Meheen users unite!

[ParishBrewingCo]

Time to rev up the Meheen thread again! We just received our (new to us) 6-head meheen. It is about 10 years old, but is in great shape. One issue is that we are missing the submersible pump for sanitizing and cleaning. Anyone have any info on what this pump is and where I can buy one?

Thanks in advance!

Andrew

[BrewinLou]

This little guy works pretty well for us.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/LITTLE-GIANT-Centrifugal-Pump-1P521?Pid=search

[lhall]

Andrew,

We got a little paranoid about reusing the same sanitizer so we rigged it up so that we could fill kegs full of sanitizer and then just jet the bottles using a keg coupler. We would fill up a few kegs at the beginning of the shift and let the sanitizer from the bottles go to the drain.

[ParishBrewingCo]

We got a little paranoid

Haha, yes. That is a total paranoid move, and I do the same kind of stuff around here. I like the technique, but I also think if we keep things clean we can use a bucket of something like saniclean or starsan or whatever for a long time without it losing its killing power. Were you concerned about debris or just losing sanitizing ability and pH?

[ParishBrewingCo]

Thanks Joel! Does this motor size provide enough flow? (we have the 24 bottle station for the 6-head)

Andrew

[lhall]

Well, we were rerunning a lot of bottles that were extreme low-fills or missing caps, and the sanitizer was getting dirty with beer pretty quickly. So rigging up something to let the sanitizer go to the drain was what we came up with.

[GlacierBrewing]

Time to rev up the Meheen thread again! We just received our (new to us) 6-head meheen. It is about 10 years old, but is in great shape. One issue is that we are missing the submersible pump for sanitizing and cleaning. Anyone have any info on what this pump is and where I can buy one?

Thanks in advance!

Andrew

Hi Andrew,
We found a very acceptable alternative at our local greenhouse/fountain supply. Get a submersible fountain pump. You can size it for your needs. I suggest getting the biggest horsepower they have.

prost!
dave

[ParishBrewingCo]

Alright guys... here's another item I'd appreciate any guidance on - the CO2 regulator I should use with my Meheen. I have a house line running from a bulk tank at 95psi that I will have to step down. Any suggestions on the regulator I should consider? Taprite has a 5/16" inlet, through, and outlet that could work. It is just a standard draft regulator otherwise. I am concerned that this kind of regulator will not provide enough flow.

Thanks in advance for your input.

[ParishBrewingCo]

Ours has a spray manifold after the capper. Just a bar with 2 nozzles that has a hose on one end that is hooked up to a water source. Piece of cake. It's mounted on the steel frame that holds up the crown sorter and chutes. Ours is a 2001 model and I think the spray bar was on there from the factory, but I'm not certain.

[GlacierBrewing]

If your unit has a bottle washer on it, how about T-ing in to the bottle washer supply? Then, whenever the bottler washer is activated, so is the post-fill rinser. We have the rinser installed on our six-head but never really used it.

Prost!
Dave

[lhall]

The stock spray bar option on the Meheen was keyed off of some event that happened only while the capper was down - the fill valve solenoid maybe?

[beermaker]

Taps, what year model is your Meheen? We built a bottle washer with parts from the hardware store, we put a T in the air line to pnumatic piston on the push plate for the bottles, added a solinoid valve for it to control the on off of the water, so water comes on bottles push thru the spary water goes off, works great and it was pretty cheap...I can post pic's if my rample is confusing.

Michael

[el_mocoso]

Bottling out of single walled bright tank...?

I noticed on the Meheens list of Do's and Don'ts the say not to bottle out of a single walled BT in a walk in cooler. I'm researching getting a bottling line for my brewpub and this would be the only option for me. Does anybody have any experience doing this or know why I shouldn't

Cheers!

el

[froptus]

For bottling, the colder the beer the better as you probably well know. Unfortunately we only have one jacketed brite tank so we have to bottle fairly often from grundy tanks in our walk in cooler. Yes it does work and at 2.6 volumes too. But we will often have to run the Meheen slower. We keep our cooler at about 46 F. We had a few times where the beer wouldn't stay in the bottle so we either couldn't do it or we had to knock out some carbonation.
One tip: Bottle immediately after filtering/pushing the beer from the FV to the brite/serving tank, when the beer is still cold. Also keep the hose run short, snift to a low pressure in the bottle and slow down that fill rate.

[el_mocoso]

Thanks,

I actually talked to Dave M. and he said the new models can be adjusted to successfully bottle out of a cooler by slowing down head pressure release and such.

Cheers!