800 Litre Brew

[Plastic Man]

Doesn't solve the temp issue though.

 

[cdbrown]

There's a tap at the bottom in the center of one side.

 

[bum]

Yeah and it is going to be covered by yeast cake.

 

[peas_and_corn]

OK, there are a few logistical issues that seem to leap out at me:

It appears that the fermenter only has a small opening (if I'm wrong, disregard). How are you going to ensure adequate mixing of ingredients?
Additionally, how are you going to ensure proper sanitation? For cubes it's easy, since they can be picked up and shaken with the sanitiser in it. Not as easy for a 1000L container
As mentioned before, temp control? My only thought would be a glycol setup of some sort, but that'll be quite complex and difficult to maintain
What to do with all the empty cans?

And last of all-

What sort of alcohol consumption do you guys have? On the weekend Jono and I joked that you shouldn't ask a home brewer how much they drink, but if you and a friend (you only mentioned one other person, though maybe there are more?) are drinking so much beer that 50L batches (and you could comfortably make one every weekend if you wanted) is not enough... dang...

 

[bum]

I think he was saying it doesn't hang around long enough to age rather than it wasn't enough. It does seem to me that there are better ways around this than 800lt batches, though.

 

[T.D.]

Doesn't solve the temp issue though.

Very true. Assuming this isn't just a g-up, keeping the temp down in a ferment that size will be VERY hard. I recently fermented a small parcel of wine (not enough to bother picking for the winery so I thought I'd have a crack). I fermented it in a grape bin (which would have been around the 500L mark) and I had ridiculous trouble keeping the temps down. And I'm not talking <20deg, I'm talking <30deg! and this was in a temp controlled warehouse (set at 18deg).

But having said all that, if you are willing to risk it going pearshaped, it would be an awesome experiment. I say go for it!!

 

[gregs]

Hey Gunbrew; if you make your way to Bundaberg I'v got a cool room and forklift that you can use as long as you like for free, the offer is for real. I can control temps from 1 degree too 17 degrees. I'm not sure about your fermenter, I've seen all sorts of chemicals in those 1000 litre shuttles, so be careful. Man I'd love to see you have a go at it.

gregs

 

[AndrewQLD]

Good on you Greg, I'd love to see that big baby chugging away too. I wonder if you'd have to purge the cool room each afternoon to prevent Co2 build up? The fork lift would help to at racking time.

Andrew

 

[seravitae]

1.Eat a packet of yeast and hops

2. Drink saturated sugar water every hour.

3. ?????

4. Profit.

 

[fcmcg]

Will attache the tank pic.
Cheers.

Wow...i would really want to make sure that your "Fermenter" is clean and able to safely hold your wort . 800 liters is a lot of wort to be tipping if the place your going to be fermenting is not up to the challenge.... and not able to be safely airtight...unless your going open fermenting...
Kudos for wanting to try... but if it were me...i would not even begin to think of using an old water tank as my fementer ..correct me if i'm wrong in my assumption of your "fermenter"
My 2c..
Good luck anyway
Ferg

 

[gregs]

Good on you Greg, I'd love to see that big baby chugging away too. I wonder if you'd have to purge the cool room each afternoon to prevent Co2 build up? The fork lift would help to at racking time.

Andrew

I'm not sure about the C02, you could always tube it to the out side, hell he can drill a hole in the side of the cool room for all I care. I'm with you Andrew, Would love to see it chug.

 

[gunbrew]

The main concern being some problem resulting in the whole batch failing.
Will be talking it over again this evening.
Thanks to those who have replied with helpfull ideas and comments.

 

[gunbrew]

Hey Gunbrew; if you make your way to Bundaberg I'v got a cool room and forklift that you can use as long as you like for free, the offer is for real. I can control temps from 1 degree too 17 degrees. I'm not sure about your fermenter, I've seen all sorts of chemicals in those 1000 litre shuttles, so be careful. Man I'd love to see you have a go at it.

gregs

A great offer and I would take you up on it if I was not an 18 hour drive away.
Thanks and Cheers.

 

[troopa]

I agree a coolroom would certainly be your best option for good temp control.. but then again how many Kit brewers do you know that actually think brewing at 30Degs is the way to go because its quicker

Sanitation isnt a big deal if you can by your IBC direct from a distillery.. they occasionally sell the IBCs that have had only pure alcohol in them and that would just mean a quick rinse with water and thats it

Tom

 

[Tony]

I think he was saying it doesn't hang around long enough to age rather than it wasn't enough. It does seem to me that there are better ways around this than 800lt batches, though.

