Hey folks,
I'm in the process of putting together a setup for all-grain, and thought I'd chronicle the work here both to show off my 'junk' and in hopes of getting some of your expert guidance. Being new to HBT, I've been a bit awestruck by some of the engineering that goes on at every level, not to mention the knowledge base that I have tapped into daily for the past month or so.
A brief background; I've been operating a winery in the woods of South Central Missouri for over 11 years. In a prior life I did a bit of homebrew, but it was put on the back burner while I worked at creating an income from wine. But it's always been in my head to add beer to list of offerings, and it seems like things are coming together quickly for just that. I have the opportunity to do this without going crazy with investments, and having no real demands to answer to. Any income will just be icing on the cake, though we are pretty sure that a customer base already exist and even visits on a regular basis.
So; on to the setup. 'Most all the pieces are going to come from just stuff that's already here. This winery was started in 1972 and there is quite a collection of stainless just lying around collecting dust; creating trip hazards.
I have all winter to get this set up, including running several handfuls of batch's to get the bugs worked out before we're at full production in May. The initial setup is going to be about a 25 gallon batcher, with a relatively easy upgrade to 50 gallon batch.
So the HLT will work for both setups. It looks like holey hell, and is even a little holey (two small holes that will get brazed closed tomorrow). It has 5 ft legs that will allow gravity feed until we get some pumps.
The funky looking coils were put on quite some years ago. Obviously someone was using it for a heat exchange... probably cooling, but there are areas that it's collapsed, so it would take some work to get that working again. The water feeding to this will be heated with an on-demand water heater that should be able to deliver a 180 F liquor. A propane heater will be mounted to boost or maintain the temp.
Now, comes the first real question I have. How important is the depth of the Mash Tun? Noonan talks like it should be 18 to 24", but I think it's worth a try to see if 11" will work with this 25 gallon portable sink:
and a top view,
I have a piece of perforated ss for a false bottom, and some ss scrubby for directly over the drain. The bottom will be fitted with a heating element controlled via a pc. Since this is potentially a temporary feature of the bh, I'm gonna go hillbilly on the insulation and just wrap some heavy plastic sheet around it and fill with GreatStuff. I'll also fashion a lid made from the same thing: GreatStuff sandwiched between two plastic sheets. This will allow easy temp probe and sparge arm insertion. Again, it's only expected to be temporary.
The first brew kettle is a 32 gallon rig with a ball valve and another scrubby for a hop catcher:
This will also be propane heated and in such a position to move onto a forklift that will transport the wort from the brew shed to the fermentation cellar.
Sitting in the flanks are a couple 60 gallon SS drums and a nice open top 80 gallon tun that will move in if/when demand calls for it.
The irony of this will be the contrast of the temperature monitor system. One of my highest concerns will be documenting the sequences of mash temps and the effectiveness of a wort cooling setup (yet to be built, beyond just a simple immersible copper coil/well water chiller). And actually the, most work I've done is setting up the monitor system.
Anyway, I doubt there's anybody that will get awed by this setup.. but perhaps it brought a good chuckle. As with my wine, the important thing will be on the results!
I'm in the process of putting together a setup for all-grain, and thought I'd chronicle the work here both to show off my 'junk' and in hopes of getting some of your expert guidance. Being new to HBT, I've been a bit awestruck by some of the engineering that goes on at every level, not to mention the knowledge base that I have tapped into daily for the past month or so.
A brief background; I've been operating a winery in the woods of South Central Missouri for over 11 years. In a prior life I did a bit of homebrew, but it was put on the back burner while I worked at creating an income from wine. But it's always been in my head to add beer to list of offerings, and it seems like things are coming together quickly for just that. I have the opportunity to do this without going crazy with investments, and having no real demands to answer to. Any income will just be icing on the cake, though we are pretty sure that a customer base already exist and even visits on a regular basis.
So; on to the setup. 'Most all the pieces are going to come from just stuff that's already here. This winery was started in 1972 and there is quite a collection of stainless just lying around collecting dust; creating trip hazards.
I have all winter to get this set up, including running several handfuls of batch's to get the bugs worked out before we're at full production in May. The initial setup is going to be about a 25 gallon batcher, with a relatively easy upgrade to 50 gallon batch.
So the HLT will work for both setups. It looks like holey hell, and is even a little holey (two small holes that will get brazed closed tomorrow). It has 5 ft legs that will allow gravity feed until we get some pumps.
The funky looking coils were put on quite some years ago. Obviously someone was using it for a heat exchange... probably cooling, but there are areas that it's collapsed, so it would take some work to get that working again. The water feeding to this will be heated with an on-demand water heater that should be able to deliver a 180 F liquor. A propane heater will be mounted to boost or maintain the temp.
Now, comes the first real question I have. How important is the depth of the Mash Tun? Noonan talks like it should be 18 to 24", but I think it's worth a try to see if 11" will work with this 25 gallon portable sink:
and a top view,
I have a piece of perforated ss for a false bottom, and some ss scrubby for directly over the drain. The bottom will be fitted with a heating element controlled via a pc. Since this is potentially a temporary feature of the bh, I'm gonna go hillbilly on the insulation and just wrap some heavy plastic sheet around it and fill with GreatStuff. I'll also fashion a lid made from the same thing: GreatStuff sandwiched between two plastic sheets. This will allow easy temp probe and sparge arm insertion. Again, it's only expected to be temporary.
The first brew kettle is a 32 gallon rig with a ball valve and another scrubby for a hop catcher:
This will also be propane heated and in such a position to move onto a forklift that will transport the wort from the brew shed to the fermentation cellar.
Sitting in the flanks are a couple 60 gallon SS drums and a nice open top 80 gallon tun that will move in if/when demand calls for it.
The irony of this will be the contrast of the temperature monitor system. One of my highest concerns will be documenting the sequences of mash temps and the effectiveness of a wort cooling setup (yet to be built, beyond just a simple immersible copper coil/well water chiller). And actually the, most work I've done is setting up the monitor system.
Anyway, I doubt there's anybody that will get awed by this setup.. but perhaps it brought a good chuckle. As with my wine, the important thing will be on the results!
You obviously have the hard part (fermentation) figured out, being a winemaker. Now all you need is enough equip to make the wort. So far so good, keep us updated!
