Any thoughts on a three tier system?

guildofevil

In time, I want to build myself a three tier set-up and I was wondering what thoughts others had on it.

I case you are unsure of what I am talking about, a three tier set-up consists of a Hot Liquor Tank on top, a mash tun in the middle and a boiler at the bottom. The reason they are set at different levels is so that you can use gravity to move liquor and wort from one to the next.

I currently have an Electrim boiler, which I use as mash tun and boiler. I am happy with it as a boiler, but as a mash tun it's not ideal, so it will form the last part of the three tier system.

The mash tun will be something like this: http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=005&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=150037319783&rd=1&rd=1 If it is still available, I will be buying the 15 gal (US) or 46 litre, insulated mash tun he sells (I like my big beers, so lots of room for lots of grain is important).

I am not sure about the HLT. Another boiler could do the job, or even a picnic cooler with spigot. The water could be heated in the boiler and pumped to the picnic cooler with a drill pump, where it would stay hot until it is needed for sparging.

On the other hand, a commercial water heater, of some kind, would probably do the job better and it will have a permanent home in a shed, which we will be building ourselves, so I can make sure it has water and power where it needs it. Unfortunately I know nothing about these devices. Does anyone else?

oblivious

Very sweet, would love to have one myself. I use my boiler to heat up the mash/sparge water and store the running in one of my plastic primary fermenters, until I am ready to boil. If you got addition Electrim boiler you could keep your mash/sparge water the right temp and with some add-on’s have a three tire system.

Here is a link if you are interested in building your own http://www.xb-70.com/beer/3_tier/

If you got a tap on the out side of your house you could run a hose to the shed, not as good as a permanent water line but it would probable work out much cheaper, as you could do most of the work in the shed your self.

Not sure about the electric, maybe get a pro?

guildofevil

Well, as a network support tech, I have more than a passing familiarity with electricity and cabling, I also have a friend who is an electrician, so powering the shed shouldn't be a problem.

As far as water goes, I have a water tank on the roof of the kitchen extension, so I could T off a line from the mains feed, to the water tank and run a PVC water line down to the shed to fill the HLT. That is the plan at the moment, but it could very easily be vetoed by my better half, in which case the garden hose I currently use would remain.

The problem I have with using another Electrim boiler as a HLT is temperature regulation. I want to be able to fill the HLT with water, set it to a temperature IN DEGREES CELSIUS and forget it. The HLT should then heat the water to the specified temperature and then keep it at that temperature until I decide to switch it off. The thermostat on the Electrim bins do not do that. They have an arbitrary “power” dial, which controls how often the element comes on.

Does anyone know if I could get my hands on a thermostat that would do the job properly? Ideally it would be something I could splice into the power cable, with a temperature probe I could feed into the HLT.

noby

Wouldn't your common central heating type thermostat do the same thing? If that doesn't work out I may be able to sort you out.

As for the shed/brewery - if it is to be semi-permenant I would plumb into the HLT. A dedicated HLT with heating element would be more convenient than using a pump from your kettle, IMO.

guildofevil

noby wrote:

Wouldn't your common central heating type thermostat do the same thing? If that doesn't work out I may be able to sort you out.

It may well do the job, but I have never used one, so I don't know. The best thing for me to do would probably be to talk to the man in my local plumbing supplies place.

noby

Although, the more I think about it, the central heating thermo is probably measuring air temp. I'm sure you could pick up a water thermostat either from the plumbing supplies or from flea-bay.

Kirin Iciban

Hi there Guildofevil,

Three tier systems are cool, but I'd wait before involving a pump into the set-up. This can always be added later when you incorporate a counterflow chiller to the system aswell. Me, I'm going to start off slow.

I want to get into a system like your ebay one, using two cooler boxes and a converted keg as the kettle. Doesn't seem to be too much trouble but I'm keeping a lookout for the cylinderical coolers rather than rectangular.
Does anyone know where I can find these?

Check this link for lots of ideas:

http://brewery.mvlan.net:8080/folder/011/Homebreweries%20Directory/

Ichiban