper because although it was drinkable it was odd and not what I wanted so I dumped the really hoppy wheat because I needed the fridge space for the pale ale