The Ultimate Brewing Rig

[NickB]

Umm, my kettle's on the right, but I have my mash tun on the left, HLT in the middle....WTF DOES THAT MAKE ME (apart from very strange....!)



h34r:

 

[chappo1970]

SNIP....WTF DOES THAT MAKE ME (apart from very strange....!)



h34r:

Your just a weirdo Nick :lol:

 

[schooey]

hey wait a minute... do you stand on the left side of your braumeister when your boiling?

Heh... I chalk up a successful brew day if I get to stay on the outside of the Braumeister...

 

[goomboogo]

Nuthin' wrong with Lefties

Research released this week claims people who are left handed, on average are less intelligent than right handed people. I don't know who conducted the research, maybe the Ponds Institute or The American Guild of Right Handedness.

 

[Bandito]

I am curious as to what you think would be the ultimate brewery?

The ultimate brewery would have to be easy to clean, so some sort of rotating MLT, either as others have on hinges, or pivoted about the axis like Jonathons or rotated sideways like in this pic. Perhaps for the kettle too.

Prototype vid: It may not play, as I just moved it to a different folder, but should after a few hours. It shows the pivoted false bottom at the bottom of the MLT that swings open as it rotates for easy cleaning.

To also aid cleaning, all the vessels would be inside a big *** sink type thing - walls going down to a drain. It wouldnt have to be stainless, galvanised steel sheet would be fine. So the whole setup can be hosed down after use and all the spills and boilover residue just goes down to a hose which can be led to the garden. Bit hard to explain, but basically putting walls and graded floor on the side of a normal rig going to a drain.

And definetely a few 'Tours 50' rotating head tank washers (sprayballs) like these from tecpro.com.au to clean the vessels

 

[schooey]

The ultimate brewery would have to be easy to clean, so some sort of rotating MLT, either as others have on hinges, or pivoted about the axis like Jonathons or rotated sideways like in this pic. Perhaps for the kettle too.

BIACB?

Brew In a Compost Bin

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

$50 at the giant hammer hardware shop

 

[Bandito]

BIACB?

Brew In a Compost Bin

Well, Brew in a Stainless Compost Bin so BIASCB

Not tested, not proven, but I think would work and mabee have some space savings.

 

[Deebo]

Too late

 

[chappo1970]

Bandito I like the concept care to discuss how is works and what the benefits would be?

Chap Chap

 

[MHB]

Sadly one of the really basic bits of mash tun design is to get even sparging, nearly imposable across a circular tun I would think (well most of them are circular but the other way). I suppose it might work if you were batch sparging, but who wants to design in an inherent inefficiency that you would never be able to work around.
MHB

 

[yardy]

The ultimate brewery would have to be easy to clean

To also aid cleaning, all the vessels would be inside a big *** sink type thing - walls going down to a drain. It wouldnt have to be stainless, galvanised steel sheet would be fine. So the whole setup can be hosed down after use and all the spills and boilover residue just goes down to a hose which can be led to the garden. Bit hard to explain, but basically putting walls and graded floor on the side of a normal rig going to a drain.

imo you don't need the rotating MLT, too much **** to maintain/break etc, KISS, a dump valve seen here post #144 http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...ardy&st=140 is all you need, i have the MLT emptied and a hot water rinse running through the pump and MLT before the Kettle comes to boil.

On another note, I would be a bit concerned for all the electrics in the Brewery when hosing the lot down after brewing wouldn't you ?

cheers

 

[Bandito]

Its just about making it easy to get the spent grist out without having to lift anything. Same thing as the other MLT's that have hinges welded to them so they can rotate to empty the grist - same here but sideways. A full length slot would provide easy removal of the spent grist. No advantage of this over the upright version, and as MHB says, the false bottom wouldnt be full width (unless the false was curved itsself), so that may be a disadvantage but at HB scale may not matter enough to worry about it. At first I thought the sides would be sparged less, but now I think of it if they get the same amount of sparge water as the middle, as would be the case if there was a layer of sparge water on top as is the norm, it may actually turn out to be perfect.
It could have bearings fixed to the center of the sides mounted inside short pieces of steel pipe like in the sketch above, or mounted on rollers at the bottom to allow it to turn or both.


