Commercial Mash Tun - Spent Grain?

[seravitae]

Hi guys,

Perhaps I am showing my ignorance here, but I was wondering if anyone knew in large, commercial breweries, how they deal with spent grain in the mash tun. I'm trying to think of how they can efficiently remove that much wet grain. I can only think that they just pump it out/wash it out as a slurry/suspension through a giant ball valve or butterfly valve in the bottom of the tun or something. But if anyone knows how they actually do it, i'd appreciate some knowledge on the matter

Cheers

Seb

edit: youtube seems to suggest they have quite large port holes and simply 'rake' it out..

 

[CONNOR BREWARE]

Hi guys,

Perhaps I am showing my ignorance here, but I was wondering if anyone knew in large, commercial breweries, how they deal with spent grain in the mash tun. I'm trying to think of how they can efficiently remove that much wet grain. I can only think that they just pump it out/wash it out as a slurry/suspension through a giant ball valve or butterfly valve in the bottom of the tun or something. But if anyone knows how they actually do it, i'd appreciate some knowledge on the matter

Cheers

Seb

edit: youtube seems to suggest they have quite large port holes and simply 'rake' it out..

Mainly they sell or give it to cow and pig farmers.

 

[gap]

Mainly they sell or give it to cow and pig farmers.

Yes, but as the OP asked, how do they get it out of the mash tun.

 

[manticle]

Hi Sera,

Not 'large' commercial by any stretch but the James Squire brewhouse in VIC at the portland hotel have a small door at the base of the tun and it is simply scooped out with a shovel into used grain bags then rinsed out once the bulk has been removed.

At least that's what I remember watching when at a good beer week event (they were brewing at the same time).

 

[barls]

normally the mash is transferred to the lauder tun where its separated or laundered off. once the required volume has been removed which leave a very small portion of liquid in the spent grain, the spent grain is then removed from the lauder tun. depending on the size of the tun its ether shovelled out or raked out by reversing the mash rakes.

 

[pk.sax]

Considering the off quoted, commercials pound their malt to dust, that spent grain must really be a really really thick slurry?! I wonder what gets done with it...

 

[wessmith]

Most larger microbrewery lauter tuns have reversing rakes (stirrers) and a large trapdoor that opens in the base of the vessel allowing the spent grist to be dropped into plastic bins. The bins are then fork lifted away to be carted off to wherever the spent grist is being disposed of. Adding water to turn the grist into a slurry is neither practical or sustainable.

Wes

 

[mr_tyreman]

some very old breweries require the brewer to jump in the lauter tun and dig that fucker out with a shovel

 

[Batz]

some very old breweries require the brewer to jump in the lauter tun and dig that fucker out with a shovel

A few not so old breweries require that as well.

 

[Bizier]

http://www.ponndorf-gmbh.de/index.php/en/silo-und-foerderer

 

[Wolfy]

A few not so old breweries require that as well.

I think more than a few not so old micros use the good old shovel.

 

[bum]

Hi Sera,

Not 'large' commercial by any stretch but the James Squire brewhouse in VIC at the portland hotel have a small door at the base of the tun and it is simply scooped out with a shovel into used grain bags then rinsed out once the bulk has been removed.

At least that's what I remember watching when at a good beer week event (they were brewing at the same time).

I haven't been to many commercial breweries (and none of them are what you'd call "big") but I've seen that dreaded shovel in all of them.

Fairly sure I've also seen TB talking of shovelling spent grain. Maybe he was talking about the good old days?

 

[spog]

Mainly they sell or give it to cow and pig farmers.

and the cows/pigs turn it into methane gas,carbon tax em out of existence

i know i shouldnt have but i couldnt resist......cheers..........spog...........

 

[///]

Illawarra Brewing has a well known 'mashmaster fitness and weight loss system', 220 odd kg milled, dumped in and then dug out. With a water you end up moving about 4-5t over the day ...

 

[Maheel]

i asked a engineer a few months back who works at that large brewery in Yatala what they did with their spent grain
as i suggested it must be a lot of grain considering i get 5kg grain = 25L of beer ay home

she looked at me with a kind of look that said to me "whats grain" or "no mate none of that there...."
and she told me she was not sure...

i thought they might use a little considering
"The brewery produces two million cans and three million stubbies a day"
http://www.beerandbrewer.com.au/_blog/Maga...Yatala_Brewery/

anyway who knows what the are doing with or without grain i wont drink what they are making....

 

[dougsbrew]

and the cows/pigs turn it into methane gas,carbon tax em out of existence

i know i shouldnt have but i couldnt resist......cheers..........spog...........

you have it wrong spog, there is no carbon in methane, however if you were to light up a cows fart,
then there would be some carbon emisions that the gillard goverment would enjoy the spoils of.
edit - linky

 

[edschache]

i asked a engineer a few months back who works at that large brewery in Yatala what they did with their spent grain
as i suggested it must be a lot of grain considering i get 5kg grain = 25L of beer ay home

she looked at me with a kind of look that said to me "whats grain" or "no mate none of that there...."
and she told me she was not sure...

i thought they might use a little considering
"The brewery produces two million cans and three million stubbies a day"
http://www.beerandbrewer.com.au/_blog/Maga...Yatala_Brewery/

anyway who knows what the are doing with or without grain i wont drink what they are making....

Don't they just have lots of cats with efficient bladders?

 

[seravitae]

Thanks everyone for the comments, both those that answered my question and those that didn't!

I've got a prospective client interested in a turnkey brewery, around the 200 liter mark, so I'm just trying to think of the logistics given that fairly intermediate size (small enough that you can't really have a shovel port, big enough that you can't reasonably/safely BIAB/hoist out).

 

[Crazy]

Sera

I was involved in the installation of the twin stream brew house at Yatala a few years ago and it is much like a lot of home brewerys in a lot of ways (I still look at the P&IDs for ideas from time to time). The lauter tun is a series of perferated screens that once the sparge is finished, the segments slide over each other allowing the grain to fall into a hopper with a screw conveyor that takes it to the spent grain silo.

For 200l batch size however the amount of grain would fit in a wheelbarrow and it would take longer to clean the conveyor than shovel the grain.

Cheers Derrick

 

[Bizier]

I doubt you will need a Ponndorf then

I use the 4L David Gray bottles of water for my Starsan, just because Perth water is too hard. Last weekend I carved one of these bottles down to make myself a larger scoop that could get around the base of my MLT. I reckon the unsexy, but practical "bespoke spent grain scoop" is the go.