Carbon Neutral Brewing - LPG Alternative

[Scarrfie]

I just wonder if any of you experienced brewers have considered the environmental footprint of your brewing activities. I have seen some comments to indicate so.

Something I am considering is building myself a TLUD for mashing and boiling.

Here is one commercially available model, but there are many more. http://worldstove.com/products/#

TLUD's are for the most part open source.

I am not sure of costs, but it should be comparable to buying an LPG set up. Perhaps if enough people were interested we could design something to get made here in NZ. Something designed for boiling large quantities of water would have applications beyond brewing.

[Ralph]

What sort of fuel were you proposing to run the stove on?

 

Are the pellet fires not a form of heating that is similar in concept to these stoves? 

[Scarrfie]

Part of the principle behind TLUD's is using locally available feed stock, usually something that is waste and most often crop waste. You will find associated information of how to make pellets.

So yes pellet fires are similar techonology, and the pellets could possibly be used as fuel. They might not be so good in a larger output stove though, as the air has to flow up through them, so it depends on if it is fan forced. I would think matchbox size wood chunks would be about the right size for a larger unit.

Tom Reeds Turbo Stove uses a computer cooling fan to drive his small stove to 3Kw I believe. So perhaps fan forced is a way to get better control over the output. My brother has built one out of bits and pieces he has lying around, but the fan was too powerful and the steel just about melted.Lol.

[mattd2]

Locally available feedstock you say, could this be in the form of spent grain that has been dried after all the malty goodness has been removed? How much fuel would you need per kW per hour?

[Ralph]

Nice! A brewery kettle fired by spent malt husks would be fantastic.

 

I dare say you would need more than just spent grain to heat all the water needed for brewing and to keep the wort boiling for an hour or more.

 

Could possibly use barley straw etc compressed into pellets as feedstock as well?? Just to get the entire "brewed entirely from the plant" thing going on.

[Scarrfie]

Whoops

[Steve Baker]

I've thought quite a bit about a TLUD driven brewery.

 

I have built a small (1 litre) fan powered TLUD just to play with. It burns for about 30 minutes per batch of wood pellets. It is built with a stainless steel wine cooler so all I had to do was cut holes and slots in the double-walled vessel. A 12V blower is powered by a battery - great for campsites that don't allow open fires.

 

Brewing with one might be interesting since you can't just turn them on and off. I guess you would have to do infusions for mash temp steps. The TLUD would need to have enough fuel in a batch to bring the kettle to a boil and boil it for the brew length.

 

So a brew day might be:

- Fill TLUD and ignite

- Heat all water required for mash and sparge

- Mash in when warm enough

- Keep water at simmer until ready to sparge

- Dilute with cold water and sparge

- Kill TLUD and reload fuel for boil

- When part way through the sparge, ignite TLUD

- Boil, for the win!

 

Wow, as if a brew day isn't involved enough already.

 

My current thoughts for a pellet fuelled brewery would be some kind of continuous feed of pellets into a fan blown furnace, heating a boiler which generates steam. Direct steam injections for mash temp changes, and a jacketed kettle for the boil. How hard could it be? ;)

[Greig McGill]

I like the idea of using thousands of years of continuous human intellect and industry to make my brewday shorter and more efficient, not longer and more tedious. Besides, CO2 makes plants happy. :)

Now, take off your sandals, shave the beards, and brew some beer goddamnit!

[Greig McGill]

Just in case it wasn't entirely obvious, this post is meant in jest. Well, mostly.

[Scarrfie]

Some interesting replies:) Now where is that razor...

I guess for my own situation where I am using what is probably a 2.5KW Element, if I can get 5KW's or more from a TLUD then it could shorten my day. But as Steve points out the problem is controlling it, which is where I see fan forced may just have something to offer in terms of different speeds. For the boil I have the element on high for the full duration, so controllability for me when be just two steps, a 2.5KW low and what ever is full. 

I see the TLUD being a decent size, so that it can be shut down while the mash is in progress with enough fuel still it is to do the boil. 

Just thoughts anyway, perhaps not practical.

Burning the husks would be cool, the Mrs would be happy about that rather than me dumping them on herplanters.

[Steve Baker]

I think you should have a crack, it sounds awesome. And nothing feels more righteous than perfect smokeless combustion of organic material :)

 

Some ideas for sourcing parts...

I bought a couple of these blowers off Trademe to play with the TLUD, they do the job.

I've seen a lot of stainless steel woodburner flues at recycling stores, which could make a good burning chamber, and maybe a larger diameter one to make a double walled vessel

[Steve Baker]

As for spent grain as a fuel source, it would take a lot of energy to remove enough moisture to make it a viable fuel. Solar drying would be the only practical option. Then you might need to mix it with a bigger fuel so the air can get through.

[mattd2]

Yeah I was thinking more of air drying it out in the sun (might not work to well for winter brewing!)

It would be a bit pointly to use energy to dry your spent grain so you can recover the energy from it.