Anyway, lets not turn this into which method, I just suggested another way. I'm sure we all agree that being able to rotate the mash tun so the bulk of the spent grist can be dumped into a wheelbarrow so we dont have to lift 20+Kg of spent grist may be the most important aspect of the ultimate brewery. :icon_cheers:


In terms of having the whole thing encased in walls leading to a drain so it can be hosed down - yes the electrics are the tricky part, an element with sealed wires would be a must, and yes it would be hard to seal every other electrical thing so they are waterproof, but that would be the 'Ultimate' and that is the topic Encasing everything would also keep the heat in but not the reason for doing so - more to avoid having to build a graded floor with a drain into the brewery shed.

Do you flush all 4 to 10Kg of your grist down that valve yardy? Always wondered but never seen a definitive answer.

 

[goomboogo]

Bandito, check out post #168 in Yardy's link. He says that he scoops out the grain and just flushes out the dregs through the dump valve.

 

[Bizier]

I am looking at employing a tip method for my MLT. If I can get it to rotate over 90 and have the opening at bucket height for collection, I will be happy. My problem is that I wanted to stack my HLT over my MLT for a smaller footprint, and this design adds significantly to the height - meaning I might have an unwieldy tower.

 

[Bandito]

Thanks goomboogo, I guess yardy is fit enough to reach in and scoop out 100 ladels of spent grist. We are all getting older though. And as we get older reaching down into a MLT gets harder and harder. So I propose the ultimate brewery would be usable when we are 80+ years old - and thats the point I am making in regards to the rotating MLT - thats all.
I suppose its a limitation of hard plumbing that silicon could resolve - so flexible plumbing would also be part on an ultimate brewery.

Thats interesting Bizer, do you think the above sideways rotating MLT would relieve the height issue? Just asking.

 

[Bizier]

I think that it is not as resolved as could be and I already have a mlt open at the wrong end for that. A rectangular rotating tank of similar dimensions would allow for moer even wort flow, like a rotating ss esky.

 

[Bandito]

Yea, true. You could always put blocks of concrete at the bottom of your stand to reduce the center of gravity?

Which raises the whole castor thing - would the ultimate brewery have castors, inflatable wheelbarrow tires, trailer tires or be on a tandem trailer or standard trailer for mobility? I think on a tandem trailer IMO.Could put walls on it to achieve my hose down requirement.

11. Anti boil over device ( :lol: that would be the most over used part of the rig)

What would this consist of? I have a theory that high air flow over the boiling wort surface could prevent boilover, but thats just from ovservation of foam buildup and seeing the reaction when air is blown over it - never actually had a boilover so far. I've seen vids on youtube showing brewers spraying water onto the foam when it nears boilover. I think having a fan directed at the wort surface would work but wont comment as to how that would be implemented more actively.

 

[yardy]

Thanks goomboogo, I guess yardy is fit enough to reach in and scoop out 100 ladels of spent grist.

100 ladels is not really a big ask, i recall when my bestest ever ladel was decommissioned due to fatigued welds and i had to make do with a table spoon, what a day that was.. sheesh....


i remember thinking that a rotating tun with silicon hosing on concrete blocks in the back of a tandem trailer encased in galvanised iron would've been just the shot :icon_cheers:

 

[goomboogo]

100 ladels is not really a big ask, i recall when my bestest ever ladel was decommissioned due to fatigued welds and i had to make do with a table spoon, what a day that was.. sheesh....


i remember thinking that a rotating tun with silicon hosing on concrete blocks in the back of a tandem trailer encased in galvanised iron would've been just the shot :icon_cheers:

It's lucky you had a tablespoon on hand. Imagine the day you would have had if you only had a teaspoon.