Braumeister 50L recirculated plate chiller

[BrewerBen]

I thought i would post some pic's of my planned BM mod. I wanted to use a plate chiller as i feel guilty about using so much water for cooling so hopefully the improved efficiency will reduce the amount of water wastage. I also found the old copper coil quote cumbersome and wanted to not have to tip the BM to get the last couple of liters of wort out. My previous attempt at a dip tube had failed miserably so i came up with the system pictured below. The plan is to recirculate the wort through the plate chiller and then use the same pipework as a siphon via a T-port valve. The pump would essentially prime the siphon so once down to temp i would open the valve to empty the BM onto the fermenter. Thats the plan and a simple water test seemed to work OK. Next is to re-circulate some hot PBW to make sure its all nice and clean and to connect the hosepipe to the plate chiller. Does the orientation of the plate chiller matter at all? I've got on on its end currently for convenience of pipework and to help with siphoning.

Heres a pic of the pump,valves,chiller and pipework:


A pic of the re-circ/siphon pipe:


Siphoning into a fermenter once it has been recirculated/primed by the pump:


Cant really see it but the water that is left is about level with raised fitting in the center of the BM. I measured the water that was left after siphoning and it was dead on 2L which isn't bad at all for this vessel.

[hambrook]

Ben - we're on a very similar learning curve; here is my evolving BM50 set up, with a similar looking chiller and solar pump behind the FV.

Some questions;
1)Is there a technical reason for the pump BEFORE the chiller? I've put it after but your set up makes priming the pump that bit easier!
2) I am having a mare with hops getting through the Spiedel hop filter and clogging up the Plate Chiller and Solar Pump. I won't use it again. Do you use muslin hop bags or have you splashed out for one of the Utah BioDiesel filters? On my BM20 I got the Utah filters; including shipping and customs tax; came in at £120 ish Ouch.
3) Onto this design, how big is your plate chiller? I got the 125w one from the malt miller and as able to chill from 90 to 20 without record. Admittedly it uses lots of water but then I then fill up 3 FVs with this and use to wash brewing equipment, even wash the car! I had though about using an FV full of ice water and put the Spiedel immersion chiller on it then circulate the water through that to chill it down.
4) With the T piece at the bottom that will fire the wort both ways; wouldn't a simple 90 degree bend be better as it could aid whirl pooling?

Really keen to see your modifications as we're doing very similar stuff. Have you done a full 50L brew yet? Ive done one but with nearly 400g of hops lost loads to the blanket of hops on the bottom that was so deep it coverered all the heating elements!

[Aleman]

2) I am having a mare with hops getting through the Spiedel hop filter and clogging up the Plate Chiller and Solar Pump. I won't use it again.

Plate chillers require a filter that will not allow particles greater than 0.5mm through. On my non BM rig I use #30 Mesh in a 'hopstopper' this even prevents pellet debris getting though.

You could try wrapping the BM Filter in #30 mesh.

[borischarlton]

Or use pellets and not use a hop filter at all

[borischarlton]

Also, solar pumps are brilliant for what they are designed to do, pump water. Anything more viscous I have found that they pack up.

[hambrook]

Or use pellets and not use a hop filter at all

400 grams of hops, be that pellet or full flower, is a lot to expect to just sit in a nice cone after whirlpooling; it's enough to be a couple few inches deep when settled out. I've got large muslin hop bags on order and am talking to Utah Filters again about a large hop spider for the BM50L

[BrewerBen]

Ben - we're on a very similar learning curve; here is my evolving BM50 set up, with a similar looking chiller and solar pump behind the FV.

IMG_4263.jpg

Some questions;
1)Is there a technical reason for the pump BEFORE the chiller? I've put it after but your set up makes priming the pump that bit easier!
No technical reason it just seemed a convenient way of laying it out
2) I am having a mare with hops getting through the Spiedel hop filter and clogging up the Plate Chiller and Solar Pump. I won't use it again. Do you use muslin hop bags or have you splashed out for one of the Utah BioDiesel filters? On my BM20 I got the Utah filters; including shipping and customs tax; came in at £120 ish Ouch.
I use nylon hop bags. As long as the string is done up nice and type they have been working great. I tend to use pellets where i can too. I did have a problem the first time i used the pump as nothing was flowing but it turns out the hop bag had got sucked into the tap hole. In the end i just did what i usually did and threaded the string through the paddle and left them hanging to drain
3) Onto this design, how big is your plate chiller? I got the 125w one from the malt miller and as able to chill from 90 to 20 without record. Admittedly it uses lots of water but then I then fill up 3 FVs with this and use to wash brewing equipment, even wash the car! I had though about using an FV full of ice water and put the Spiedel immersion chiller on it then circulate the water through that to chill it down.
The plate chiller is the 125kw one from brewbuilder. I was hoping to save on water usage but that didn't seem to happen but it did seem to get down to temp faster. Like you i use some of the water, the first hottest bucket for cleaning but the rest for the garden. Washing the car isn't a bad idea though, neither is chilling the water with the immersion chiller and ice seeing as mine is now redundant.
4) With the T piece at the bottom that will fire the wort both ways; wouldn't a simple 90 degree bend be better as it could aid whirl pooling?
I didn't think of this, could give it a go though as i have some 90 degree fittings. I'm not sure the pump would be powerful enough to whirlpool though as it has the interference of the elements to deal with and by the time its gone though the chiller and out the copper pipe it seems to have lost a fair bit of its oomph. No harm in trying and if it works well enough to get rid of the hop bags then all the better

Really keen to see your modifications as we're doing very similar stuff. Have you done a full 50L brew yet? Ive done one but with nearly 400g of hops lost loads to the blanket of hops on the bottom that was so deep it coverered all the heating elements!

Not done a 50L brew yet. The garage where i will be brewing is now having the roof constructed so once i've moved in there i will have space for a fermentation/keg fridge and a fixed position for the BM and a winch to raise the malt pipe. At the moment it all gets packed away into various sheds, cupboards and draws after every brew which is a real pain.
I'm partuclarily looking forward to the temp controlled fermentation as i neglected look at the weather forecast for the last brew and have a batch which is sitting at 25C. The first few days of fermentation where I've read most of the flavor esters are produced were at a much more sensible temp so fingers crossed. 400g is a alot of hops, the first brews i did i used loose leaf hops and found the cleanup a bit of hassle so started to use bags and pellets. The copper siphon pipe i use could have a hop filter added to it i guess but i'd think the flow could still be stopped by the sheer amount of hops but with longer tubing you could raise it up until you hit the hop bed so at least it doesn't clog up too early.