New 'Commercial' 200l brewery

[chris2012]

Yeah I agree entirely dloper, I can't see any benefit with the Braumeister, it won't produce better beer, for that extra money.

[IPA]

Yeah I agree entirely dloper, I can't see any benefit with the Braumeister, it won't produce better beer, for that extra money.

It might not produce better beer but thats a matter for debate. What it will do however is make beer that is identical batch after batch and with an efficiency of around 90% it will produce it more cheaply.

[chris2012]

If people have got the money, I can't see any problems with them wanting to buy the braumeister.

It's just that I really don't think you'd get any better efficiency or results, than a RIMS/HERMs setup.

Also afaik, the braumeister, doesn't provide a temp. regulated fermenter, which would massively effect the repeatability of results.

[IPA]

If people have got the money, I can't see any problems with them wanting to buy the braumeister.

It's just that I really don't think you'd get any better efficiency or results, than a RIMS/HERMs setup.

Also afaik, the braumeister, doesn't provide a temp. regulated fermenter, which would massively effect the repeatability of results.

It doesn't grind the malt or automatically add the hops either but neither does a RIMS/HERMS setup but it takes up considerably less floorspace and it took me absolutely no time to build

[floydmeddler]

Lots of luck with this! Considering something similar myself.

[dloper]

No matter which way you look at it, a 200 litre set up like that is still £8000 out of my price range and anyway, I find the idea of producing beer through ingenuity and invention driven by necessity more appealing.

[boingy]

Braumeisters are fine but they don't fit the budget or the brewlength in this particular case.

Best of luck dloper. I reckon as the "new guy" it will be easy to sell a few bottles but getting the sustained sales might be more of a challenge.

One thing you have not mentioned (unless I missed it) is temperature control of fermentation. That's key if you want consistent beer.

[jock128]

No matter which way you look at it, a 200 litre set up like that is still £8000 out of my price range and anyway, I find the idea of producing beer through ingenuity and invention driven by necessity more appealing.

Couldn't agree more, I think the idea of saving space is great, but I love trying to find a way to do something that means I have to adapt, create and update my set-up. I'm currently looking to make my own hop back at the moment, should be fun.

Plus the price is just too much for me, although I do think others have a point, if you have that much money, go for it!

[Aaron]

I'm planning on doing something similar to this, on a slim budget too. A couple of people have mentioned temp controlled fermentation as being key to consistency. I'd be very interested to hear how this is achieved. Would a sealed off, insulated area at the back of the brewery, with a heating/cooling aircon unit suffice?

[dloper]

I'm planning on doing something similar to this, on a slim budget too. A couple of people have mentioned temp controlled fermentation as being key to consistency. I'd be very interested to hear how this is achieved. Would a sealed off, insulated area at the back of the brewery, with a heating/cooling aircon unit suffice?

I was considering 3 insulated cupboards, using upright freezers with the doors off to form one end in each, and using greenhouse heaters. I'd want one each for fermentation, bottle conditioning and bright tank/ bottle chilling. Each area would be controlled by STC-1000 controllers. My garage is already insulated and even in the height of summer doesn't get above the mid twenties, so I'm hoping that freezers wouldn't be working too hard to keep the bright tank/bottle chilling cupboard down to 4 or 5 degrees. The bottle conditioning cupboard would need to be big enough to accomodate 3200 bottles kept at 20 degrees and the bottle chilling cupboard big enough for 1600 bottles and 2 x 210 litre bright tanks at 4 or 5 degrees. A thermostatically controlled extractor fan would hopefully remove the heat in the garage generated by the freezers.

If anyone has any comments/suggestions I'd be pleased to hear them.

[boingy]

Air con a room/cabinet or add water-cooled jackets to each FV and bear in mind that fermentation produces extra heat.

[Cazamodo]

In your ferm tanks I wouldnt worry too much about heating them.

I have jacketed conicals, usually with 350L in at a time. I ferment at 18*C and have never had to heat them, as they generate enough heat themselves. Being in an insulated cupboard will also help, but you would have to figure out if there's any overshoot with the freezer control.

[dloper]

In your ferm tanks I wouldnt worry too much about heating them.

I have jacketed conicals, usually with 350L in at a time. I ferment at 18*C and have never had to heat them, as they generate enough heat themselves. Being in an insulated cupboard will also help, but you would have to figure out if there's any overshoot with the freezer control.

In Rothes, N.E. Scotland, in the summer we get temperatures up to 25C, in winter, we can get -15C. Any time of the year we can get fairly dramatic temperature changes overnight. Jacket cooling would be awkward to set up on 210 litre blue barrels, which is why I'm considering freezer/greeenhouse heaters in a 'cupboard'.

[Cazamodo]

Ahh that is fairly cold!!

You woul want to try and make the cupboard space as small as possible to fit I would imagine. I've never experimented but I would assume the less 'air space' as such in there the quicker it will react to heating/cooling when it kicks in.

[dloper]

Ahh that is fairly cold!!

You woul want to try and make the cupboard space as small as possible to fit I would imagine. I've never experimented but I would assume the less 'air space' as such in there the quicker it will react to heating/cooling when it kicks in.

Well, aside from the airspace, I was hoping that once I've got a large volume of liquid to a particular temperature (apart from the heat generated by fermentation) that it would act like a very heavy weight under a certain amount of friction - difficult to move from where it is, and a minimal amount of energy to keep it static.

Time will tell!