# HDPE 200L brew rig



## ekul (29/3/14)

So i'm thinking of setting up a 200L brew rig for my unis brew club to collectively brew on. At that size it will have to be 3V. We'll probably aim to push out 180L batches.

To cut down costs we have been thinking of using 220L hdpe barrels for the hlt and mashtun. The hlt will have 2x2000W element on it with a timer obviously. The mashtun will have a giant rims on it. The boil kettle will be an insulated 220L stainless steel drum that will be gas fired.

Is there any issue with using hdpe barrels for the hlt and mash tun? Kinda like running a giant bucket of death 

Alternatively we've been talking about using a 2 or 3 150L stainless steel pots and using them as biab rigs, pushing 100L batches out of each one. I've done 100L batches on my 140L with biab (just need to use a single sheet of voille and a decent hoist), so it should be even less stressful with a 150L pot. 

But it would be nice to have mash temp control, so what do you guys reckon?


----------



## Mardoo (30/3/14)

Bucket of Armageddon?


----------



## Smokomark (30/3/14)

i managed to get 12 cubes out yesterday. 276lt in total plus about 8 or 10 x 2 lt bottles for starters. 140lt kettle, 120lt mash tun and a 70 lt urn and a 60 lt pot for hlt.
12 cubes in the pool and i was all cleaned up by 2pm. Mind you I did fire up about 6am.


----------



## stakka82 (30/3/14)

Just a lazy 12 cubes eh?


----------



## Smokomark (30/3/14)

stakka82 said:


> Just a lazy 12 cubes eh?


It wasn't that lazy. Sweated my arse of actually. Lovely Brisbane day about 35 degrees and 95% humidity, 
I did 3 x quad batches, so managed to get my cube stock up above 20 again, I got down to zero in january. I also did 2 x quads and a double batch 2 weeks ago.

I'm starting to like it when the missus has to work the odd saturday,


----------



## Yob (31/3/14)

Ekul, you'll need a pretty strong bag mate, that'll contain a lot of weight, I'd go the 3v or HERMS route, everything is better on HERMS


----------



## ekul (31/3/14)

Yob said:


> Ekul, you'll need a pretty strong bag mate, that'll contain a lot of weight, I'd go the 3v or HERMS route, everything is better on HERMS


I can knock out 100L via biab on my 140L pot. Its a shitty day but possible. Wouldn't do a beer above 5% though!! Doing something that has a bit of sugar in the grainbill (like coopers pale ale) is ok to do. 

I usually do 69L batches on my biab rig, very manageable. I just use a sheet of voille and a pulley system. I dont sparge, the bag hangs over the pot for the entire boil draining out, i get 70% efficiency everytime. I could kick that up a bit with a sparge but it seems more effort than its worth to me.

Big batch biab is possible!!!


----------



## mb-squared (31/3/14)

ekul said:


> So i'm thinking of setting up a 200L brew rig for my unis brew club to collectively brew on. At that size it will have to be 3V. We'll probably aim to push out 180L batches.
> 
> To cut down costs we have been thinking of using 220L hdpe barrels for the hlt and mashtun. The hlt will have 2x2000W element on it with a timer obviously. The mashtun will have a giant rims on it. The boil kettle will be an insulated 220L stainless steel drum that will be gas fired.
> 
> Is there any issue with using hdpe barrels for the hlt and mash tun? Kinda like running a giant bucket of death


This guy has a nice looking HDPE HLT: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/herms-brew-station.html

seems like it should work just fine...


----------



## QldKev (31/3/14)

I like the idea of a 3V on steroids. I'm not sure of any element that has a long enough thread to go through the wall of the 220L drums, at a guess they would be 12-15mm thick. Also I would look at HERMS over RIMS, a decent Kaixin or March I think will give ok flow, then you just need enough watts of elements in the heat exchanger. Use the calc on my website, 200L water from 66 to 78 using 2400w is 70mins.


----------



## OneEye (31/3/14)

Which Uni? Been thinking about organising one at Vic Uni (Footscray Park)


----------



## Bridges (31/3/14)

Mardoo said:


> Bucket of Armageddon?


Bucket of the apocalypse?


----------



## sp0rk (31/3/14)

An over the side element may work better in this situation, a hole in a 200L HDPE drum might get a bit soft and flexible at higher temps, may lead to leakage
TEE have some on sale right now
http://www.thermalelectric.com.au/sale.php


----------

