Upgrading my Brewery

I've been trying to hunt down a new brewery. I want to go up to 50L and all shiny.
My list of what i wanted from the brewery:
Capacity to comfortably brew a 50L batch up to 1080.
Powered by gas
Within my budget
I toyed with the idea of a rims system from Aus. But decided against it. I then tried to find someone in NZ who could build me what i wanted. I hunted about with no luck for a month or so. Then i got an email from a chap who said he could build what i wanted. A few emails back and forth and we settled on this

"Hot Liquor Tun/Kettle
What i have done is planed it so the HLT and Kettle are based on the same design with only slight differences on each,

Kettle has total vol of 70 litres with a slightly domed base to allow for manual stiring to give a whirlpool effect . There is an outlet in the cylinder just above the weld seam for the domed base to allow trub free runnings and a perferated screen to catch the hops. The lid will have a hole 100mm diameter with a sliding cover for hop additions and to allow steam out. There will be no bottom outlet fitted reducing the chances of getting burnt flavours in your beer which is highly likely with a outlet running from the bottom.

HLT is pretty much the same but has a bottom outlet (none in the side) and has a sightglass to monitor vol remaining and no prevision for hopstraining or hop additions.

Mash tun has total vol of 46.5 litres but the lid and mashplate reduce it by 3.5 litres and the under plate vol is 1.2 litres. It will have 20mm of foam insulation for the MT and 40mm for the lid. The sparge will be a coil of copper tube fitted to the underside of the lid with the inlet coming through the lid. The mashtun will come with a valentine arm as requested and is inculded in th price

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All the vessels have legs and the HLT will have temp guage too.

Whaddya think?

I Would be jealous of that...
As its 50L would you be pumping wort and Liqour around to save your back?

Sounds great

How much grain will you be using for 50l of 1.080 wort? I'd check that and make sure the mash tun is big enough. I like to have a bit of headspace to allow for sparging.

My back of a fag packet calculations suggest that you'll need about 18kg of grain plus 40 litres of water to mash for 50l of 1.080. I think you'l need a bigger mash tun. :|

/Phil.

I manage 40L batches in my coolbox MT. Capacity 33L. I've estimated 16KG to be my biggest likely grain bill based on my current set up.
I've also done a 25L 1080 Durden Park IPA batch with no troubles. I had to add 7L boiling water to MT to get the mash out temp of 77C. It was very full.

I'm probably going to be aiming for 2 cornies worth per batch plus a few 'tester' bottles. This will be my aim anyway.

Frisp said:

I Would be jealous of that...
As its 50L would you be pumping wort and Liqour around to save your back?

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Nope. HLT will be up high, Mt underneath and kettle just below that. Just like my current set up.

MEB said:

I manage 40L batches in my coolbox MT. Capacity 33L. I've estimated 16KG to be my biggest likely grain bill based on my current set up.
I've also done a 25L 1080 Durden Park IPA batch with no troubles. I had to add 7L boiling water to MT to get the mash out temp of 77C. It was very full.
I'm probably going to be aiming for 2 cornies worth per batch plus a few 'tester' bottles. This will be my aim anyway.

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Yeah, 16kg-18 kg depending on efficiency is about right for 50 l of 1.080. If you're confident you can get all that in that mash tun with a reasonable amount of liquor then great but I'd have thought that if you had a full 33 l mash tun for a 25 litre brew length you're going to really struggle doing 50 litres with a 46.5 l mash tun.

Or am I missing something?

/Phil.

Great post MEB, looking forward to following this one

Got to agree with Phil on the mash tun front, especially with the fb taking the usable grain volume of the tun down to
43 ltrs, and that's full to the brim, that's only 10 ltrs bigger than your 33 ltr one but your doubling the brew length.

I did a 1070 beer using 15kg of grain in the 50 ltr mash tun and it was very, very full :shock: ...and that's a 50ltr pot.
My mash tub fb reduced the volume of the tun to 48ltrs.

FWIW my old set up had a 50 ltr mash tun and 70ltr copper. I aimed for 46ltr batches, 2 corny's plus a few taster bottles.
Pre boil volumes were around 58 ltrs but with 5mm = 1ltr on the copper, that's only 6cm of head space in a 70ltr pot.

EDIT, I've just checked on Beersmith and using 16kg of grain and liquor at a ratio of 2.5ltr/kg you will need a tun volume of at least 50.4ltrs.

Might be worth making it 70ltrs to give you space.

Good pointers there, am taking notes.

MEB out of interest, couldn't you make it cheaper yourself...or...is shipping that much to NZ...say from the U.K?

Shipping costs are horrendous. Even from Aus something similar would cost NZ$750 to Auckland. Then i'd have to pick it up in my Land Rover and that would take a day and NZ$180 fuel.

Once i have this, or a similar version, i will be in a position to evaluate it, use it, modify it etc. Once i've done that i'll build my own one. Currently i spend all my time modifying/upgrading/servicing my dive boat.

Also. In NZ you are allowed to serve alcohol for up to ten guests at your guest house without any legal or tax implications. You can serve beer and spirits you have brewed if they are brewed on the premises or nearby.

How cool is that? So we are going to offer the guests at the divestay(http://www.poorknightsdivestay.co.nz) the opportunity to buy Middle Earth Brewery Ales. We live just round the corner, so to speak. The yanks will love it-not neccesarily the beer but the chance to buy beer from 'The Middle Earth Brewery' in New Zealand. As will the Japs. Hopefully the Poms who come to stay-they probably rank around 40% of our guests will like the opportunity to have a good English Ale in NZ while they are on holiday. Cos the beer here is awfull. :lol:

So this 'purchase' is less GST(VAT) which is 20% here. And i can then run my entire grain bill and everything else through a company and claim my expenses/losses. So propane which i'll use for the two burners is the same as what i use for BBQ and hob in kitchen-no piped in gas here. Plus 'The Brewery' takes up a part of my workshop-which i can then claim for too. All completely above board and legitimately here in NZ.

When god made the world, he practised a bit-europe, america, asia. Then when he had got a bit better he made the rest. After he had his craft perfect, lastly he made New Zealand. :P
Might have to come back and edit that out one day :lol:

Those shipping costs are dreadful ..mind you, you are in the middle of nowhere

Might have to come back and edit that out one day

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Nah, you're probaby right :lol:

OK. Mt is now going to be 12L bigger than planned.

Cost more than the ten percent or so extra materials though.

But this should last me a lifetime. So it's a one off(ish) purchase. I tell SWMBO. :lol: