NHC Challenge: Build a 400 litre brewhouse

[Will_D]

Fingers crossed for you.

If all Ok you know where I live

[Will_D]

This guy specializes in brewery builds with re purposed equipment, http://www.beerbooks.com/cgi/ps4.cgi?action=enter&thispage=2126&order_id=!ORDERID!

Linky No Worky!

[Will_D]

Shane:

When you say 400 L that is the amount of liquid going into the fermenter/storage tanks?

If so then the vessels need to be about 450 L

Or if they are 400 L vessels then 350 L or so of beer goes in?

[Will_D]

I love it when the customer knows exactly what he wants!

As to the mash tun:

Double wall, insulated, Nice false bottom, what about emptying out the grain? What about cooling?

The HLT and the Copper would be basic cyclindrical vessels well insulated.
Electric heating? 3 Phase available?

The Fermenter and the BB Tanks would be connical in shape

[gazahayes]

I think this is one case when our "more country cousins" can source s/h dairy ss equipment better than us city slickers.

There ain't much s/h dairy ss stuff in Malahide!

Recall that the scrap value for stainless is about €1 per kilo!

You won't find much around that size unless it's a mobile one.
450 gallon is the next size up after that.

[DEMPSEY]

You could look for these sizes of tanks to do the job. 100 gallons/450 litres.
http://www.donedeal.ie/otherfarming-for-sale/milk-tank-for-sale/5636678

[DEMPSEY]

Toss in a few like this 1000 Litre type with a cooling system.
http://www.donedeal.ie/otherfarming-for-sale/1000-lt-stainless-steel-milk-tank/5104711

[johnrm]

Best of luck with it Shane!

[Ciderhead]

+1

[HomeBrewWest]

+1
Shane, why not set up a separate thread for those thinking about setting up a microbrewery? We have had so much interest in recent weeks, that I know its on lots of peoples minds.

Not just equipment, but also all the other issues. Its relatively easy to do it if you already have a pub/restaurant. But most of us don't, so any info on the following issues would be invaluable:
- duties, taxes, bonding controls and logistics,
- how to get beers into pubs, restaurants,
- how much will supermarkets / off licences pay, who to approach (e.g. the smaller indepenents),
- sharing resources (e.g bottling, keg fillers/cleaners, steam cleaning equipment etc)
- etc.

I've just put up a solution for a small scale micro on the for sale section, and will follow with larger solutions as we deploy them. Any comments would be really appreciated.

[Dara]

Some shiny porn for all those so inclined and Something off the wall but if I were setting up a micro I'd consider a speculative bid. Located in cork. Not sure of the practical use in a micro. Most of these vessels are more suited as fermenters. High end pharma stuff but at the end of the day mostly big vessels. 200l -600l range. Some may go for scrapage if the interests is not there. Most have jackets suitable for steam/glycol. Generally hold pressure up to 6 bar. Also a cip system up for grabs - not sure what it's sized for but reckon 600l vessel range. Nice instrumentation levels on these.

http://www.equipnet.com/auctions/Merck-Surplus-to-Current-Operations-of-a-QA-Bio-Pharma-Facility-/550/

Dara

[lordstilton]

Need anyone to supply smoked pork to the hungry customers?

[biertourist]

Given your budget, I'd highly recommend looking into plastic cylndroconical primary fermenters.
http://www.plastic-mart.com/product/5816/110-gallon-cone-inductor-tank-fully-draining-infd110-30

You're probably going to want to buy the stand for it, too and you'll need to make some extra modifications, ideally including an attemperation coil and glycol chiller for temp control and a clean-in-place ball and appropriate pressure pump. (You'll want to use an alkaline cleaner with the CIP ball; you can go crazy dangerous and use actual caustic or you can make your own PBW via internet recipes.)

This site has a step-by-step guide for building the fermenter including a glycol system that can be used with coils for multiple fermenters simultaneously.  You'll need to supersize most of the build; if you go with a single fermenter a glycol chiller and a simple STC 1000 controlling the pump would be much more simple.  If you go with multiple fermenters and actually use the BCS for control you'll want a UPC with a proper backup battery or it'll lose your temp settings during a power outage and you might lose a batch of beer. (His design that constantly recirculates glycol and then opens and closes ball valves that allow chilled glycol to enter the fermenter attemperation coil is a great way to go if you have multiple fermenters that need different temps otherwise its a bit overly complex.)

Using stainless hydrolic connectors for the glycol line is really smart as you don't lose any glycol when you disconnect the quick disconnects for lid removal.

http://plasticconical.com/

Go with an insulated HLT and whirlpool through it with a pump while heating to get to temp faster and to get an accurate temp reading.

If you plan on keeping the system for a while price out getting a 3 piece wedgewire false bottom made for the MLT (there's a couple of places in the UK that will build them).  Also price out having a stainless installer install a manway so cleaning out the grain is much easier --probably not worth it for a 400 liter system, though.


Hop filtration in the kettle is a good thing to plan for, too; if you can find a dish-bottomed boil kettle, you can have a stainless welder weld in a tangentel inlet and whirlpool in the kettle (Going rate is $60 - $100 USD per weld for a skilled and experienced sanitary stainless welder here); hop pellets are your friend then and you can probably use a stainless screen designed for a keggle to filter out hops in the boil if you install a bottom drain.


SOOO wish I still lived in Ireland and could help out with this one.  After designing and building my own 15 gallon brewery from scratch I've been wanting to do a dairy conversion about this size, myself.

There's a number of small breweries in the US who have recently launched with plastic cylndroconicals; you just need a 60 degree cone angle, a heavy duty stand, and the ability to clean in place with water only (no brushes or other abrasive cleaning). -You'll still want / need stainless brite or serving tanks, though but they're way cheaper than conicals.

On the mashtun side the false bottom material is of paramount concern; how to get the grain out is just a labor / will-to-live concern.
In the kettle you REALLY need to think about hop separation and trub removal first and foremost (whirlpool for sure; it's a no-brainer) then either a hopback (which can also aid trub removal) or a hop screen and a hopback.  -Your stainless welder can take an off-the-shelf stainless kettle or keg and turn it into a hopback easy peasy with 2 weld including another tangental weld (yes, they're a pain in the ass but that's what you pay them for).



Adam

[biertourist]

This will eat about 1,250 of your budget, without shipping (which won't be cheap), BUT here's a REALLY nice option for a 100 gallon boil kettle:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-Gallon-Stainless-Brew-Tank-with-Dish-bottom-/380765252304?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58a760aad0

Buy it now price of $1,650 USD but if make a sob story about having to ship it to Ireland and contact him directly you should be able to bid him down.
It's dish bottomed and has a 2" bottom drain; you could easily just set a home made false bottom on the bottom which would act as a hop filter and this thing has all Tri clamp sanitary valves so you could whirlpool in it too.; although you'd need a fine mesh to filter out pellet hops so leaf or a 50/50 blend of pellet and leaf might work better with this.

If you could find out what type of tank they converted to make this thing you might find an even better deal but a stainless tank this size with legs and tri clamps is probably going to cost you this much either way.


Adam