External Calandria??

[Jer]

Hi,

Looking for some opinions on external calandriae.

We’re just spec’ing out our 20BBL system. I learned about external calandriae a few month ago and really like the concept. It makes good sense to me.

Both suppliers that I am working with have told me that in a 20BBL system it doesn’t make any difference. However, I’ve had 3 knowledgeable pro’s tell me that they’d, without question, be getting one if they were in my shoes.

My goal in having one is simply to shorten our brew day by getting our wort to boil faster, but the 3 pros also speak of ease of cleaning, energy efficiency, and speed of conversion of bad things like DME, etc. We’ll have low pressure steam.

Anyone have any words of wisdom??

Thanks!!

-J.

[dick murton]

Calandria can be superb bits of kit, and I know there will be some people who will say otherwise, but for a brew volume of this size, why complicate things with pumps, controls etc. Keep to simple differential wall and base steam jackets, and then if you are using pellet hops, you can use it as a combine copper / whirlpool than with a calandria, whether internal or external. Have separate controls on the base jacket and wall jackets so you can start heating early in the runoff.

Unless the calandria and associated equipment is designed correctly for effective cleaning, you may end up with fouling - which you don't know about until you have poor boils / evaporation.

My advice is to keep it really simple, with immediately visible heating jacket surfaces, and just a single spray head for CIP