Upscaling the equipment.

[Kyle_T]

Hello one and all,

A friend and I have been toying with the idea of making our equipment a joint adventure and a permanent fixture is his garage (owing to an electric supply and water supply). We are planning to run a system that will allow us to brew 46L brew length on the theory of mash twice, boil once.

However there are a couple of things I seek advice on, we are trying to do this on a small a budget as possible and as nice as it would be to run a full HERMS system, It's just too expensive taking into account fixtures and fittings we already need to buy.

The set up will be something like:

50L HLT + STC1000 Control Unit & 1 x 2.3Kw Element.
38.5L Thermopot Mash Tun + Rotating Sparge Arm.
70L Boiler + 2 x 2.3Kw Elements.
2 x 25L Fermenting Buckets.

A couple of the things I would like advice on is the efficiency of a Thermopot over a converted 55L Coolbox Mash Tun, the best place to source a couple of low amp wort transfer pumps and is a heat exchanger more efficient than a wort coil cooler at 70L...Technically between 50 - 55L boil lengths. and worth the extra cost.

Any help with this will be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Kyle.

 

[Fil]

Hi,

for your budget 50l hlt check out x-mango barrels on ebay for a fiver

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251451271554?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

thermopots are +1 A rated for heat retention afaik, i have a big 80l job and that holds temp during a 90min mash. afaik no one has complained of temp loss in a thremopot, BUT they do take a bit more than an off the boil kettle to preheat.. so if temp maintenance was the reasoning behind the desire for herms, forget it u wont need it

the lil brown or solar pumps 12v <2a are cheap n popular, get 2 as they are prone to stopping needing a head pull and an impeller nudge to get going - very frustrating on a brewday, but a backup makes it a minor inconvenience and at about a tenner via ebay china or £20 via the uk supplier solar projects
to power i use a tattoo psu from ebay again about a tenner..

for chilling im a fan of straight pipe cfc devices easy to clean and inspect, and no standing n stirring the hot beer over an IC for ages either.

 

[Kyle_T]

Thanks for the information, I've heard someone say before about using a tattoo psu for these pumps but my knowledge on them is very limited, can you point me in the right direction, don't want to be wasting money.