Single Vessel Brewery

[Byran]

Forget that you have seen it, he will never finish building it.

Oh is it one of those "planned" to do projects is it?
Ive got a few like that too.
"Sigh"

 

[Jono_w]

Oh is it one of those "planned" to do projects is it?
Ive got a few like that too.
"Sigh"

One of many..

 

[joshuahardie]

Beautiful.

Any pics of the inside?
I am curious to see the maltpipe

 

[dmac80]

Impressive build Johnathon, it all looks top notch!

 

[Jono_w]

More pics soon guys, cheers..

Here's a question.
Has anyone had any drama cooling all of the wort in the kettle before transferring to the fermenter as opposed to cooling on the way to the fermenter?
Pro's
Con's?

I may have asked this before ? Too many pages in the other thread. And I don't know how to search.. :lol:

 

[MastersBrewery]

More pics soon guys, cheers..

Here's a question.
Has anyone had any drama cooling all of the wort in the kettle before transferring to the fermenter as opposed to cooling on the way to the fermenter?
Pro's
Con's?

I may have asked this before ? Too many pages in the other thread. And I don't know how to search.. :lol:

From what I've read (and there has been several threads on this) returning wort to the kettle from the chiller is slower at cooling the wort, though if returning via whirlpool, may acheive a clearer wort to the fermenter overall.

 

[Malted]

J-Boy,
I have tried both cooling methods.

Cooling and recirculating back into the kettle means that you are also cooling the thermal mass of the kettle itself; whereas cooling the wort on the way to the fermenter does not.
Pre chilled cooling water to the plate chiller is much better than tap water. I have started putting a couple of jerry cans into my brewfridge a day or two before I am going to be brewing.
When chilling straight to the fermenter you can use a hopback quite effectively, if chilling back to the kettle, potentially some of the goodness might be driven off by being returned back to the hot wort in the kettle.
Recirculting cooled wort into the kettle with a tangential outlet into the kettle lets you whirlpool the wort mechanically and reduce potential oxidisation you might get by whirlpooling with a spoon.
I like the idea of recirculating back into the kettle to knock the temp of the whole wort down quickly to stop isomerisation and lock in hop goodness. You can let it sit for an hour or more after it is chilled so that you can then rack off bright wort into the fermenter.
A bit of break material in the fermenter doesn't seem to be a problem with a highly flocculent yeast and crash chilling before kegging/bottling.
Cold break might not settle in the whirlpool on some occasions.
With either way, you will need a good hop blocker or screen so as to not clog up the plate chiller.

I'd say it is not a matter of which is best but that it comes down to what sort of beer you're making but more importantly what you expect from it and what suits you at the time.

 

[Cocko]

More pics soon guys, cheers..

Here's a question.
Has anyone had any drama cooling all of the wort in the kettle before transferring to the fermenter as opposed to cooling on the way to the fermenter?
Pro's
Con's?

I may have asked this before ? Too many pages in the other thread. And I don't know how to search.. :lol:

You mean an immersion chiller? Pretty common practice mate.

Search it

 

[Malted]

You mean an immersion chiller? Pretty common practice mate.

Search it

He has a plate chiller fixed underneath the unit.

 

[Cocko]

He has a plate chiller fixed underneath the unit.

Oh, I'll just go over there now....

 

[Malted]

I should add that my experience that I discussed relates to a plate chiller and a single vessel brewery.

 

[woodwormm]

getting a bit OT here... oops again.

Does anyone have a good ghetto hopscreen/filter? for pellet hops i might add so needs to be pretty fine

I'm thinking a brass Y strainer like used on rainwater tanks - but I'm not sure if the mesh will be fine enough?

this is going on a single vessel and then through a flat plate exchanger... I really don't want to block my exchanger as it was the highest dollar item in my build, the rest is as ghetto as I can go..

any suggestions? pictures?

 

[nathan_madness]

I use a 30 plate chiller and I make 3 10L ice blocks and have a old fish tank pomp in a bucket that holds the ice and just enough water for the pump to work (which increases as the ice melts). I can get my 25L of wort down to 12 deg in a single pass.

 

[seamad]

I run through a plate chiller direct to fermenter. I always run wort through a hop rocket first when doing this, no blockages so far. Temp of wort is @2-3+ water temp. For beers not requiring that late hop kick i no chill.
After washing the chiller i put alfoil over the wort connections and stick it in the oven to be cooked next time the oven is used, no infectios so far.

