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OPINION - What is the best electric turnkey 3bbl and 5bbl system out there - and why

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  • OPINION - What is the best electric turnkey 3bbl and 5bbl system out there - and why

    We are researching a small electric brewery to supply a brewpub in a shared building. The ceiling on the brewery-side would be 9 feet which makes things tight. What systems would be suited for this scenario?

  • #2
    No opinions? Did I do something wrong?

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by J Schmidt View Post
      No opinions? Did I do something wrong?
      I don't think there are many electric brewhouses out there which is probably why you aren't getting much feedback. You could ask Stout Tanks for references of customers who bought their electric systems. They seem to be popular. Good luck!

      Comment


      • #4
        I have a 3 bbl Brewmation system that utilizes stout's tanks. It works great. I'm not sure of any other options for electric, but am pleased with what I am producing with it. Brewmation sold it as a turnkey with most everything I needed. I chose plastic conicals from another vendor so that I could have 10 of them at a reasonable cost. I use a stout brite tank in my walk in to save on jacketing and glycol.

        Everything works as it should for the most part. Ask any questions. I will subscribe to this thread and try to keep up.

        Matt

        facebook/d14beer

        Comment


        • #5
          Matt,
          I called you up the other day! Have you had any problems with caramelizing the wort? What is the lightest color beer you've done?
          Thanks again for your time and help.
          Jason

          Comment


          • #6
            I would contact Electric Brewing Supply.

            The panel that they designed for me has far exceeded my expectations; not only that, but the quality of their work is top notch, as is their customer service.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by mmmatt View Post
              I have a 3 bbl Brewmation system that utilizes stout's tanks. It works great. I'm not sure of any other options for electric, but am pleased with what I am producing with it. Brewmation sold it as a turnkey with most everything I needed. I chose plastic conicals from another vendor so that I could have 10 of them at a reasonable cost. I use a stout brite tank in my walk in to save on jacketing and glycol.

              Everything works as it should for the most part. Ask any questions. I will subscribe to this thread and try to keep up.

              Matt

              facebook/d14beer

              Hi Matt,

              Did you get your plastic conicals from Plastic Mart/Tank Depot and modify them yourself?... Or did you get them from a supplier that modified and fitted them? If so, where did you get them?

              Comment


              • #8
                Electricity usage

                Hey Matt,
                I got another question for you. What is your monthly energy usage for your brew house?
                Thanks,
                Jason

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by J Schmidt View Post
                  Matt,
                  I called you up the other day! Have you had any problems with caramelizing the wort? What is the lightest color beer you've done?
                  Thanks again for your time and help.
                  Jason
                  No problems with caramelizing. In fact lack of carmelization may be a downside of electric over gas, but again I am happy with my beers. My Kolsch you can read through. I don't filter only use kettle finings. Currently using kick but have used irish moss also.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by GritCity View Post
                    Hi Matt,

                    Did you get your plastic conicals from Plastic Mart/Tank Depot and modify them yourself?... Or did you get them from a supplier that modified and fitted them? If so, where did you get them?
                    Tanks are from tank depot and unmodified. Order the tanks and the stands and get the adapters and valves from brewers hardware. I use the bottom port for draining, and modified a single lid with a sparyball that I put on tanks for cleaning. My tanks have the offset manway and having one centered would be nicer. I have my cleaning lid drilled offset for the ball and dropped down about 6" so that the ball is in the center of the tank. the ball fits loosely in the hole so theree is o pressure buildup. Just a tc adapter and a butterfly valve on the bottom, but you will need an elbow for connecting your hose. The yeast cake can be like pudding so as fat a hose as you can get is what you need. 1.5" tc valves and 1.5"tc x 1.25 id hose barb. Get "full drain" tanks with as large of an opening on the tank as they have. I think it is a 2". I don't use a blow off tube and I don't gasket the lid. The std lid and airlock work fine for keeping things out of the tank and the co2 release does the rest. I also use a non silicone anntifoam but I cant remember the name off hand.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by J Schmidt View Post
                      Hey Matt,
                      I got another question for you. What is your monthly energy usage for your brew house?
                      Thanks,
                      Jason
                      I honestly don't know but I will try to remember to look at the meter and figure out per brew. I don't think they break it our for me.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by mmmatt View Post
                        Tanks are from tank depot and unmodified. Order the tanks and the stands and get the adapters and valves from brewers hardware. I use the bottom port for draining, and modified a single lid with a sparyball that I put on tanks for cleaning. My tanks have the offset manway and having one centered would be nicer. I have my cleaning lid drilled offset for the ball and dropped down about 6" so that the ball is in the center of the tank. the ball fits loosely in the hole so theree is o pressure buildup. Just a tc adapter and a butterfly valve on the bottom, but you will need an elbow for connecting your hose. The yeast cake can be like pudding so as fat a hose as you can get is what you need. 1.5" tc valves and 1.5"tc x 1.25 id hose barb. Get "full drain" tanks with as large of an opening on the tank as they have. I think it is a 2". I don't use a blow off tube and I don't gasket the lid. The std lid and airlock work fine for keeping things out of the tank and the co2 release does the rest. I also use a non silicone anntifoam but I cant remember the name off hand.
                        Thanks Matt for the tank info. Are you using antifoam due to the small amount of headspace? A lot of guys are using the 110G conicals and I was a bit worried if you could finish with 3 barrels on the limited head space. If I wanted to avoid using antifoam, would you recommend going with the larger 150 gallon fermenters or will the 110's handle the ferment without excessive blowoff?

