Matt Omura and I have taken it upon ourselves to take ownership of the chiller problem and formulate and execute a plan of some sort very soon. I thought it'd be a good idea to be democratic about it and publicly source ideas and see what our resources are and people's opinion's on things. The problem with the chiller is quite simply that it's setup now forces us to move and lift large quantities of boiling liquids and it's really an accident waiting to happen, and I refuse to see one of our brothers or sisters potentially maimed from burn scars from something preventable. The safest thing to do would be to make the chiller mobile and just wheel it up to your kettle. Matt and I are coordinating to do an assesment of what fittings and/or additional hoses etc. we would need to do it. For ease of replying I'll just make a list...
1. The plan right now is to take it off the stand it's currently on and put wheels directly on the wooden frame, and evaluate what hardware, etc. we'll need to make it happen.
2. Our Chiller cart, which we'll be sure to come up with a clever name for, will also have an optional pre-chiller built in. Matt mentioned he currently has an unused immersion chiller he's willing to donate for this purpose. We will configure this so that you can choose to pre-chill your chiller water or not. If the ground water is hot, bring a bag of ice to the brewhouse for your brew , toss it in the prechiller and you'll be able to chill at a signifcantly faster rate with little to no choke on the pump. The question here is for the Pre-chiller, do we get a small 5 gallon cooler or stick it in one of the smaller pots?
3. I saw a plate chiller of some variety in a pile of stuff in the brewhouse. We can use some of the scrap 2 x 4's laying around to make more carts if we have more chillers available to us.
4. Obviously we want to do this as cheaply as we possibly can while still building something durable, what should our budget be? Should we draw up a shopping list on homedepot.com or grainger.com and submit it to someone for approval or for them to order the parts for us. Should we just go get what we need and submit the reciept for reimbursement...how should we proceed?
Matt and Joe,
This is awesome and is very much needed. Thanks for spearheading this.
1. I like the idea of making the chiller moveable and on wheels. I think you have the right idea as far as having the frame on casters. I would just make sure the casters are very strong and can support a full 10 gallon pot (same goes for the overall frame). I would also make sure the wheels have locks on them so they can be stablized while chilling.
2. The pre-chiller is also and excellent and much needed addition. I like the idea of having a removable assembly (wort chiller mounted in a 5 gallon bucket) that can be quick-disconnected in or out of the equation and used in-line with the main CFC.
Thanks for taking this on and I can't wait to see this completed.
1. My only thought is something we talked about this weekend, lets make it so its low to the ground so the pot enver has to be lifed, moved, etc. I'm really a fat old lazy man at heart, and anything we can do to meet that need is much appreciated :-).
2. I agree with Kyle, something we can QD in and out would be optimal, but given that its our source water it may be easier just to build it in permanently and if we have to push a bit more water through coils in addition to the hose, so be it. If you don't want to chill, don't fill the cooler. I would say if we do use a cooler, lets add a cheap PVC drain plug to it.
3. Once you have a plan and budget, just bring it up at the next board meeting and we'll make sure it gets voted on, approved, etc. I'm guessing most of the board will be reading this. If you want it to happen faster than the next meeting, just let me know and I'll make sure it gets voted on digitally ASAP. I'll even bust a few heads with my old man cane while screaming "back in my day!"
Oh... my... god. Why haven't we done this? http://thechive.com/2013/09/17/guys-rig-up-buddies-plumbing-with-beer-wh...
I agree with Lucas; the goal should be to never even move the kettle from the burner. This is obviously easier with the blichmann burners than the other two, but I think the chiller cart could be constructed in such a way that if those burners were elevated a small amount (like up on cinder blocks) it would work.
The only thing on the chiller cart that must be below the outlet of the kettle is the pump inlet. As long as the pump inlet is at or near the bottom of the cart, that should make it easier to get/keep the pump primed.
There is a broken Igloo clooer that could be used as the Pre-Chiller at the brew house currently and would be significanly better than a 5 gallon bucket. Just an idea.
What's broken is the brass spigot snapped in two.
Thanks for all of the responses and good ideas, and thanks Joe for starting this thread. I will be making a trip out to the burbs to pick up a lot of my old brewing equipment sometime in the next week... pre-chiller included.
Joe and I will look to make a list of parts and a have a general design thought up at least by next meeting if not sooner.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only thing that needs to be low for this to work is the pump, and it just needs to be lower than the top of the lowest burner, which is even easier with the cinder blocks mentioned above.
Oh... my... god. Why haven't we done this? http://thechive.com/2013/09/17/guys-rig-up-buddies-plumbing-with-beer-wh...
FYI, went to grab my stuff the other day and could not find my immersion chiller. I did grab my counterflow chiller and left it at the brewhouse. It works, but I would like to re-design it to work a little bit better. So:
1. Do we want two stationary chilling stations? This still would not solve our issue of not moving a large boil kettle.
2. Would adding my counterflow to the existing one would be beneficial? I dont think this is the most efficient (especially in the summertime, when the groundwater is warmer).
I think the best plan of action is to finish the first box with a pre-chiller, qick disconnects and casters. Then we can see if we need a second. I have yet to look into hardware...been busy.
I agree with you on #2, lets try one and see if a second one would be helpful. My $0.02 is to keep them mobile and bring the chiller to the hot stuff and not vice versa, but ultimately whatever you guys think is best you should do!
Oh... my... god. Why haven't we done this? http://thechive.com/2013/09/17/guys-rig-up-buddies-plumbing-with-beer-wh...
Back to the top, folks.
I have a 25' immersion pre-chiller ready to go.
4 Industrial casters are ~$55
http://www.foodservicewarehouse.com/krowne-metal/28-113s/p4160.aspx?utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=Krowne-Metal-28-113S&utm_campaign=Accessory-Casters&utm_source=google&source=googleps&gclid=CIyivo_HvbsCFUho7Aod7lIAEA
To attach cold water lines, metal quick disconnects, ~$8, quantity 2
http://www.amazon.com/Gilmour-09QCGT-2-Piece-Green-Connector/dp/B000BQS2I0/ref=pd_sim_sbs_indust_5
Will need T's (~$3-5 quantity 2-3) to tap into the current cold water supply. These will have quick disconnects.
A bucket or a small cooler to hold the immersion "pre-chiller" with ice ~$10
Misc tubes, fittings, clamps ~$10
Total for project: ~$110
Attached is a pic of where I would put cold water T's and QDs.
Thoughts and approval?
Also, I would have to re-mount the chiller lower on the stand or redesign the stand to accomodate for the low banjo burners.
Yesterday Josh and myself cleaned and installed new hoses on the chiller. There have been a significant amount of fruit flies in the general area of the chiller and it was most likely due to the amount of dried wort coating the sides and bottom.
The chiller was completely taken apart and scrubbed and then put back together with new hoses.
There are still some design flaws that need to be worked out on this, but it keeps moving in the right direction.