Planning my 3 vessel setup

[Patrick]

Hi

I am starting to get the bits together to go 3 vessel. The long term goal is 2-tier, full electric and HERMS.

I have just purchased from work some cheap stainless vessels for the project, I have one 66L, two 40L and one 25L, they are all ex dairy testing vessels. Some of them have holes drilled and fittings installed so I may be able to re-use some of the holes/fittings.

First stage is going to be an electic HLT gravity feeding into an insulated MLT which will have a pump for recirc and runoff into the kettle. I will probably use the 40L vessels for the HLT and MLT (unless there is a pressing need to go for a chilly-bin setup) The boil will have to be powered by my existing 3-ring burner for the moment untill I can afford the extra elements etc. which will probably restrict me to smaller batches.

I am thinking I will use the 66L vessel for the kettle so that I can do 40L batches in the future.

Questions:
Should I use a stainless vessel for the MLT? and if so, what should I insulate it with? (i have a couple of ideas but always trying to learn)
Is a 40L MLT and a 40L HLT enough to do double batches of biggish beers in the future (10kg+ grain bills)
Should I go false bottom or braid in the MLT and what are the pros and cons of each system?
What are you guys using for sparging, just a hose or a ring or sprinkler?
How do I work out how many Kws of elements I will need to heat up the HLT and eventually, to boil the kettle?
That will do for now, I will add pics of the vessels when I take delivery.
Cheers!

[Reviled]

Hey Patrick, do you have beersmith? If you do use the 'water needed' tool, which will let you calculate the mash tun volume required for your desired OG and litrage.. Id say a 40L should be ok, but Beersmith will let you know how far you can push it!

I've done a bit of reading on the topic and from what I gather braid is the way to go in the mash tun, fals bottoms are trickier, more expensive, and according to some sources not as effective.

In terms of sparging, I know a few brewers who just use a hose on top of a plastic plate with holes in it, which floats on top of the mash/sparge - this is probably what I will do too when I finally get my act together...

Cant help you with the kw's sorry, I imagine you wont need much to bring the HLT up to temp, maybe 1.5kw? (thats a guess dont quote me) Boiling will obv require alot more grunt

[jt]

There's a formula to work out time and energy required to raise a volume of liquid from one temp to another

You can work out what energy you need if you have a time constraint, or given what energy you have, time required.

happy googling !

[Dale]

Try this http://www.jbbrewsupplies.com.au/calculators/electricElement.html. I'm currently doing the upgrade as well going SS Mashtun and I'm planning on installing a false bottom. Have one in my chilly bin and am happy with it.

[Andrew]

The specific heat capacity of water is around 4180 J kg-1 K-1. This means it takes 4.18kJ to raise the temperature of 1L of water by 1K (1 degree C).

The formula is

Q = mc(dT)

Q is the energy required
m is the mass in kg.
c is the specific heat capacity in J.
dT is the change in temperature in K.

So, for 'a', 5L from 25C to 65C:

5 * 4180 * 40 = 836000J (836kJ)

For 'b', 15C to 65C:

5 * 4180 * 50 = 1045000 (1045kJ)

You have to take into account heat loss and inefficiencies in the system, so in reality the energy consumption will be significantly higher.

Hope this helps.

[martin w]

i have a single ring burner under my mt which i use to heat my strike water and hlt for sparge water only so 40l would work if you did this, i would stick with your 3 ring burner for the bk as waiting for the boil is by far the longest part of the brew day-i can't turn on the element until its covered wheras you can get the gas going once you've got a few litres collected plus you cant do a whirpool for the trub with an element in there,or at least i can't
i made a copper manifold for my mt which works sweet,only thing i've tried though so i have no opinion on other options.
i use a hose for the sparge and get a gentle whirlpool going.
i was going to insulate my mt but i find i lose so little heat that i've never bothered,i was going to use strips of polystyrene which i got from work.

[Simon David kelly]

For insulation of you MLT you could get a hot water tank jacket and cut it to fit.