National Homebrew Club Ireland

Brewing Discussions => Equipment & Chemicals => Topic started by: molc on October 20, 2015, 09:01:22 AM

Title: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: molc on October 20, 2015, 09:01:22 AM
Spent the night washing the walls in my brew room, so need a better ventilation solution. Thinking of building a cone out of the insulation I used for the keggles and connecting that to some ducting to run out the window.

The cone will be bigger than the hole in the keg, so condensation and dms should run along the lip and out the drain holes in the side, which I can plumb and feed to a draining bucket.

Anyone done this before or have any bright ideas?
Title: Re: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: Leann ull on October 20, 2015, 09:05:50 AM
No possibility to brew outside on a mobile rig?
I think you need a fan :(
Title: Re: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: molc on October 20, 2015, 09:21:25 AM
There's no covered area outside the house, so if it's raining while I'm brewing, there's going to be sparks. I tried to negotiate to get the sunroom (your typical useless glass room in Ireland), but was veto'd for being too ugly :P

Maybe if I can get a nice drape to go over everything when it's not in use, I can move back downstairs :)
Title: Re: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: neoanto on October 20, 2015, 11:50:04 AM
I brew in a shed and leave the door cracked maybe half a foot open.
I then suspend a big desk fan, maybe 16" in diameter, from the celing (you could use a stand) and it blows all the steam out the door.
Title: Re: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: molc on October 20, 2015, 12:44:07 PM
I cracked and ordered an inline fan plus ducting:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/RAM-150-Power-Mixed-Flow-Inline/dp/B00S8624AM/ref=pd_sim_sbs_86_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=1PN0D301A3PT139WX37K

That, with a mixing bowl as the hood and a short length of venting should sort it right out. Check out this thread for an example:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=418665

Thinking I'll sit the bowl on top of the hop spider, so it will be maybe 10cm above the top, leaving plenty of room for makeup air to get in.

Funnily, all you get is hydroponic grow shops when you search for this stuff. The I'm expecting a visit from the PoPo, as my last order was for a jewelers scale with .01g increments :D

p.s. - Now I'm REALLY finished getting kit for the brewery!
Title: Re: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: DEMPSEY on October 20, 2015, 12:59:44 PM
Heard that before ;)
Title: Re: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: Leann ull on October 20, 2015, 01:07:13 PM
Yeah yeah, two words, digital refractometer ;)
Title: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: Leann ull on October 20, 2015, 01:11:25 PM
Quote from: molc on October 20, 2015, 12:44:07 PM
http://www.amazon.co.uk/RAM-150-Power-Mixed-Flow-Inline/dp/B00S8624AM/ref=pd_sim_sbs_86_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=1PN0D301A3PT139WX37K



Where do the wings bolt on?
What's that? Sorry I can't hear you shout louder.
Last time I saw something like that Airbus were throwing frozen Turkeys through it!

I think I have extract envy.
Title: Re: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: neoanto on October 20, 2015, 02:11:26 PM
That looks pretty cool.
I'm jealous!
Title: Re: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: molc on October 20, 2015, 02:17:53 PM
Quote from: CH on October 20, 2015, 01:07:13 PM
Yeah yeah, two words, digital refractometer ;)

Don't start! My PH pen broke during the week and I'm trying to resist looking online for a new one.

Sure we'll see how this thing works out. It's quite a big unit, simply as I wanted one to cover upto 5.5kW in case I upgrade in the future. That would need 5500/17.6=312CFM.  This pulls about ~304 CFM. I'm assuming it won't be running at peak performance due to the length of the run, but even at 50%, it's at the required level for a rolling boil.


If it's decent, I'll put an in and out vent in the room and mount it, along with a telescopic arm to place the vent.
For now, it's going to sit on the brew table and have ducting out the window :P
Title: Re: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: Will_D on October 20, 2015, 10:37:01 PM
Colm, As they say "no shippy paddy land" is this a parcel motel gig?
Title: Re: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: molc on October 21, 2015, 08:36:12 AM
Na I got it from one of the hydroponics stores in Dublin for €122 in the end. Thought it best not to link places selling grow houses on the forums. :)
Title: Re: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: DEMPSEY on October 24, 2015, 10:45:29 AM
A handy tip I recall from an brewery equipment maker to a request for to stop smells from wort boiling,
Put a 90 degree bend on the lid of your boil kettle and then fit a T piece on to this with the T on its side,then connect a pipe to the T part pointing down and feed it into a drain,on the T part pointing up fit an atomiser jet to spray cool water onto the steam to allow it to drain. No smells of brewing and all steam vented :)
Title: Re: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: molc on October 24, 2015, 11:58:53 AM
Yeah I saw that as well with people cooling the steam. I didn't fancy having to slop out a fermenter every 10 minutes as I don't have a drain to use, but it's a fu my idea.

The fan is bought now and need to get a mixing bowl in Ikea for the cowl. When it's built, I'll post pics.
Title: Re: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: molc on October 25, 2015, 04:44:21 PM
So got every thing setup today and just doing a boil test. Fan seems to work a treat so far. Will pop up a video once I get the boil to 30 mins so it's a fair test.

Got a mixing bowl in woodies for less than €5 and cut a hole out with the angle grinder. Some holes drilled and cable ties later, a cowl is born.

Also made a wee hop slider that it sits on top of on the boil kettle.

(http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/25/4240cb5d9eda4d063280b9b06d489630.jpg)(http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/25/0666e0488afe7468e67b338cb7bd2da6.jpg)(http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/25/daa72d1493844ed37e4cea0b6c34f6c4.jpg)(http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/25/503e4872a0bf153d6ae848ab3d23fc05.jpg)
Title: Re: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: johnrm on October 25, 2015, 05:03:06 PM
Have a look here...
https://forum.braumeisters.net/viewtopic.php?p=13978#p13978
Title: Re: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: Leann ull on October 25, 2015, 05:19:53 PM
So some kind of a condensation trap then?
Title: Re: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: molc on October 25, 2015, 05:22:58 PM
Yeah, put a T after the turn at the top, with a drain on the bottom connection to take the condensate. Mk2 :) this is working so far at least, though keeping an eye on moisture. Such a pleasure not to be walking around in a cloud of steam.
Title: Re: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: Leann ull on October 25, 2015, 05:32:43 PM
Are the lights in the street flickering?
Title: Re: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: molc on October 25, 2015, 06:08:47 PM
It's actually really quiet. It's more you here air moving than anything.
Took it all apart after the test boil and the tubing had a lot of water in it, but it's easy to break down and empty. Sitting inverted in the sink now drip drying.
Really happy with it - going to make brew day a real pleasure.
Title: Re: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: Damo on October 25, 2015, 06:29:13 PM
Hey molc

That's looking really good.
You do realise it's going to mess your liquid volumes! In other words it's going to suck the bejasus out of the pot.

For your first brew do a simple recipe an take notes on volumes in and out.

Do you have a power regulator on the fan? I usually set mine to half, the difference between 5 and 6 can equate to 1L into fermenter.

Keep us posted😀
Title: Re: Anyone built a fanless steam hood before?
Post by: molc on October 25, 2015, 08:52:05 PM
Yeah I expect the boil off rate to go way up - it sucks so much out of the pot. Guessing it might effect the rolling boil as well, since the temperature will go down since there's less steam in the pot.

I have a 50% and 100% speed setting - was using 50% and it was working fine.

When I do a batch, I'll update how it went and what invariably went wrong :D

Edit: Here's the vid, showing it running at 50% and venting all steam:D

https://youtu.be/mEWYriJru7Q