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Author Topic: Brewhemoth Brag  (Read 20559 times)

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Brewhemoth Brag
« Reply #30 on: December 15, 2011, 03:38:28 pm »
I could be wrong, but I don't think it will be able to keep up.  The heat transfer out of your 1-gallon jug into the surrounding air will be much less efficient because 1 - air is a poor conductor of heat, and 2 - it has a much lower surface to volume ratio than the coil in the beer.
Tom Schmidlin

Offline tomsawyer

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Re: Brewhemoth Brag
« Reply #31 on: December 15, 2011, 07:11:50 pm »
I'm going to probably use a 2.5gal reservoir in the peltier-cooled wine chiller, one of those water jugs with the spigot looks like it should fit nicely.  I installed the $25 Lowes fountain pump tonight and it looks like it will sustain a recirc rate of around 1/2gal/min.  I don't know if it will withstand some ethylene glycol or alcohol, my guess is no snce teh little pump sits in the liquid.  I'll put the cooler on a table (level with the fermentor) to reduce the head and maximize flow, I'm probably limited by the 1/4" ID cooling coil ID.  Theres no telling what the system will do when the wine cooler is set to around 40F, but I'll be finding out this weekend.  I was thinking of doing no-chill with this setup (dumping the trub through the dump valve after cooling and prior to pitching yeast) but I'm not going to push it at first.
Lennie
Hannibal, MO

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Brewhemoth Brag
« Reply #32 on: December 15, 2011, 11:33:34 pm »
2.5 gallons will get you better capacity, but plastic is worse (because it is a better insulator, slowing the heat transfer from the air in the cooler).  It may work for small temperature drops, but I really can't see it chilling a batch of beer in a reasonable time.  Try it though :)

I'd do it with just water the first time and see what happens.
Tom Schmidlin

Offline punatic

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Re: Brewhemoth Brag
« Reply #33 on: December 16, 2011, 12:51:11 am »
I installed the $25 Lowes fountain pump tonight and it looks like it will sustain a recirc rate of around 1/2gal/min.  I don't know if it will withstand some ethylene glycol or alcohol, my guess is no snce teh little pump sits in the liquid.  I'll put the cooler on a table (level with the fermentor) to reduce the head and maximize flow,

I suspect you'll find slower is better.  You might want to try throttling back to 1L/min and see how it goes.
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Offline tomsawyer

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Re: Brewhemoth Brag
« Reply #34 on: December 16, 2011, 06:07:38 am »
2.5 gallons will get you better capacity, but plastic is worse (because it is a better insulator, slowing the heat transfer from the air in the cooler).  It may work for small temperature drops, but I really can't see it chilling a batch of beer in a reasonable time.  Try it though :)

I'd do it with just water the first time and see what happens.

Good point, I will give the reservoir material, shape and flow rate some more consideration.  I suppose it doesn't do any good to pull the cool out of the system right away if the chiller doesn't promptly replenish it.  If I do try no-chill I'll let the temp get into double digits before I even try to chill.

The Brewhemoth site says the coil itself will get 25F lower than ambient.  I don't think it is going to be the weak link.
Lennie
Hannibal, MO

Offline tomsawyer

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Re: Brewhemoth Brag
« Reply #35 on: December 17, 2011, 07:16:52 am »
First brew is in the Big Unit, 6gal of black IPA.  1.068 OG and about 1:1 BU:GU.  Used some midnight wheat and British chocolate right at the end of the mash.  Bittered with Magnum to 50IBU, flavored with Centennial/Amarillo, aroma was Columbus.  May dry hop, haven't decided yet.

Edited to add:  I decided to go big on this first batch so I'm breing another one of this recipe so it will be a 12gal batch.  I already pitched extra yeast, will add the wort later today.
« Last Edit: December 17, 2011, 09:00:41 am by tomsawyer »
Lennie
Hannibal, MO

Offline tonyp

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Re: Brewhemoth Brag
« Reply #36 on: December 17, 2011, 01:41:08 pm »
wow what a great score, you must be psyched! gratz man, use it in good health!
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Offline tomsawyer

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Re: Brewhemoth Brag
« Reply #37 on: December 17, 2011, 06:48:02 pm »
Yes I'm definitely appreciative and will put it to good use.  It does require that I change my process somewhat to accomodate larger batches.  I'll still do my smaller batches too, but I think I will do my house brews in the Brewhemoth.

