Stout tanks and kettles? Anyone use any of their products?

[HobKnobBrewery]

Hey guys! About to pull the trigger on stout's 3bbl system. It's built around speed to double/triple batch on a long day or 22 hour day I talked to another guy who got the same system and he really likes it, and it supposedly has some great efficiency levels once it's dialed in. With the HLT, MT, BK, Wort Grant, whirlpool, and brite tank, we're in the $13k range (delivered), and with a do-it-yourself control box, probably pushing $16k. Looking for opinions...anyone delt with stout before? What are your impressions? The guy who owns it really seems to know his stuff, and is very friendly. What about the pricing? Fair? Could I do better?

Fermenters are being purchased separately, and we'll have 4 9.5bbl fermenters that will be able to handle up to the triple batches.

I think the bottleneck will be the 106g brite tank. I've heard you can carb and keg in about 1-2 days, which means we max out our capacity at about 6 1/2bbl's per day. Instead of the whirlpool, we may go with a second brite.

We'll be a production brewery with a tap room in a small town (statesville, nc). Feel free to fill my ideas full of lead. I'm looking for holes in my plan.

[HobKnobBrewery]

Nuthin?

[ChesterBrew]

Get in touch with Matt at Good Nature Brewing in Hamilton, NY. They purchased a 2BBL system that they're now upgrading from (I don't think it's a testament to the quality of the product as much as it is the demand for their beer.)

http://www.goodnaturebrewing.com/Index/Contact.html

[ArmstrongBrew]

We have a 2bbl electric system from Stout. I will say that overall I am happy with the system. You really can't beat the price on it, but I will say there are no bells and whistles. You basically get giant pots, but at 2-3bbl, that is probably fine.

The biggest problem I have is the heating times on the electric system. They have been a headache, but we are working on improving the system to make this better. I would highly suggest a tankless hot water heater to feet your HLT.

I think I'm a little confused on your ferm/bbt scheme. You will purchase (4) 9.5BBL ferms but only (1) 106g brite? If you are going 9.5bbl ferms then I would go with a 9.5bbl brite otherwise I think you're setting yourself up for a huge headache. Once you're down to temp, the carbonation only take a couple of hours max.

Why a separate whirlpool on a 3bbl system? Is it so you can turn the kettle over quicker and get another boil going? If not, I wouldn't worry about a whirlpool and just whirlpool through the tangential inlet with a pump assisted by some elbow grease.

I've never been a fan of grants. I think you get too much oxidation, but that's just my opinion. You either love them or hate them.

Nick

[HobKnobBrewery]

We have a 2bbl electric system from Stout. I will say that overall I am happy with the system. You really can't beat the price on it, but I will say there are no bells and whistles. You basically get giant pots, but at 2-3bbl, that is probably fine.

The biggest problem I have is the heating times on the electric system. They have been a headache, but we are working on improving the system to make this better. I would highly suggest a tankless hot water heater to feet your HLT.

I think I'm a little confused on your ferm/bbt scheme. You will purchase (4) 9.5BBL ferms but only (1) 106g brite? If you are going 9.5bbl ferms then I would go with a 9.5bbl brite otherwise I think you're setting yourself up for a huge headache. Once you're down to temp, the carbonation only take a couple of hours max.

Why a separate whirlpool on a 3bbl system? Is it so you can turn the kettle over quicker and get another boil going? If not, I wouldn't worry about a whirlpool and just whirlpool through the tangential inlet with a pump assisted by some elbow grease.

I've never been a fan of grants. I think you get too much oxidation, but that's just my opinion. You either love them or hate them.

Nick

Thanks Nick! We're trying our best to build around speed, though I guess it might not be necessary. Your advice on the brite tank is well taken. We're looking at maybe dropping the whirlpool and going with another brite tank.

I guess my hangup was the process of double/triple batching. I suppose you could double/trip batch over the course of 2 days, and still be ok? Since our flagship looks to be a lager, and time from mash to tap is about 45 days, we'll have plenty of time. Maybe we should go for more of the plastic fermenters as well?

[ArmstrongBrew]

So, you can definitely double/triple batch over two days generally so cramming it all into one is not necessary. If you are going electric, I would still recommend the tankless hot water heater. We can triple batch with one, but we can barely double batch without it. In the end, I think they're worth it.

You are going plastic with lagers which is interesting. Are you going in a temp controlled room for fermentation? Controlling temp in plastic can be tricky, but if done in a room, I think you would be ok. If so, check outt he coolbot. We built our own coldroom with one because we needed a strange dimension.

[HobKnobBrewery]

The plan for the ferms is a coldbot, or possibly 2 in the cellar. Main production area is going to be on the main level, and then pipe it down to the ferms. From the ferms, back up to a cold room with another cold bot for the brite tank(s).

[greenmtnbrewer]

Armstrong, could you share any info on your wattage, boil volume and what kind of duration it takes to get there. I guess if you do not have an on demand, then you are heating to mash temp with the elements, and then again from there to boil?

[ArmstrongBrew]

Green, I heat 75gal of water from 55F to 175-180F in about three hours for the mash. The boil step up only takes about 20min after sparge.

I'm using 12kW in the HLT and the Kettle.

After calculating the heat loss on the tanks, we are going to wrap the tanks in Armaflex to hold temp and make it quicker to heat.

We are also looking into a portable tankless heater to help in the initial heating.

[dfalken]

Where do you guys buy your electric heating elements for the stout kettles?

[ArmstrongBrew]

I went with brewmation for the elements, panel and pumps. Kevin was awesome to work with and really stands by his stuff. We even worked together to pick the right pump.

He realized there was an issue in two of the units he sold and immediately called me to get the unit back to repair it before we had a problem. Things will always go wrong, but he stood by his product and that meant the world to us.

[dfalken]

Thanks Armstrongbrew, I will contact them. Anyone else buying from other companies?

[AMS0286]

I also have second a fantastic experience with both Stout Tanks and Kevin Weaver at Brewmation. My panel also had a defect that was brought to Kevin's attention before the part failed. Before I knew anything about it he contacted me by phone and asked for a picture of the inside of the box to verify that my panel had the issue. It did and he said he would pay for all the new shipping costs to retrieve/repair the recalled part. It turned out he had a friend driving through my town as we were on the phone, so his friend picked up the panel and it was returned to me in a repaired condition a week later. I also have to add that his panels are all UL rated now, so he is no fly by night operation.

[greenmtnbrewer]

Thanks for the info on the heating times. 3 hours is a long time, but 12kw is not a ton of power for that volume . Let us know how the insulation helps.

[NigeltheBold]

I've also been talking to Kevin at Brewmation and he has been very helpful. We're looking into purchasing a 2bbl electric system with Stout Tanks. I think we're planning on installing a tankless water heater to speed up heating times. So far, that's the only downside that I've seen or heard of with these systems (as well as the waiting time for a system to be built).

I've been trying to find a suitable pump to use for cold wort transfer and CIP applications in our brewery. The pump needs to be portable and also needs to be a sanitary centrifugal pump. What are you guys using to transfer cooled wort and for tank cleaning? I've found a couple of possibilities, but they are all over $2000 in cost. I'm looking for something a bit smaller/cheaper than what I've found so far, but it's proving to be a difficult task.