Anyone use a 3 tier gravity fed system?

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mrboxpiff
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Anyone use a 3 tier gravity fed system?

Post by mrboxpiff » Sat Nov 25, 2017 9:26 am

Been brewing 25 litre batches for some time now but in the process of upgrading equipment to 70 litre vessel's. I'm leaning towards building a 3 tier gravity system using gas burners to heat.
I'd be grateful if people could share pictures of their set up along with their experiences along with any advice, tips, recommendations and pitfalls. OR, should I go for a pump based system?
Many thanks in advance

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orlando
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Re: Anyone use a 3 tier gravity fed system?

Post by orlando » Sat Nov 25, 2017 9:54 am

Pump based is way more flexible and I would go for electric heating all day long.
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Secla
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Re: Anyone use a 3 tier gravity fed system?

Post by Secla » Sat Nov 25, 2017 11:20 am

I'd try to avoid 70l of hot water and a gas burner at head height personally. People do it but it's not something I'd be comfortable with

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Re: Anyone use a 3 tier gravity fed system?

Post by Heron1952 » Sat Nov 25, 2017 3:49 pm

Just taken my 3 tier down and bought a pump. I was tired of climbing up a step ladder, and of having 80l of HLT water above me. Much neater and safer.
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Kev888
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Re: Anyone use a 3 tier gravity fed system?

Post by Kev888 » Sun Nov 26, 2017 1:00 pm

Gravity fed is elegantly simple - no pumps to clean, control or go wrong. But it is also limiting in terms of positioning things at convenient heights, and of course won't power recirculation where that is desirable. In some ways my last 100L system was at its best and most pleasing to use in 3-tier/gravity mode, in principle it may be my all time favourite setup... But in my case (and many other people's) practicalities meant compromises, which robbed it of much benefit.

3-tiers meant the kettle being too low for emptying to the FV by gravity, and I would have needed a higher ceiling and working platforms for comfortable access to the MT and HLT to make it truly nice. So under these circumstances, things became much more flexible and probably more practical when pumps were introduced.

Priorities for pumps are a bit conflicted (e.g. should you want to go with only partial gravity). FWIW here are some of my thoughts on them:
  • Pumping out the kettle may be a requirement due to FV height, especially if the FV is too big to lift, and a pump will enable better throughput of things like CFCs too. But this is the most sensitive location for cleaning and disinfecting, so it helps to have a pump which is of hygienic design, whose pump-head can be disassembled fully and easily for cleaning, and that can take boiling wort to ensure it is disinfected.
  • The MT is not so sensitive and doesn't need such high temperatures, and a pump additionally allows recirculation to clear the wort before run-off (or even to heat the wort in RIMs/HERMS). But control of flow rate is quite important (or use of an auto-underback) and the pump may need to cope with grain particles which some of the smaller cheaper pumps struggle with.
  • The HLT is pretty easy by comparison - clean liquor and modest temperatures make (e.g.) a cheap little brow pump very viable. If you wanted to fly sparge particularly slowly, it may be hard to simply throttle some pumps sufficiently, though there are ways around this - such as by-pass loops or intermittent release of sparge liquor.
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Re: Anyone use a 3 tier gravity fed system?

Post by Fil » Sun Nov 26, 2017 6:20 pm

for a full gravity system you may need the capacity for 4 tiers, after all draining into the FV is part of the procedure ;)

I was a gravity brewer with my 25l brewery too its a managable volume to lump from floor to waist level letting you brew with a single tier drop ;)

with ambitions for more beer i upgraded to 100/80/100 and did a few gravity fed brews with crates as adjustable height platforms..

Image

but i still needed to pump up from the kettle to the FV.. in the end after experimenting with a couple of hlt table top platforms all of which inspired FEAR of collapse even after they took 15st of me jumping up n down on em.. I ended up with hlt and tun side by side draining into a kettle a foot or so off the ground and finally pumping into the fv via a cfc..
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mrboxpiff
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Re: Anyone use a 3 tier gravity fed system?

Post by mrboxpiff » Sun Nov 26, 2017 11:52 pm

Thank you all for your input. You have given me much to think about and i now feel that a re think is needed with at least one pump being used in the set up.

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