Who would be interested in...

[calumscott]

...some very clever insulation for your shiny pots?

Still daydreaming about the brewery I can't build yet and, off the back of conversations with Rob @ TMM (as I was lusting after his shiny pots) I realised that some additional insulation products for brewery shiny makes sense.

Where it all comes together is that my brother is an insulation boffin working for one of the UK's leading commercial insulation firms - he's their guy who takes the raw materials and works out how they are best applied in the field.

So I started from the position of "if I buy a 50l pot to act as both HLT and boiler and a 36l thermopot as my mashtun what would I want to do to make it as thermally efficient as I can?". Reasons being for the HTL/Boiler saves gas and gets you to strike temp/boil quicker and for mashtun gives as near to perfectly steady mash temp as possible. I also believe in aesthetics of stuff too, I know I could make just as good beer with plastic buckets and kettle elements but it "feels" better when your gear is "proper", I see some of you guys' breweries and think "Wow, that would make me brew lots..."

So there are a couple of requirements as I see it based on the kit that I'll probably buy:

General: Insulation should be clean (so not shed any dusts or fibres). Insulation should be aesthetically pleasing. Insulation should allow the lids to be removed while the rest of the insulation stays in place - for boiling and sparging.

HLT/Boiler: Insulation has to be quite thin so it doesn't impede sight glasses etc. Insulation has to be efficient at high temperatures (70 degrees C and up), Insulation has to be flameproof if I'm going to whack an 8 kW propane burner under the pot!

Mashtun: Insulation has to be super-efficient at mash temperatures. Must hold mash temp minus less than 0.5 degrees for 90 mins based on approx 15l water + 5.5kg grain.

Basically he has come up with an idea which involves their flagship material (they use it in outer space type applications, well, he doesn't but NASA do...), custom moulded to fit our shiny pots, encased in a stainless steel skin.

Now, he'll knock me up the prototype once I sell the house, buy another one and set up my brewery which is great. But, before we get there I have questions aplenty for you guys:

1. Ignoring what it might cost for now, would you be interested in shiny insulation for your shiny stuff (or "is this worthwhile")?
2. Even if you aren't - what pots have you got (so we can get an idea of the range of shapes and sizes)?
3. Anything I've missed from the requirements?
4. Any other gear that is important to insulate that I won't be using to start with? e.g HERMS etc?
5. Anything else I should consider?

Cheers

C

 

[prolix]

Great idea Callum, though I believe price will be the factor in the end.

My brewery is thermopot, but I do have to use cut sections of carry mat for the fermenter, a 14.5 Blichmann wrapped in blue carry mat tied down with duck tap and bungees.

 

[calumscott]

You're right of course, finding a price point that will work could well be the biggest issue, but until we have an idea of what the product set would actually be and build my prototypes we don't have a clue what that would be. The materials aren't as cheap as carrymats of course but they're not deadly as far as I can make out.

What sizes are your pots prolix?

 

[bryan_r]

This is certainly something I'd be interested in (of course, price depending!).

My boiler is one of Rob's 70litre pots, so that's 45cm diameter, 45cm height.

 

[graysalchemy]

Sorry to put the spanner in the works but why not just buy shiny thermo's abd convert as per Alemans how to? The only problem I can see is if you want a pot bigger than 80L.

I am going for 100l HLT and copper and a 70L Thermo for the mash but plan on cladding my shiny in armaflex insulation.

 

[calumscott]

I was working on the principle that a 36l or 50l thermopot wouldn't, without additional insulation, hold mash temperature. Also the fact that if I'm going to build a shniy brewery it's got to look right and work right, I don't mind building the kit in the first place but I want kit that sits there and works and doesn't need tinkering. So if I have a mash tun, I want to fill it, dough in, whack the lid on and leave it. I don't want to have to then start wrapping the thing up in blankets and whatnot.

If I were going down the route of doing it on the proper cheap and was going to resort to sleeping bags, tank jackets or whatever, then plastic would be better than stainless - plastic boiler with kettle elements, coolbox mashtun etc etc - cheaper and easier to build.

If I'm putting the effort and investment into stainless pots, then I think its worth going to the same lengths for insulation and everything else.

Knowing that I can have it built is the massive advantage I have (even though I'll have to ship pots and finished prototypes on an 800 mile round trip!). I really just wondered if it was the sort of thing that others as vain as me would be interested in, after all its the sort of thing that if he makes them once it gets cheaper to make them further times...

...that and this stuff has a u-value of 0.014 compared to armaflex's 0.038... :thumb:

 

[calumscott]

Oh, cracking how to on the thermo's BTW!!! I think I'll need to look into some stainless cutting equipment and just buy the bits and put the shiny together myself.