Fat Bastard
Brew Cvlt Doom
- Joined
- 11/8/11
- Messages
- 914
- Reaction score
- 226
G'day.
Due to unforseen circumstances, I'm unable to brew for a few months. Every cloud having a silver lining (or so it goes) at the end of this period, I will have the space to build and operate a proper 3v rig, as I will not be living in a damn flat.
I'm looking at punching out 40-60 litre batches on a semi-automated electric HERMS or RIMS arrangement.
I potentially have access to some food grade stainless steel 44 gallon drums, fitted with a keg type base and a spigot to take a 1 1/2" triclover fitting. They have lids too. If I can get my grubby fingers on a few of these, I intend to cut them down to approximately 100 litres capacity and refit a bead around the top to make them neat and so the lid fits properly, and fit spigots in the bottom of the HLT and MLT to allow draining from the centre.
The HLT and Kettle will be fitted with electric elements of some sort to provide heat and I'll run the MLT through a heat exchanger or RIMS tube. I'm leaning towards HERMS at this stage as I have a 20l 2400w urn and a 8.8 litre 2000w urn that may fit the bill. Gas firing is out of the question as my intended brew space is in an enclosed area, although this may change.
I'll have plenty of questions regarding this, and I'll use this thread as some sort of blog as the build progresses, but for now, can anyone see any potential problems with using the 44's? Interestingly, some of them appear to be fitted with what looks like a non perforated false bottom, presumably put in place to minimise losses from a side draining through the spigot.
Your thoughts would be appreciated
Cheers,
FB
Due to unforseen circumstances, I'm unable to brew for a few months. Every cloud having a silver lining (or so it goes) at the end of this period, I will have the space to build and operate a proper 3v rig, as I will not be living in a damn flat.
I'm looking at punching out 40-60 litre batches on a semi-automated electric HERMS or RIMS arrangement.
I potentially have access to some food grade stainless steel 44 gallon drums, fitted with a keg type base and a spigot to take a 1 1/2" triclover fitting. They have lids too. If I can get my grubby fingers on a few of these, I intend to cut them down to approximately 100 litres capacity and refit a bead around the top to make them neat and so the lid fits properly, and fit spigots in the bottom of the HLT and MLT to allow draining from the centre.
The HLT and Kettle will be fitted with electric elements of some sort to provide heat and I'll run the MLT through a heat exchanger or RIMS tube. I'm leaning towards HERMS at this stage as I have a 20l 2400w urn and a 8.8 litre 2000w urn that may fit the bill. Gas firing is out of the question as my intended brew space is in an enclosed area, although this may change.
I'll have plenty of questions regarding this, and I'll use this thread as some sort of blog as the build progresses, but for now, can anyone see any potential problems with using the 44's? Interestingly, some of them appear to be fitted with what looks like a non perforated false bottom, presumably put in place to minimise losses from a side draining through the spigot.
Your thoughts would be appreciated
Cheers,
FB