Vic Case Swap Equipment....ongoing..

[malt junkie]

WOW!!!!

Love the Grant idea. How about a small supplementary gas burner under it for quicker ramping (electronic control of the elements for ramping & rest maintenance).

To prevent overflow & the need for constant monitoring, how about a float-switch that automatically turns-on a pump for excess return to the MT's?

yeah this works, I think our biggest issue was ability to ramp with the little herms units. Considering the state most of us are in halfway through brew day at a swap, a fail-safe for any recirc system would be wise. Definitely agree with a gas booster or direct fired with solenoid control. Hot surface ignitor, rather than pilot light, using a honeywell or equivalent valve and your as safe as your home HWS.

One request! Can we have pezio's for the BFK? you guys freak me out when yer lighting those bloody big burners.

 

[MartinOC]

A few singed arm hairs is a rite of passage for any case swap... :unsure:

 

[technobabble66]

Fan ******* tastic husky!
Truly impressive.

Who's Grant and what's he doing in the mash? [emoji185]
(I assume a grant is just a big heat exchanger/boiler type thingy).

Any reason to do RIMS and not HERMS? I don't do either, but I thought the HERMS is roughly the same but with zero chance of scorching. My only concern is Mr Cockup enjoys frequently popping in during the brew day, so minimizing the risk of scorching might be worth dropping the HEX efficiency a tiny bit. But happy to be corrected here.

Yeah, the mash ramp was the only real issue we had. So it seemed like we needed to improve both the HEX units/capacity/power plus the flow throughput (so the pumps/pipes capacity).
It looks like you're covering both of those elements already in your comments.

Might be handy if we could rotate the outlet/pickup arm to a high and low position. Not necessary, but idzy's big kettle has the ability to have the pickup arm positioned several inches above the bottom, then rotate it down to the bottom for the last 20% of the wort. Helps prevent disturbing the whirlpool. As I said though, not necessary and I think we forgot to use it last time and it was all fine.

How are we going to move this thing??

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

Who's Grant and what's he doing in the mash? [emoji185]
(I assume a grant is just a big heat exchanger/boiler type thingy).

Any reason to do RIMS and not HERMS? I don't do either, but I thought the HERMS is roughly the same but with zero chance of scorching. My only concern is Mr Cockup enjoys frequently popping in during the brew day, so minimizing the risk of scorching might be worth dropping the HEX efficiency a tiny bit. But happy to be corrected here.

Yeah, the mash ramp was the only real issue we had. So it seemed like we needed to improve both the HEX units/capacity/power plus the flow throughput (so the pumps/pipes capacity).
It looks like you're covering both of those elements already in your comments.

Might be handy if we could rotate the outlet/pickup arm to a high and low position. Not necessary, but idzy's big kettle has the ability to have the pickup arm positioned several inches above the bottom, then rotate it down to the bottom for the last 20% of the wort. Helps prevent disturbing the whirlpool. As I said though, not necessary and I think we forgot to use it last time and it was all fine.

How are we going to move this thing??

Grant description - https://beerandbrewing.com/3-advantages-of-a-lauter-grant/

I'd think that the advantage of RIMS for such a large volume is that ramp times would be reduced (if designed right) and there is no risk of overshoot and the headaches with tuning/dialling in the system as once at the temp the element in contact with the wort would just switch off (rapidly carrying the residual heat in the element away where as a HERMS has a huge volume of heat capacity and you would need to stop the recirculation in order to stop ramping/overshoot. It also removes the need for a large vessel to store the hot water/HEX in.

As always, I could be totally wrong and happy to be corrected.

 

[malt junkie]

Fan ******* tastic husky!
Truly impressive.

Certainly is!

How are we going to move this thing??

You'd use a BFT to move a BFK!

 

[micbrew]

Oh lawdy lawdy

I have seen the light

Godam husky that is the SHIZ

 

[husky]

Can anyone tell me what burner was used for the xmas swap on Idzy's tank and what the boil off rate was? Trying to find a suitable burner for the 900L kettle, biggest I can find is a 320,000Btu from the states and suspect it will still be a bit small if doing a full volume(approx. 700L) boil. Anyone with experience in this area?

 

[GrumpyPaul]

Have you boys ever thought about picking up a trailer and mounting your big rig on it - would be perfect for moving around to swap meet locations.

 

[malt junkie]

Can anyone tell me what burner was used for the xmas swap on Idzy's tank and what the boil off rate was? Trying to find a suitable burner for the 900L kettle, biggest I can find is a 320,000Btu from the states and suspect it will still be a bit small if doing a full volume(approx. 700L) boil. Anyone with experience in this area?

Martin would be the bloke to ask, the burner we were using was the same as the KK bango with high pressure reg. The BFK may need 2 or 3 of these, should be enough room under there.