                        Also, did you not put a racking port on the cone? Any issues with clarity?

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Another Question for Matt:

                          How well does the Stout 3BBL MLT hold temps? I am trying to decide between the insulated vs. non-insulated MLT. I assumed that the mass of the grain bill would be enough to hold temps but then Stout came out with an insulated version which makes me worry that the un-insulated MLT loses temps over 60-90 minutes. The price difference is like $800 which can be super useful to me spent elsewhere. What numbers are you seeing with your temperatures in your MLT? How about your HLT?

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by GritCity View Post
                            Thanks Matt for the tank info. Are you using antifoam due to the small amount of headspace? A lot of guys are using the 110G conicals and I was a bit worried if you could finish with 3 barrels on the limited head space. If I wanted to avoid using antifoam, would you recommend going with the larger 150 gallon fermenters or will the 110's handle the ferment without excessive blowoff?

                            Also, did you not put a racking port on the cone? Any issues with clarity?
                            Yes, the antifoam is to prevent giant messes. I've don first running beers that were only 40 gallons and the foam doubled the volume in the tank!!! Big beers go hard for me. I tend to pitch a lot of yeast and like a real strong fast fermentation so I also knock out a little warmer. My cellar is about 52 f durring the winter so I knock out a little warmer to kick things off a bit and the yeast holds the temp for a few days after that. Use the Patcote 376 antifoam. It works great.

                            I didn't drill my tanks anywhere! My worry is you can't get in there to clean the threads of the bulkhead. I literally drop the bottom out of my tanks a couple of times and then pump from the bottom into my brite and use a racking arm in the brite. Yes I do get a fair bit of yeast in my kegs, but I don't really care about that. It doesn't hit the lines until the keg kicks. I have stackable kegs and keg just outside of my walkin. The first keg is on the bottom, then the next keg off the brite is on top of that. Those go to the front of the row of kegs. I tap that one first, and put the other 4 behind that in the walkin. Use clear beer hose to fill and watch the last keg so that you don't just fill it full of yeast from the last bit of the brite. That all being said, I am eventually going to work out an auto siphon and take it over the trub like a carboy. Just haven't done that yet because it really isn't a problem for me. If the kegs don't sit for a week they are a bit cloudy, but people really don't seem to care. My brite is in my walkin and I can be ready to keg in 24 hrs.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by GritCity View Post
                              Another Question for Matt:

                              How well does the Stout 3BBL MLT hold temps? I am trying to decide between the insulated vs. non-insulated MLT. I assumed that the mass of the grain bill would be enough to hold temps but then Stout came out with an insulated version which makes me worry that the un-insulated MLT loses temps over 60-90 minutes. The price difference is like $800 which can be super useful to me spent elsewhere. What numbers are you seeing with your temperatures in your MLT? How about your HLT?
                              The mash doesn't hold temps that great. I use a 5500w element in a rimms tube and I can hold with that but without it will drop down pretty quick. your mash will still be 120 the next day, but it would be tough to hold mash temp too long without a rimms. It is my understanding that the enzymes do their thing in about 20 minutes and after that holding temp isnt that big of a deal, but I don't know that for fact.

                              One of my first 4 beers that I opened with was my chocolate stout. I usually mash that one around 157 and hit it at that but without the rimms (the rimms arived after my first few batches) I ended up with a much lighter body than what I was aiming for. I also sparged a little too much and dropped the gravity a bit. So as things go, and especially with craft beer, people loved drinking a chocolate beer that was light bodied and drinkable so I billed it as a dark chocolate ale/light bodied stout and still make it that way to this day as one of the few recipes that I repeat! So yeah... get the insulation if you can afford it, but it probably wouldn't be any big trick to sell a 3bbl stout mash ton in a few months or a year for a small loss to replace it with the insulated one.

                              Matt

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