combi brewhouse brew day length

[bcryan]

trying to figure out if a combi brewhouse would be a good fit for our small space. my main concern is brew day length for a double batch. 7 bbl brew house into 15bnl fermenters. how long are your brew days taking? we have a tankless hot water heater if that helps. we don't have room for a separate whirlpool or hlt. thanks for any advice.

[barleyfreak]

I takes me about 8 hours from preheating mash tun to very end of cleaning. We have no HLT -- just tankless heaters, a MT and BK. 7 bbl system -- run off usually about 2 hrs.

Dave

[bcryan]

Sorry should have mentioned I'm wanting to double batch.

[wailingguitar]

I can flip a double batch on my 10bbl Premier in about 10 hours +/-. The biggest variable is cool out time which is longer in the summer. We don't have a cold liquor tank and use a prechiller for our knock out water. In the summer our ground water can be as high as 75F and the prechiller can't get it down far enough to provide rapid cooling.

[mmussen]

I hate to say it but that will depend a lot on your individual system and how well it is designed. Over the years, at different breweries, I've been able to consistently double batch in as little as 8.5 hrs or as long as about 13.

The biggest factors in the longer brew days have been having too little hot liquor and having to wait for for water to heat up, waiting on the kettle to reach a boil, and having adequate cooling to be able to knock out quickly.
The more time you're spending waiting for something to heat or cool the longer your day will be. And unfortunatly in my experience many manufacturers are very optimistic with the times they quote.

[jebzter]

I agree that 8 hours for a single batch is more or less right, depending on the beer, I can be done in 6.5. That said, it is not another 6.5 hours for us to brew a second batch, only 4 more hours. We do have a hot liquor tank, but no separate whirlpool. As long as you can get to your strike water temps with the tankless heaters, you shouldn't have a problem, but if you need to heat water in the kettle beforehand, then you won't be able to do concurrent brews.

[andrew_FSBC]

Depends

As others have said the times will vary greatly depending on your specific equipment. I have a 7 bbl premier combitank system without a CLT. I frequently double batch into my 15bbl FVs. Having grain milled and HLT hot the day before help cut down the length of brew day. The biggest holdup is without a grant and second BH pump you have to wait for the kettle to be completely empty before starting turn 2. If you have an empty fermenter or brite you can fill that up and use it as a CLT which drastically cuts down knockout time and temp in the summer. Colder water going into your HEX means hotter water coming out to fill your HLT which gets you brewing faster. To answer your question: single batch is about 6 hours for me and double is 10.5-11hrs.

[bcryan]

Couple thoughts. If I have a steam powered brew house shouldn't we able to heat water in mash tun? I'm still trying to wrap my head around the process. If it wasn't a steam system I would have to heat all water in boil kettle right?? Then transfer to mash and hlt?

[MariusGraff]

I would seriously recommend getting a proper HLT. Double batching is going to be slow and painful without. On our 7 bbl system, with a MLT, BK/WP and HLT we can do a single batch in ca 5 hours. When we double batch we start mashing in the next batch just as we start whirlpooling the first batch. So they overlap ca 1 hour. This makes the total day, with set up and tear down under 10 hours.

[Luch15]

Double batch on our system is 11-12 hours. We don't have an HLT just tankless. The biggest issue slowing things down is cooling at knockout and getting wort to the boil after you are done running off, no CLT so knock out could be a bit faster our kettle is steam fired but the side jacket is an add on and is pretty small. Once you get the rhythm you should be able to do it in similar time and actually less as stated in other replies. We could go faster if the kettle heated faster and if we had some cold knockout water. I would say we could shave off 2 hours.

[wailingguitar]

I mentioned I can double brew on my 10bbl Premier in about 10 hours. I failed to mention that while we have a single batch size HLT, we do have an on demand heater which we use to top up the HLT as we go through the day. I mash in my second brew at around 20 minutes before flame out on my first. I have the system configured so that I can use an external pump to vorlauf #2 if I choose. However I have found that running about a barrel of wort into the kettle and then quickly back up to the mash tun best me close enough that it isn't worth the hassle to bother.