I agree.

Good AG beer is just fine 7 to 10 days grain to brain around here. Ferment, chill, filter, carb and drink. Its actually better fresh and goes down hill over time.

I will alway argue for quality over quantity. But everyone is different

I say brew better beer you can drink strait away when fresh. Fresh hop flavour and aroma, clean malt.

Aged beer is only better if the origional beer was rough and needed the flavours to disipate over time to a point that they arnt noticable.

I really dont like your chances of getting that beer into the glass without infection. The logistics of racking large volumes, and storing in the kegs where any bugs that may have got in can breed up over time.

But.............. if your keen then give it a go. Why not, if your happy to risk lots of money on one batch.

I will be the first to congradulate you if its a success!

Good luck.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

F%ckem, just brew the bloody thing....

800Ltr is not that big a deal. As long as you santizise it it should be OK. Remember its winter, so If you just sat it in the shed it should be fine...it may take a bit longer to ferment out but it will.

And its the perfect vessel , has a nice big wide base for the yeast cake to do its job.

As for the 42 kegs...Good luck...

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Assume that gun lets his brew ferment at ambient temps -- it is winter time. I just looked at the BOM site and the highest ever recorded winter average temperature in Sydney is 14.4(combined day and night) - so say its generally 14?? Thats fairly cold.


Is temperature really going to be that much of an issue? Use a temp tolerant ale yeast (coopers kit yeast?) and throw a few sheets of Hessian sack around the fermenter and hose it down every night with a couple of fans pointed at it? ... you might be able to keep things fairly reasonable. You might even have to point a fan heater at it to get it to finish out when the main fermenting action is over and done with.

As for being able to sanitise the fermenter -- those plastic tanks aren't that heavy. A bucket or two of iodophor solution in there and a couple of blokes could roll the whole thing around the yard.

I reckon its doable -- I wouldn't, but if you are good to drink the same beer for a year and you are bloody careful with sanitation etc; it might just work.

I hope it does. That would be cool.

Thirsty

 

[Bribie G]

Hey I've got two of them at the side of the house



Connected via a Davey Pressure Pump to this:



Wow, 1.5 tonnes of English Bitter. Might need to get a drip tray to fit under the tap.


Seriously, your system should work but I'm worried about heat build up during primary. You might want to pitch fairly cool, say seventeen degrees if possible and hope for the best.

 

[Wortgames]

By my reckoning, a litre of all-malt kitbrau runs at about 75c ($15 for 2 cans of goop / 20 litres) so you're looking at something like a $600 investment for 800L.

I doubt that is enough to 'commission' a fresh wort brew. To go to G&G and buy 800L of fresh wort would set you back around $1600. Take out the retailer's margin and there's probably still significantly more than $600 going to the brewery.

Unless you are looking to scratch the kits and go to 20kg buckets of goop and isohop, you don't really gain much economy of scale (other than time/labour). Have you thought about brewing in say 200L batches instead? Fill 10 or 12 postmix kegs at a time for $150 or so. Do it often enough and you'll soon have a steady supply of nicely aged beer.

800L sounds like fun but it's a big investment (and risk).

 

[sqyre]

Get yourself 5 or 6 of those blue/green 180litre plastic drums with the clampdown lid...
They are Airtight and by drilling a hole in the top you can run a hose into a half-filled 2 litre coke bottle for your Airlock..

Before i discovered All-grain i used to do this... Using 6-7 kit cans at a time...
At one point i had 5 full which is around 750 litres... for the exact same reasons you are thinking about it now...

At least with them you can sanitise properly, rack to each other, and you might have half a chance of temp control...

Any easy way out of this is for you to get involved with a case swap and sample some All-grain Beers...
2 days after i tried my first allgrain i tipped 3 full 180 litre fermenters out on the back lawn...
and then went to my local HBS and grabed a new 30litre fermenter, A fresh wort kit, some decent yeast and started making something i ACTUALLY ENJOYED... Not just something to drink for the sake of drinking...

its all about QUALITY now NOT QUANTITY... (but i wont mention i presently have 6 glycol chilled taps running 6 different Allgrain Beers with 12 full kegs, 4 fermenters bubbling supported by a 3 tier'd 50litre Gravity fed Nano-Brewery and alot of Temp controled fridge space.... )

Mate, but all things aside, give it a go... what have you got to loose except 1000 litres of probably very ordinary Beer...

Sqyre...