 

[malt junkie]

Have you boys ever thought about picking up a trailer and mounting your big rig on it - would be perfect for moving around to swap meet locations.

Yep designed in my head several times.... one power ball.

 

[husky]

Have you boys ever thought about picking up a trailer and mounting your big rig on it - would be perfect for moving around to swap meet locations.

The BFK will fit in the back of a dual cab ute easily, it's 980mm diameter from memory then a bit of room behind for the stand. Too hard to store a trailer for me and you would need more than one to fit the whole brewery anyway.
I rekon it's kind of cool that everyone bring a bit of kit that all gets assembled on the day into a working brewery somewhere random and then disassembled, adds to the appeal. A rolling brewery would be cheating.

 

[malt junkie]

Well, a car sized trailer might just fit the whole thing. Like I said thought about this abit. I agree it's half the fun pulling a brewery together from bits and pieces for the weekend. Last one was an absolute perler!

 

[Benn]

If it's burners you need, I've got a spiral burner with HP reg and gas bottles I'd be happy to lend for the cause.

 

[MartinOC]

Martin would be the bloke to ask, the burner we were using was the same as the KK bango with high pressure reg. The BFK may need 2 or 3 of these, should be enough room under there.

Yep, Idzy uses ONE of those on the 600L boiler & we still had to keep an eye on it for boil-overs. Get the heat on as soon as the bottom of the boiler gets wet during runoff & it's generally boiling by the time the runnings hit 1010 (or shortly thereafter).

 

[MartinOC]

If it's burners you need, I've got a spiral burner with HP reg and gas bottles I'd be happy to lend for the cause.

Yep, thanks. Bring the lot along (wherever it ends-up being!) & bring your party-hat & dancing-shoes. Everything/everyone is welcome & as MJ pointed-out, it's kinda fun to cobble-together a brewery out of nothing on the day.

 

[husky]

This is the one I'm looking at claimed 320,000BTU:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/111903985241?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The same looking one available at Auscrown but 1/3 the rating? 118Mj/hr = 113,000BTU/hr?
https://www.auscrown.com.au/products/product/32-jet-mongolian-burner-lp-gas

Anyone know anything about these? They look to be low pressure burners but claim a high output, was thinking I need a med or high pressure burner but cant find anything around the same claimed 320,000BTU.

 

[TheWiggman]

You're out of control husky. **** man, check yourself. Compliments out of the way, if I may...
I've never heard of a grant up until now but I get the system proposed. Personally I would make it fully enclosed with a 50mm boss on the top for cleaning/access, or alternatively a fully sealed hinged or screwed lid. Commence flow, fill the grant completely and bleed from the top. Seal. Then run the pump and boom - zero risk of overflow, flow in = flow out. Some consideration would need to be put into the inlet and outlet locations of course to ensure no dead zones. "but wiggaz way if it boils yfi lolol!!1!" I hear you say. No drama, it will boil through the suction or inlet so it won't explode. That won't happen with a working sensor though.
Agree about pump, needs to be 3 x the power of a Chugger in my opinion.

 

[malt junkie]

Have you boys ever thought about picking up a trailer and mounting your big rig on it - would be perfect for moving around to swap meet locations.

I drew (by hand, I don't get that cad thing) up a 3v home system that, on swap day could support (herms, sparge and tippy dump for the mash) a techni ice mash tun up to 300l, gas fired, using less than 3amps for pumps and control. Foot print came to 1.3m x 1.4m (perfect for a 7x4 trailer) using 24m odd of 50mm SHS, So 3 of these and the BFK would fit on a car trailer, however brewing while mounted on a trailer would be near impossible.

Each system alone would have a brew length of(dependent on chosen vessel sizes) between 80-180L as a home system. System comprising 2 kettles, BK 170-225L(used as sparge/strike at swaps), HLT 100- 170L ( HX supply), two counter flow chillers (run in parallel for herms), two Banjo burners,1x Honeywell gas controller, 3x KK 65w pumps, BrewmaniacEx controller (these are cheap I'm building them) and 2 x fans to turbo charge the burners, then a techni ice Tun of between 100-200L. Ideally as we've noted from past experience vessel outlets/inlets and hoses would all need to be bigger that 1/2 inch and at best go with 1.5" TC.

Looking over that list it ain't cheap, however if there were a few guys looking at upgrading to a larger/collab brew setups, then the buying power of 2 or 3 sets of these items would help somewhat.

food for thought

 

[TheWiggman]

Any update on this? Brew day is creeping up.
For what it's worth my new controller is fancy AF and can control 2 x 15A mash vessels (or mash + HLT) from a single 15A power point. It only runs one at a time and will switch between them, preferencing the mash tun. Can also program 4 mash steps. I say this because we had trips galore on the Christmas swap but this will 100% have things under control overnight.

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

Nice, the electric Brewery panel clone?