After more than 2 years design and build my new 3V brewery is finally nearing mechanical completion. I started with a simple single vessel RIMS brewery which I really enjoyed the simplicity of and the quality of the beer. After a couple of years BIAB I wanted a challenge and thought maybe a fully automated BIAB system. Then I added up the costs and thought bugger it I may as well just buy a Brau, but there was no challenge there. After coming to terms with spending those dollars on a Brau I had a brain wave. What I really like about brewing is the process so I decided to go 3V and build as close to a micro setup as I could while maintaining only 40L max volume. Most of my brews are only 20L as I really don't drink nearly as much as I used to. So I set about the design of my ideal brewery to suit 20-40L with the view of possibly expanding to 100+ litres one day.
ENGINEERING
Using AUTOCAD I designed every detail of what my brewery would be(well most of it). I drafted a P&ID then modeled the arrangement in 3D and then produced a full set of drawings to be sure the end product reflected what I had imagined. There are still items that I left out as I want to see how it operates in reality before making some final process decisions.
The design:
70LHLT with 4400W electric heating on PID
80L(from memory) MT with insulating jacket - possible future rims setup to maintain water jacket temp. Bit of overkill but a nice mini project one day. 4" outlet on base to assist with grain removal. Various sparge arms yet to be designed. Has BSM fitting for not to connect on to.
60L Kettle with cooling water jacket and tangental inlet. Gas burner to provide heating. I prefer electric but want an empty vessel so I can whirlpool and chill at the same time with no element interference. I did look at having an over the top immersion made to suit however what I wanted was quite expensive. May do this one day to get rid of the burner. Kettle cooling jacket plumbed up to main water line for easy use with a diverge path to insert an ice bath or similar in line one day. I really dont like cleaning my plate chiller so Im hoping to get enough cooling through the jacket to bring temps down to 30 odd degrees recircing water only.
RIMS with 2200W element on PID has served me well in the past. Future upgrade to HERMS for indirect heating of the wort. Another mini project one day.
Brew frame designed to be universal with process lines hard piped yet able to accommodate larger tanks in future. Flow plate for sending wort to various places as I haded using flexi hose with my BIAB setup. May design flowplate swing bends so that no change over of pipes is required in future.
All conduits and water line built into the frame for neatness.
MECHANICAL
Currently about 80% mechanically complete. Based on a skid/brew frame with fixed process pipework and ports in the top surface to form an almost sealed top and allow the flexibility of upgrading to larger vessels in the future.
Separate conduits for power and control which will make life easier if I upgrade to a PLC in future.
Process is almost complete just need to order another pump and complete some conduits and nice to have items.
ELECTRICAL
I am currently up to electrical design. Using "The electric brewery" as my design base I have started producing a set of electrical drawings modified to suit my setup. I will then have the drawings reviewed by an electrical engineer from work prior to starting the build. I have a reasonable sized cabinet installed so I should have a bit of flexibility as to what I install.
Will be running PID controllers for kettle and RIMS with a display only for MT and kettle.
Have learned a fair bit about electrical stuff during my research so I have quite enjoyed this stage.
PROCESS
Basic operation:
Fill HLT via water line to pre set temp
Transfer to MT via dedicated HLT pump
Recirc through MT via RIMS for set time
Transfer to Kettle to start boil
Not decided on fly sparge or batch sparge as yet
Boil in kettle while intermittent recirc to sterilise lines.
Finish boil turn on cooling jacket and recirc via tangental inlet to drop out hot break and separate hops etc.
Transfer to fermenter - Not sure how I will do this yet. Hopefully gravity but can pump if need be.
Photo overload coming up. Overall pretty happy with how close the final product is compared to original design years ago. Its just a very slow and expensive process. More updates as I work through electrical works.
If anyone has some suggestions on how it could be improved from a process point of view please feel free to have some input. Failing that I think once I start brewing I will discover the various changes that will make brew day easier.
My main future additions will be a bigger process pump to allow enough pressure to CIP the MT and kettle via sprayball. As well as any other changes that will make cleaning easier.
ENGINEERING
Using AUTOCAD I designed every detail of what my brewery would be(well most of it). I drafted a P&ID then modeled the arrangement in 3D and then produced a full set of drawings to be sure the end product reflected what I had imagined. There are still items that I left out as I want to see how it operates in reality before making some final process decisions.
The design:
70LHLT with 4400W electric heating on PID
80L(from memory) MT with insulating jacket - possible future rims setup to maintain water jacket temp. Bit of overkill but a nice mini project one day. 4" outlet on base to assist with grain removal. Various sparge arms yet to be designed. Has BSM fitting for not to connect on to.
60L Kettle with cooling water jacket and tangental inlet. Gas burner to provide heating. I prefer electric but want an empty vessel so I can whirlpool and chill at the same time with no element interference. I did look at having an over the top immersion made to suit however what I wanted was quite expensive. May do this one day to get rid of the burner. Kettle cooling jacket plumbed up to main water line for easy use with a diverge path to insert an ice bath or similar in line one day. I really dont like cleaning my plate chiller so Im hoping to get enough cooling through the jacket to bring temps down to 30 odd degrees recircing water only.
RIMS with 2200W element on PID has served me well in the past. Future upgrade to HERMS for indirect heating of the wort. Another mini project one day.
Brew frame designed to be universal with process lines hard piped yet able to accommodate larger tanks in future. Flow plate for sending wort to various places as I haded using flexi hose with my BIAB setup. May design flowplate swing bends so that no change over of pipes is required in future.
All conduits and water line built into the frame for neatness.
MECHANICAL
Currently about 80% mechanically complete. Based on a skid/brew frame with fixed process pipework and ports in the top surface to form an almost sealed top and allow the flexibility of upgrading to larger vessels in the future.
Separate conduits for power and control which will make life easier if I upgrade to a PLC in future.
Process is almost complete just need to order another pump and complete some conduits and nice to have items.
ELECTRICAL
I am currently up to electrical design. Using "The electric brewery" as my design base I have started producing a set of electrical drawings modified to suit my setup. I will then have the drawings reviewed by an electrical engineer from work prior to starting the build. I have a reasonable sized cabinet installed so I should have a bit of flexibility as to what I install.
Will be running PID controllers for kettle and RIMS with a display only for MT and kettle.
Have learned a fair bit about electrical stuff during my research so I have quite enjoyed this stage.
PROCESS
Basic operation:
Fill HLT via water line to pre set temp
Transfer to MT via dedicated HLT pump
Recirc through MT via RIMS for set time
Transfer to Kettle to start boil
Not decided on fly sparge or batch sparge as yet
Boil in kettle while intermittent recirc to sterilise lines.
Finish boil turn on cooling jacket and recirc via tangental inlet to drop out hot break and separate hops etc.
Transfer to fermenter - Not sure how I will do this yet. Hopefully gravity but can pump if need be.
Photo overload coming up. Overall pretty happy with how close the final product is compared to original design years ago. Its just a very slow and expensive process. More updates as I work through electrical works.
If anyone has some suggestions on how it could be improved from a process point of view please feel free to have some input. Failing that I think once I start brewing I will discover the various changes that will make brew day easier.
My main future additions will be a bigger process pump to allow enough pressure to CIP the MT and kettle via sprayball. As well as any other changes that will make cleaning easier.