I noticed your chiller attached under the brew stand and plumbed with ss pipe, looks fantastic but maybe harder to remove toclean and sanitise ? Probably not a real concern but ive read that plate chillers are the major source of infections in brewing, so im a little paranoid.
cheers,sean.

 

[Malted]

I noticed your chiller attached under the brew stand and plumbed with ss pipe, looks fantastic but maybe harder to remove toclean and sanitise ?

Good point, that U bend from the plate chiller would hold liquid in it.
J-Boy, maybe move the plate chiller lower down the frame so that you don't have pooling in the plumbing below the chiller? I.e make it so the plumbing is higher than the chiller?

(********) artists rendition below:

 

[Jono_w]

Awesome ,
Some top tips there guys.
The plumbing could be refined for sure, I just have to keep it all high enough to gravity run into 60L fermenters.
I'm not sold on the plate exchanger as far as cleaning goes. Before a brew I heat up 10L of water and recirculate sodium percarbonate through all of the plumbing for a while . The whole idea of this system is to simplify and was thinking i might use either a jacket around the bottom 3rd of the vessel or a tube and shell style exchanger for easy of cleaning.

 

[MastersBrewery]

you could just use quick disconects for easy removal of the chiller, then as stated earlier, cook it!

 

[nathan_madness]

Awesome ,
Some top tips there guys.
The plumbing could be refined for sure, I just have to keep it all high enough to gravity run into 60L fermenters.
I'm not sold on the plate exchanger as far as cleaning goes. Before a brew I heat up 10L of water and recirculate sodium percarbonate through all of the plumbing for a while . The whole idea of this system is to simplify and was thinking i might use either a jacket around the bottom 3rd of the vessel or a tube and shell style exchanger for easy of cleaning.

I found the easiest way to clean them is as soon as your are finished chilling leave the last bit of wort in the chiller so there is no chance it will dry out. Use some garden hose and connect it to the overflow of your hot water system and blast mains pressure hot water through the wort out, do this for 10 seconds or so. Then I connect it to my standard garden hose and use it like a nozzle to spray and clean out my pot. After that fill the wort side with boiling hot PBW and then let it cool for 30 min or so and pour it back in to a jug using a green scourer as a kind of filter to catch any bits. If you get no bits after 2 times of flushing it with PBW flush it again with water to make sure that there is no PBW stuck anywhere inside. Next time you use it fill it with Starsan as soon as your start to brew and then drain and use.

The hard and fast rule with plate chillers is use a Hop Sock or Hop Blocker.

I loaned my chiller to a couple of mates that did not use a sock or blocker and it took me about 3 hours of flushing to get all the crap out.

 

[Malted]

If you want to recirculate the cooled wort back into the brewing vessel you will need to pump it. IMO chilling into a 2nd vessel and tipping back into the brew vessel could oxidise the hot wort.

Clean thoroughly after brewing and it should be right to go next time; you should not need to do much cleaning prior to mashing in. A pump to recirculate through the plate chiller would make cleaning easier. There IMO is no need to remove the plate chiller or bake it in the oven. Thoroughly hose it all out, half fill with water (from the hot water service to speed it up) & PBW and bring it up to 80oC and reicrculate with the pump through the brewery and plate chiller. If the plate chiller is at the lowest point of the plumbing you could fill it with Starsan to leave until you brew again. A T piece with valve on the outlet of the chiller would let you drain the PBW/Starsan out of the plate chiller (if the outlet is on the lowest part of the chiller).

 

[nathan_madness]

If you want to recirculate the cooled wort back into the brewing vessel you will need to pump it. IMO chilling into a 2nd vessel and tipping back into the brew vessel could oxidise the hot wort.

Clean thoroughly after brewing and it should be right to go next time; you should not need to do much cleaning prior to mashing in. A pump to recirculate through the plate chiller would make cleaning easier. There IMO is no need to remove the plate chiller or bake it in the oven. Thoroughly hose it all out, half fill with water (from the hot water service to speed it up) & PBW and bring it up to 80oC and reicrculate with the pump through the brewery and plate chiller. If the plate chiller is at the lowest point of the plumbing you could fill it with Starsan to leave until you brew again. A T piece with valve on the outlet of the chiller would let you drain the PBW/Starsan out of the plate chiller (if the outlet is on the lowest part of the chiller).

You can't leave Starsan in contact with Stainless for any long periods of time it will cause pitting. Always flush with fresh water then fill it with Starsan at the start of brewing or worst case the night before brewing.