carbon water filtration

[ScottV]

Can anyone recomend a decent water filtration setup. I am only looking to use activated carbon to remove both chlorine and any organic odor/taste, but i want to get a decent flow rate through the filters(30 gpm), without spending a ton of money.

thanks,
Scott

[gitchegumee]

DME uses a swimming pool filter designed for sand media. They work very well with activated charcoal granules. I forget the size range. Depending on the chlorine load (usually 1-2 ppm), you can easily get 1000 BBL through one of their units sized for a 10 BBL brewhouse before changing the carbon. Use a chlorine tester to check water purity on a regular basis. I use filtered water for brewing only--not for cleaning. The free chlorine actually helps caustic clean better and at such low concentrations, the residual in rinse water is negligible. Flow rates are good through at least 12 gpm for the ones I'm familiar with, although I imagine they come bigger. 30 gpm would suffice for a 25 BBL brewery, assuming a 30 minute knockout. Good luck & Cheers!

[Diamond Knot]

Scott.............I gotta come see this Brewery of yours. We're justa snick ahead of you in completing our B2 Facility...........

We had the same technical requirements as yourself. We needed to hold a high flow rate (40 - 50 gpm) for our in-line steam/water mix valve. Rather than take up a lot of space with a hot liquor tank, we opted for a mix valve that takes steam off our boiler and cuts it into water to create 180F water basically all day long on demand. We needed a higher flow rate of filtered water for this because we wanted to have as pure a water as financially possible and lots of it because various santitation processes will be happening concurrently.

We went with GAC (Granular Activated Carbon) filter packs followed up with a particulate filter to take any GAC out of suspension after treatment. The packs we settled on are designated as GAC, are 12" in diamter, and are 52" tall. They hold about 3.2 cu-ft of GAC and will give about 15 - 18 gpm (lab tested) and are made of fiberglass. Because we wanted the higher flow rate, we have (3) GAC packs/particulate filters, Their in/out lines are 1" diameter feeding from/to a 1.5" diameter header pipe. We also have about 60 psi of static line pressure.

To purchase each pack would have been about $700 plus the cost of the GAC. There is also the costs of teh particulate filters, etc., so like you, we were looking at a considerable cash outlay. However, we went with a local filter provider (well, Seattle anyway.........about 25 miles away) who provides filtered water to gracery stores and sells/maintains filtering systems. We signed a lease agreement and pay about $75 per quarter to rent the equipment. To re-charge a filter pack withg GAC is about $280 each, and I have been told by "The Expert" that we could expect to run about 1M gallons through 1 cu-ft of GAC before change-out. Each pack holds 3.2 cu-ft. However, he recommended changing tehm out every 6 months.

From a water quality point of view, we here in Mukilteo have very, very soft water and it is some of the best I've tasted anywhere in the US as it comes from snowpack and ice in the mountains. However, Chlorine is being added and some believe the amount being added is increasing. GAC is great for removing Chlorine and biological chlorine by-products (THMs)..............all the broken down cell walls, algae, etc., that the chlorine reacted on. I really like the water up here to begin with, but after tasting it filtered I was in awe. Very, very clean.

I routed the plumbing so that all Brewhouse water is filtered...........even teh heat exchanger cooling water since we'll be shunting that to a smaller hot liquor tank under the mash tun (it's a combi we bought used). All hot water is filtered, but general hose cleaning water is not.

If you have any other questions or want digital pics of our installation, please write me direct at my home E-mail account and I'll send them along. I think you'll probably find it helpful. It's not that hard of an installation.............it just sounds complicated until you see it.

[gitchegumee]

Brian,
Just curious what kind of boiler will take "pure" water and make "clean" steam for use in mashing? I've heard of it done before, but have never done it. Boilers are usually fed with chemicals to keep them from corroding and building up particulate. There's a whole chemical industry devoted to this. That's why they're "blown down" occasionally (continuously for large ones). And every steam system I've brewed on has nasty, rusty water in the steam lines. Are you using stainless to the mixing valve and then to the tun? And what type of mixing valve do you use? I've used Strahmann for mixing cleaning water with steam before. Don't know whether it's "food grade" or not. Thanks for any info.

[BigWilley]

I am also curious as to how you get clean steam. I have always had to add chemicals to my boiler water. I know it is common for breweries to use steam to sterilize kegs instead of chemical sanitation. I would wonder about the cleanliness of this method. You must know something i dont.

[Diamond Knot]

gitchequmee & BigWilley,

I had this exact discussion with our boiler tech service prior to implementing it in our facility. I was concerned about the same issues: clean steam, no chemicals, and FOD (foreign object debris).

The chemicals stay in the boiler water back in the unit. There are food grade chemical additives, and many processing plants use raw steam / steam - water mix as a sanitization method. Also, there are numberous hose stations out there in the food processing industry that use live steam and cold water in their mix valves (ours is just a very large version of a hose station with 1.5" DIA inlets / outlets). The chemicals stay behind, our steam is high pressure (60 - 80 psi) so it is sanitized, and the FOD issue is resolved by a Y Strainer in line to the mix valve. Black pipe is the industry standard for steam transfer even in food processing.