Anyone up to review my brewery design ?

[DEMPSEY]

HLT

[DEMPSEY]

First pump showing the 2 inlets connections,one from the HLT and the other from the Mash Tun

[DEMPSEY]

Inside the Mash Tun showing the temp probe and the copper drainage pipework and the inlet with a silicone tube to bring the liquid in to the  Mash Tun

[DEMPSEY]

Mashing. I use a second temp probe mainly because I have one but the steel temp probe has the returning wort hitting it and the reading is on my control panel.

[DEMPSEY]

Sparging ring fitted

[DEMPSEY]

Second pump showing the Mash Tun connected to the inlet and the outlet connected to the counterflow chiller which then flows into the boil Kettle

[DEMPSEY]

The reason for the T branch off is when my cooling of the wort via whirlpooling is complete I switch the valve to allow me to transfer to the fermenter

[Shanna]

Hi there,

Apologies for my earlier posts, did not mean to hijack your thread. Having looked at your proposed design that I think that your HLT power source is underpowered. A 50 litre container won't heat fast enough with one 2.8KW or 3KW heating element. I would suggest that you either get something like a 5.5KW low density heating element or else double up on the smaller heating elements. I would go with 2 * 2.75 KW heating elements for the simple reason that they should be comfortably below the 13 amp limit of most domestic plugs. Running a 3KW on 13amp socket is going to leave you open to potential problems with overload/overheating, I should say that I am not an electrician so you may not want to take what I say as gospel and consult an electrician for verification of your particular requirements.

Regular supply according to ESB website https://www.esb.ie/esbnetworks/en/about-us/faqs.jsp

"For electricity supplied at Low Voltage by ESB Networks, the nominal standard is 230/400 Volts, 50Hz.. ESB Networks undertakes to deliver single phase electricity within a voltage range of 207 Volts to 253 Volts. This is in accordance with European Standard EN50160."


(kw * 1000) / volts = amps
3kw * 1000) / 230 = 13.043478261 amps.

Given you will be running these elements for prolonged periods personally I would favour the lower powered element to give you a margin for error.

One other thing to consider also is where your going to locate your brewery and whether or not the power supply in the area will be able to handle the power load that you will be putting on it. If your in a domestic setting you want to consider other appliances your going to be competing with dishwasher etc so that you can run your brewery without having to worry about tripping out the power supply when somebody switches on one of the other appliances.

You have a reference also to a herms in your design but you don't have anything in that would describe how it works or is controlled. A certain CH put together the following thread describing how to wire up PID for use in a herms. See http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.ie/forum/index.php/topic,9845.msg121647.html#msg121647. It might give you some ideas for a potential solution. Others are using ardbir - see http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.ie/forum/index.php/topic,15387.0.html for details.

Shanna

[DEMPSEY]

My HLT has a 3Kw element and as you can see is well insulated. Insulation is a big help

[Shanna]

My HLT has a 3Kw element and as you can see is well insulated. Insulation is a big help

Wood is a good insulator and I would agree that it helps minimise heat loss to the environment with good insulation. Personally I have to heat a minimum of 30 litres due to the position of the heating element in my HLT. I would be curious to know what is the time taken for you to heat your strike water with your HLT?

Shanna

[DEMPSEY]

Mine is even more than wood ,I made the timber barrel with a 30mm gap and filled that with insulation foam

[molc]

I use both the BK and HLT to heat water on the brewery, each using a 2.8kw element. 20L in the BK and say 15L in the HLT. It takes about 40 minutes, which is just enough time to measure out grains and do all my prep.
The split means the BK can come up to mash in temp while the HLT comes to the extent needed for the herms.

[bigvalen]

Some good ideas there.

• I'd left out any discussion of HERMs control, but after looking at a few, I think I'll end up going with the BCS-460. It seems a little more professional than the Ardbir
• The 70l pots I'm going to use are insulated, but I might end up doing some more insulation myself. I really liked the wood covering, very ... cool.
  
• I'm lucky in that I do have a 50A circuit delivered by an electrician, to a cool commando socket (https://goo.gl/photos/Fvyv9R71TJbCizeM6). Might go for beefier elements in the HLT.

.

I assume if the boiler is insulated, I'll only need a single 3kw element to keep it hot, right ?

If I'm going to use a chiller plate...is there a way to get the brew controller to control the temperature of the wort ? As in, control the flow of beer into the chiller, so that it always leaves at 30C or something ? Is that overkill, and something people control manually themselves ? If there is an automatic way of doing it...I wonder how I can get a thermometer into that outbound pipe, instead of using a thrumometer, and doing it by eye.

Dempsey, you have a 'sparging ring' - looks like a circular pipe with holes in it. This is to get the water evenly over the grainbed, right ? I've seem more convoluted, expensive setups. I like your one

Why do you go through the counterflow chiller, from Mash Tun to Boil Kettle ?

Do you take the hot wort from the kettle, into the chiller, and back into the kettle, for whirlpooling ? It's not cooled on the way to the fermenter ? Suddenly things seem simpler!

[bigvalen]

Actually, hold on. If you took water out of the boiler, through the counterflow, back into the boiler...it'd take ages for it to cool, as the thermal gradient would drop really quickly. It'd be far quicker to cool on the way from the boiler to the fermenter, right ?

[DEMPSEY]

I assume if the boiler is insulated, I'll only need a single 3kw element to keep it hot, right ?

Yes

Dempsey, you have a 'sparging ring' - looks like a circular pipe with holes in it. This is to get the water evenly over the grainbed, right ? I've seem more convoluted, expensive setups. I like your one

Why do you go through the counterflow chiller, from Mash Tun to Boil Kettle ?

Do you take the hot wort from the kettle, into the chiller, and back into the kettle, for whirlpooling ? It's not cooled on the way to the fermenter ? Suddenly things seem simpler!

The sparge ring is just qualpex pipe that is easy to bend by hand and fitted into a brass T piece and drilled with 2mm holes.Yes I take the wort from the Kettle and into the chiller and cool it and at the same time whirlpool it in the boil kettle. When it is down around 20 C I then transfer to the fermenter.