New Brewing system gadgets

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kladue

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Here are a couple pictures of new components for the phase 2 brewery project, 1"OD outer tube with 1/2" SS inner tube CFC, O2 mixer, water heater/steam boiler. Chiller inside tube is 20 foot length of 1/2" OD .049 316 tubing inside a 1"tube with inner tubing silver brazed to modified swagelok fitting. Boiler is 4-20' lengths of 1/4" OD SS tubing wound over a 2" PVC pipe and coupled to a modified1/4"tube cross for water in at bottom and steam out the top. http://picasaweb.google.com/kevin.ladue/NewBrewingGadgets/photo#5164076763824483858

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It looks like your system is taking shape. It is very cool. I want to see it married with the rest of your automation. Prost!
 
Connected a flowmeter to the water inlet and fired the boiler to find out how it works, was able to raise 1/2 gpm of water from 44 deg F to 184 deg F with the burner turned up fairly high. will have to plumb in a flow meter for the propane feed to the burner to get actual firing rate so boiler effiency can be determined then test it on new flow control hardware. A rough calculation of output is 35,000 Btu/h or 10.25Kw of heat, it should be able to heat 3.5 gallons of water from tap to strike temperature in less than 7 minutes.
 
kladue said:
Connected a flowmeter to the water inlet and fired the boiler to find out how it works, was able to raise 1/2 gpm of water from 44 deg F to 184 deg F with the burner turned up fairly high. will have to plumb in a flow meter for the propane feed to the burner to get actual firing rate so boiler effiency can be determined then test it on new flow control hardware. A rough calculation of output is 35,000 Btu/h or 10.25Kw of heat, it should be able to heat 3.5 gallons of water from tap to strike temperature in less than 7 minutes.


Gotta love engineers!!!

;)
 
It's things like this that make me wish I hadn't gone the software route.. I can build cool stuff but none of it is tangible :( heh
 
It's beautiful. I dream of the day when I am out of academia and making enough money to do things exactly the way I want to, rather than just the way I can afford to.

Can't wait to see how your full system turns out.
 
I was thinking about buying a tankless water heater as my "HLT" but I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to mod it for the output temperature I wanted. Are you planning to control the flame or the flow rate?
 
Here is a picture of the new boiler control panel for the phase 2 brewery system http://picasaweb.google.com/kevin.ladue/BoilerControlPanel/photo#5164685502424247906, control devices are wired to opto 22 plc hardware. One could operate this with manual valves, just takes constant attention during operation to control temperature. Make a copy out of copper tubing for a lot less than a tankless heater and eliminate the HLT.

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Oh is that all? I'll build it tonight ;-)

I was doing some more daydreaming and thought it might even be easier to use a very large water heater element running up the center of a similarly built tube with the coil. If you use a PID to control the element with the temp sensor on the output, I think it would be easier for the general tinkerer like myself to make work. I'd probably build it in an old corny though and let it build pressure. I'm sure it would heat a lot more efficiently that way and I wouldn't have to keep replacing the "conductant" water. I know a lot of folks have built a similar vessel for a dedicated herms heat exchanger and Yuri made one for a steam generator, but why not just on demand strike/sparge water?

I can imagine you could also put a Tee on the input to the coil so that it could be used for dual purpose, either heating incoming tap water or typical Herms style.

I was trying to figure out how to better couple an electric element to the coils but can't come up with anything neat.
 
One could make a gas fired unit work with a pid controller with a voltage output and a mass flow controller for fuel flow control. One could make a chamber similar to the type used in RIMS systems and use 2 elements to heat water, would need an interlock with water flow to save elements and chamber from meltdown.
 
Holy S***!

It looks like that thing will do the laundry, wash the car, and explore uncharted planets.

I am in awe! Keep posting pictures that is amazing.
 
DANG! That is just awesome. I want to see the completed brewery, the plans and a cost estimate for you to build it for me! Steam heated step mashes with all stainless hardware is so cool....
 
Wow, this is awesome! Pretty sure I've seen similar looking pictures on NASA's website. I think you do it injustice by putting it in a "brew shed"..... Call it a "brew cathedral" or something at least!
 
I saw a (somewhat) similar boiler at dangerouslaboratories.org and was wondering how well a modified version would work as a tankless water heater.

Needless to say, your results will save me a lot of trial-and-error.

Did you opt for stainless for any specific reason or was it more of a "I had it laying around" kind of thing? (I've made a lot of material selections for that reason myself.)

In any case, way cool!


Bill
 
In an average year i go through a couple of miles of stainless and copper tubing on instrument installation projects. The Stainless steel tubed boiler is a larger copy of the boiler on my steam injection system that has served as the test and design basis for the new system under construction. If one were to use copper tubing the boiler would be much more efficient for water heating, have not built one yet so have no test information to share. Primary advantage of small tubed boiler is low volume of water to heat and low volume to release as steam if you could blow it up. Have tested old unit by dry firing coils to orange hot and hitting it with cold water with no failure or leaks, just a large blast of steam into mash tun. There is no valving in the boiler outlet to prevent accidental over pressure, steam generation is controlled by changing the fuel to the burner and holding the water flow constant.
 
kladue said:
Here are couple of pictures of the brewery hardware installation in the brew shed for tubing fabrication before insulation and sheetrock installation. http://picasaweb.google.com/kevin.ladue/BreweryConstruction/photo#5168174650505894434


OMFG!!! I'm speachless! I was showing the guys here at work (I work with a bunch of engineers) and... well... lets just say they had nothing but good things to say about that set-up.

We happened to look, and saw that you're down in Turner... Everyone here wants to know when we can go on a field trip to see this stuff in person? :D Especially since you're living a few miles away from my future fater-in-law.

I'm so glad people in Oregon love their beer so much. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
 
Wow, now it is starting to come together. Are you excited to fire it up and brew the first batch with it Kladue? Looks awesome.
 
Still have a couple sub systems to put together, motorized valley malt mill, screw conveyor to lift malt from floor level hopper to mill hopper above mash tun, mixer for mash tun, glycol chillers, pump and cold glycol storage tank. Next phase is to build glycol cooled chill bands for 6.5 gall carboys, controlled by left over opto hardware. Would like to be able to individually temperature control about 6 to 8 carboys at a time so one could do lagers and ales at same time.
 
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