Pimping my brew vessel

[Muzduk]

Well here we go. I'm throwing this open to the brewmunity to see what i can do here. Inherited from my father in law who did some work on it but never used.

170 litre capacity approx
Water jacket with inlet and outlet
Agitator and motor, stainless shaft. full top lid
Extra opening at top approx 1 1/2" and same outlet with concave bottom.
4 legs, easy to attach castors.

Ok, chop it, attach bling, or scrap it, what would you do to make it a highly versatile vessel for a brew room using different methods

I'm pretty much a Noob but would like to explore a lot of brewing intricacies in the future

 

[djar007]

Wow. That looks cool. What does the agitator hook up to? 15 amp plug or three phase?

 

[woodwormm]

i guess it's either a fermenter utilising the jacket to pump temp controlled water through..

or a kettle. maybe the jacket becomes a stage 1 chiller, pump chilled water through it to knock a heap of temp out of the kettle before the wort leaves into a FPHE for final chilling?

either way I have no idea what the agi will be used for.

 

[Mardoo]

That water jacket gives it some sweet potential as a mash tun if it has or you can add a way to pull off the wort when finished. I too am a bit stumped by the agitator. Maybe agitate something else with it.

 

[Muzduk]

Wow. That looks cool. What does the agitator hook up to? 15 amp plug or three phase?

Single phase 240v. Was supposed to be a pasteuriser. Cant see it prob but the whole gear box and motor is only clamped on too, so i think that is a bonus

 

[Muzduk]

i guess it's either a fermenter utilising the jacket to pump temp controlled water through..

or a kettle. maybe the jacket becomes a stage 1 chiller, pump chilled water through it to knock a heap of temp out of the kettle before the wort leaves into a FPHE for final chilling?

either way I have no idea what the agi will be used for.

That water jacket gives it some sweet potential as a mash tun if it has or you can add a way to pull off the wort when finished. I too am a bit stumped by the agitator. Maybe agitate something else with it.

Yeah sounds good so far boys and as i posted since the agitator is detachable so we can do away with it, just thought it may help with a chill down, but prob a drop in would be more effective.

 

[MastersBrewery]

I recon being jaketed it might be great for a mash tun, use a rims or herms coil in circuit.... I think the hermit would work great.
The agitator would be useful in the mash as long as it was low rpm

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Mega mashtun...agitator would be helpfull in stiring the mash and increasing eff

 

[squirt in the turns]

I recon being jaketed it might be great for a mash tun, use a rims or herms coil in circuit.... I think the hermit would work great.
The agitator would be useful in the mash as long as it was low rpm

Or could the jacket simply be part of a separate hot water circuit, and be used to maintain mash temperature or do step mashes? The agitator would hopefully keep the mash moving against the walls of the vessel and ensure an even temperature. Although, the heat source for the water circuit would probably have to be pretty badass to raise the temp of a mash that size in a timely fashion.

 

[Feldon]

Nice.

As others have said, the water jacket is a key feature that not many other homebrewers have. So putting it to use to maintain/ramp mash temps sounds like the go.

But why not also explore its use as a fermentor as well, but instead of increasing the temp, run cold water through the jacket to control fermentation temp.

So I see see it as a dual purpose single vessel solution for mashing and fermenting - you remove the agitator and clean and sanitise the vessel after mashing and while your wort is on the boil, then pump the boiled wort back in there again. Run cold water through the jacket to bring it down to ferm temp and to further control temp during fermentation.

 

[Muzduk]

Nice.

As others have said, the water jacket is a key feature that not many other homebrewers have. So putting it to use to maintain/ramp mash temps sounds like the go.

But why not also explore its use as a fermentor as well, but instead of increasing the temp, run cold water through the jacket to control fermentation temp.

So I see see it as a dual purpose single vessel solution for mashing and fermenting - you remove the agitator and clean and sanitise the vessel after mashing and while your wort is on the boil, then pump the boiled wort back in there again. Run cold water through the jacket to bring it down to ferm temp and to further control temp during fermentation.

Love your thinking here even with my limited practical experience. Thanks for all replies. Def one to update at another point

 

[Bugglz]

At 170 lts how quickly would you be able to heat the mash with heated water via the jacked? Would take a while i think. Would be great for holding temperature, but not so sure about raising it, unless you hooked it up to a boiler and ran steam through it?

 

[Muzduk]

170 would be near spilling over and i dont see myself doing above say half that at this stage. With the concave bottom is there a possibility to put an element down there that could have a sort of quick hitch collar that could also be removed and capped off.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

No need to remove the agitator if using as a ferm. It wont have any effect on fermentation but could be used to rouse a slow/stuck ferment

 

[Muzduk]

So i've got to thinking that maybe a 1v build is possible here. The plan would be to install a bendable element near the base fashioned around the internal circumference. The unit drains to the centre so would place pump at bottom then return back through base ( off centre) with either a butterfly or threaded maltpipe (No, not a real malt pipe, a piece of pipe, say inch and a half or two) different height pipes for different volume brews. Obviously a controller for mash temps then as mash out happening, drop a tray, round shelf,raised false bottom , whatever you want to call it that has an off centre piece relief for the pipe and brackets to hold it in place over the lip. Let boiled wort sit in bottom and sparge the grain at top all the while recirculating

Tell him he's dreamin or not?

 

[MastersBrewery]

only problem being with say a preboil volume of say 120l I believe you would require more than 6 or 7000w of heating to bring it to the boil, thats a stab in the dark and on the conservative side

 

[Muzduk]

Great point masters, i was only gunning for 4800 kw . Maybe the jacket could deliver x degrees more and maybe an over the side element of high end might get us there unless that is already pissing about too much or can get a kick arse element/ hard wired in. have 15a in shed, not sure if that helps

 

[MastersBrewery]

15 amps will get you 3600watts, in that situation I would be thinking you would require at least that for the jacket to maintain mash temp. double that for the boil. So you would at minimum require a second circuit equal to or preferably better than what you have at the shed currently.

 

[Muzduk]

15 amps will get you 3600watts, in that situation I would be thinking you would require at least that for the jacket to maintain mash temp. double that for the boil. So you would at minimum require a second circuit equal to or preferably better than what you have at the shed currently.

Can do.. prob other things that will smack me in the face and cost me but oh well here goes

 

[mash head]

The 200lt braumiester is electric (I think) so your ideas sound alright. I would look into that unit for ideas re heating elements. Ive recently gone through the same questions (in my head) re a 400lt pot. I found that electricity was not an option for heating/boiling. Ive had thoughts though that mashing really only requires stable temps so a rims system might still be useful to maintain mash temps or slight ramps for step mashing. My hws delivers water at protein rest temps already.
I am looking at gas for boiling and maybe its the way you should be looking too.
The water jacket while useful on one hand presents problems on the other eg making it hard to just jam a burner under it and boil. You could fill the jacket with fluid and seal but this presents dangers also.