Questions about brewstand built.

[Junkaboy]

Hello.
I am in process of designing a single tier 100 liters (~26 gallons) brewstand. Its inspired mainly on the original Brutus 10 and on jlandin's slightly modified brutus 10

At the moment I am making the final decisions to start buying the parts I need. But I am in doubt about some details (both about parts and process) and I wanted to get some advice.

About the heating system:
- Which solenoid valve should I buy.
- Which pilot burner would be the most suitable.


About CIP system:
My plan is to adapt one of these little fellaws

And use the pumps on the rig to make a CIP system. Which I plan on using to help clean the system itself, as well as my fermenters.
My question about this is:
Would this 1/25hp Little Giant pump be enough? Or should I go for this 1/12HP Little Giant pump?


About the process itself:
- Would I get any problems with the false bottom getting clogged because of recirculating during mashing? On this stage (mashing) should the pump flow be restricted?

- When chilling the wort after boiling, should the wort be "recirculated" through the plate chiller and back into the boiler, or should it run through the chiller just once and foward into the fermenter?

Thank you for your time. Mutch appreciated.

Junkaboy

 

[Sawdustguy]

About the heating system:
- Which solenoid valve should I buy. I would use a gas furnace valve with a pilot port
- Which pilot burner would be the most suitable. I would use an intermittent pilot burner. Have a look at the Y8610U/309 with a Q345 Pilot Burner


About CIP system:
My plan is to adapt one of these little fellaws

And use the pumps on the rig to make a CIP system. Which I plan on using to help clean the system itself, as well as my fermenters.
My question about this is:
Would this 1/25hp Little Giant pump be enough? Or should I go for this 1/12HP Little Giant pump? If you are going to use that little gadget I don't think either pump is powerful enough


About the process itself:
- Would I get any problems with the false bottom getting clogged because of recirculating during mashing? On this stage (mashing) should the pump flow be restricted? Professional brewers and Homebrewers have been using false bottoms with recirculating mash systems for years without incident.

- When chilling the wort after boiling, should the wort be "recirculated" through the plate chiller and back into the boiler, or should it run through the chiller just once and foward into the fermenter? I do not recirculate through my plate chiller but others may do it differently.

 

[ghart999]

I don't know about that nozzle but from a pump standpoint I thgink you will want the bigger 1/12HP pump. I use the smaller 1/25 HP pump and love it. But I don't brew 25 gallon batches either.

False bottoms, get one of jaybird's units. They are pricey but custom fit and very nice quality.

With 25 gallons of hot wort, I would recommend recircing at least for a few minutes in order to bring the overall temp down to 140 then pump right into the fementors. With a decent pump and plate chiller, getting the whole 25 gallon below 140F should take about 5 minutes.

 

[Sawdustguy]

With 25 gallons of hot wort, I would recommend recircing at least for a few minutes in order to bring the overall temp down to 140 then pump right into the fementors. With a decent pump and plate chiller, getting the whole 25 gallon below 140F should take about 5 minutes.

Why would you only cool down to 140* before pumping into your fermenter? The OP is using a plate chiller and should get the temperature down below the danger zone (80*F) fairly quickly if it's a good chiller. My water temperature in summer is about 65* and with my therminator I can get it below 80* to pitching temperatures pretty quick.

 

[ghart999]

I don't mean 140F into the fermentor, I mean get the whole 25 gallons below 140F (danger zone) by recircing. Then chill is normal with the plate chiller.

With 25 gallons, and depending on the size of his plate chiller, he would have near boiling wort sitting for quite awhile, which has the DMS potential issues. Not to mention his flame out aroma hop additions being affected.

With 5-10 gallons this isn't too much of a concern. Since the the whole thing with be chilled quickly. But 25 gallons will take 5x longer to chill than 5 gallons. Unless he buys one of those huge ass 70 plate chillers or something.

 

[Junkaboy]

The idea of recirculating until the wort drops bellow "danger zone" and using the pump power to create a whirlpool, letting it rest a little while to get the trub to precipitate, and then proceding with it to the fermenter is pretty nice.

About the pumps, I think I might go for the 1/12hp little giants. Then later, if I find them not strong enough for the CIP, I can buy a cheaper pump (non sanitary, non magnetic drive) here in Brazil with a stronger motor.

About the valves, pilot, etc... I guess I need to read a lot more before making my decision. This Honeywell Y8610U/309 with a Q345 Pilot Burner sounds very nice, but also on the pricey side of things. I was more looking foward what jlandin did on his set up, which seemed just fine and alot cheaper. I suppose I need to read more threads about this deal before proceding.

 

[ghart999]

What is CIP system?

 

[Junkaboy]

CIP means Clean in Place.

Basicaly its a system designed to clean your equipment by spraying / recirculating a cleaning solution inside your vessels/fermenters/kegs...

I am sure other members will have mutch better/detailed explanation.

 

[Junkaboy]

Something I forgot to add on the OP, is that the burners I am planning on using are high pressure propane.

If I am to use low pressure, I'd need to shop for burners as well, because there is nothing I could find here in Brazil for that size system that uses low pressure LP.

 

[Sawdustguy]

I don't mean 140F into the fermentor, I mean get the whole 25 gallons below 140F (danger zone) by recircing. .

Actually the danger zone is 80*F to 140*F.

 

[beerthirty]

The 8610 can be used to control solenoid valves for gas flow. That way you can keep the system high pressure. You would need a separate solenoid valve to control pilot flow. The difference between Guy's and my system is he uses a gas furnace valve and low pressure, while I use 2 solenoid valves and high pressure. Both our systems are controlled by the 8610 and use intermittent pilot burners.

 

[jlandin]

Something I forgot to add on the OP, is that the burners I am planning on using are high pressure propane.
If I am to use low pressure, I'd need to shop for burners as well, because there is nothing I could find here in Brazil for that size system that uses low pressure LP.

Keep in mind that most high pressure burners can be easily converted to low pressure propane (or even natural gas), by replacing or simply drilling out the orifice.

The gas valves I used are for low pressure only.

--
Josh