Today I brewed a second batch of black IPA to add to the fermentor just to do it justice, so I'll have 12gal in the fermentor by then end of the evening.
Lennie
Hannibal, MO

Offline tomsawyer

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Re: Brewhemoth Brag
« Reply #38 on: December 18, 2011, 07:23:16 am »
I finished batch #2 and added it to the fermentor, this one came out a little stronger so the average OG is 1.072 and theres 11.5gal total.  Checked the spunding valve this morning and it was at 5psi so we're off to the races.  I'll take it to 7psi and ferment a few days at that pressure, then bring it up to 15psi.  I'll harvest yeast at some point then bring the pressure up to 30psi for carbonation.  I'll most likely use bottled CO2 for that.

The temp is at 64F as judged by a thermocouple taped to the cone of the fermentor.  My recirculating chiller is set at 60F, it should keep up since the basement is pretty cool.
Lennie
Hannibal, MO

Offline ukolowiczd

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Re: Brewhemoth Brag
« Reply #39 on: December 18, 2011, 08:23:59 am »
I finished batch #2 and added it to the fermentor, this one came out a little stronger so the average OG is 1.072 and theres 11.5gal total.  Checked the spunding valve this morning and it was at 5psi so we're off to the races.  I'll take it to 7psi and ferment a few days at that pressure, then bring it up to 15psi.  I'll harvest yeast at some point then bring the pressure up to 30psi for carbonation.  I'll most likely use bottled CO2 for that.

The temp is at 64F as judged by a thermocouple taped to the cone of the fermentor.  My recirculating chiller is set at 60F, it should keep up since the basement is pretty cool.

Lots of questions.

1. Is 5 psi the normal natural CO2 production pressure caused by fermentation?

2.  Are you artificially bringing the psi up to 7 and 15? If so, does that help with fermentation? If not is 15psi the max natural fermentation rate?

3. You can carbonate in that fermentor? I thought you could only raise the psi for movement purposes?

very interesting stuff here

Offline tomsawyer

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Re: Brewhemoth Brag
« Reply #40 on: December 18, 2011, 10:12:03 pm »
1.  Normal fermentation in a closed vessel would quickly put it up to 50+ psi, not terribly safe.  Theres a lot of CO2 given off during active fermentation, at 7psi I can actually hear the faint hiss of CO2 slowly leaking off.

2.  No the natural production of CO2 is giving me all the pressure I need, the adjustable pressure relief valve (spunding valve) bleeds off whatever extra pressure while maintaining what I have it set at.  The 7psi is supposedly the kind of pressure yeast feels at the bottom of a large conical commercial tank.

3.  Dale Penrose said they are tested to 160psi, and I've heard of a few people carbonating in the vessels.  Some have even served from them, although its more common to counter-pressure transfer to kegs.  You can actually use the CO2 produced by the fermentation to prepurge your keg, just leave it attached via a ball lock QD hose for a day or two.

Check out the wiki on pressurized fermentation, or the very long thread on that other homebrew talk site.  I'm a poor person to talk about it other than I have maybe the ultimate vessel for this method.  It can be done with cornies or sankes as well.
Lennie
Hannibal, MO

Offline punatic

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Re: Brewhemoth Brag
« Reply #41 on: December 18, 2011, 11:39:02 pm »
7psi = 16.2ft. of head
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Offline tomsawyer

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Re: Brewhemoth Brag
« Reply #42 on: December 19, 2011, 05:07:04 am »
7psi = 16.2ft. of head
I guess there are fementors that large?  Maybe not in a small brewpub but I've seen some that look that tall.
Lennie
Hannibal, MO

Offline punatic

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Re: Brewhemoth Brag
« Reply #43 on: December 19, 2011, 06:25:19 am »
Yes indeed.  Even taller.
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Offline hopfenundmalz

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Re: Brewhemoth Brag
« Reply #44 on: December 19, 2011, 06:30:24 am »
7psi = 16.2ft. of head
I guess there are fementors that large?  Maybe not in a small brewpub but I've seen some that look that tall.

There are ones that are much taller than that.  Don't know about the 800 barrel ones I have seen, but they are tall.
Don't know the size of the ones on the left, but you can get an idea.
http://www.muel.com/ProductDivisions/ProcessingSystems_Equipment/Beverage/Beer/FermentationTanks.cfm
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