3bbl DME kettle/ hlt/whirpool/mashtun

[iscorice]

hello
we recently picked up a 3bbl DME kettle/ hlt/whirpool/mashtun as part of a brewpub purchase that had been closed down, no manual on process etc.
the kettle is electric fired. my experience has always been with physically seperate pieces. my question is this... if the kettle operating as the hlt is what keeps the mashtun at its correct temp through the plate wall seperating the two tanks, when you lauter are you first dumping it into the whirpool underneath while you sparge using the kettle water till correct amount and time and dump the left over water in the kettle and pump it back up from the whirpool tank underneath or do you turn off the elements, dump the water to the whirpool tank underneath and pump from the mastun to the kettle and sparge from the whirpool to the masthtun. DME has not been any help on clearing up the process. any one who has any insight any equipment built in this style from any manufacture you help would be appreciated.
thanks

[Scott M]

Ooooo! Are you in Roseville, Ca? Looks like the system I assisted the brewer on at Basic. When I did, we used the HLT below the boil kettle and mash tun, simply raised the water temp in the boil kettle, pumped to the HLT, then sparge directly to the kettle.

One hint, start the heating elements as soon as the water level or wort is above them. Otherwise you wait two hours or more for the water temperature to get up high enough to sparge or to get a boil going.

Some great beer was made on that system.

Best of luck!!

[iscorice]

Good memoryScott , it s pretty beat now. so much dirt everywhere its going to take me awhile just to clean the system. we are bringing in some jacketed fermenters, and rerunning glycol on the heat exchanger to cut down on the water waste and to have more control and doing something with the grundys lol . its pretty ghetto right now but we will make it happen. Did you have any trouble with getting your mast temps to a specific temp and holding. DME says they either are on or not and have preset temps based on using both heating elements or one to control the temp. How did you guys wash and keg when you were there?
thanks for the tips

[Scott M]

No issues with the two batches of American Wheat we brewed, with the system holding the mash temp; as we had moved the remaining 150 degree water from the HLT that wasn't used in the mash back into the boil kettle, added water and raised the temp to sparge temperature. Then we moved that back into the HLT. With the boil kettle and mash tun sharing a common wall and the HLT below, that kept the mash temps pretty solid.

I would practice the process with just hot water a couple of times from start to mash, to cooling and transfer to the FV. That will give you a baseline for how long it takes water to heat, for you to make the proper jumpers at the water manifold and, to perform the required tasks including cooling through the HX.

It is one thing to pump water down the floor drain, quite another to watch several hundreds of dollars of product going to waste because your process was flawed.

[theBrewMeister]

Ive brewed on a similar DME monobloc system. The top was 1/5 MLT, 1/2 kettle with a full circle whirlpool chamber on the bottom.

I found the best process on that system was to:

1. Heat strike water in KTL.
2. Transfer to mash
3. Refill KTL slowly (electric element takes forever to heat water to 180*
4. Once sparge water was upto 182* - transfer thru HE into clean fermenter that I was brewing in that day. Hold sparge water in FV until needed. (this also stabilizes the pH of the entire system, including the FV and sanitizes everything.
5. Begin recirc
6. Start transfer to ktl
7. sparge out of FV
8. Kick on element as soon as it's covered in wort.
9. etc...