The boys from Cyrius Media are going to start playing around with the website. There will be some trials of colour schemes – the colours are taken from the labels, and some playing with the structure of the site.
Any comments you have about any of the changes will be very welcome.
Spam for industrial stuff can sometimes be quite interesting, even if it is not that practical. Recently I had an email from a Chinese printer specialising in self-adhesive beer labels. They sent the label below as an example of their work. Fellow Gruen Transfer afficiandoes will share my delight.
How do you calculate the heating requirements for a brewery or anything else?
First up there is the heat capacity, or specific heat of water. It takes 4.2 kilojoules of energy to raise the temperature of 1 kg of water by 1 degree C. Power is energy over time. One kilowatt is one kilojoule per second, or 3,600 kJ an hour. So to raise the temperature of 1 kg of water in one second would require one kilowatt of power.
The brewery has a capacity of 15 US barrels, about 1,750 litres. The amount of mash water will be about 1,000 litres. I want to heat the mash water from 10 degrees to 72 degrees over an hour:
(1000 kilograms x 62 degrees x 4.2 kJ) / 1 hour = 260,400 kJ/hour
Dividing 260,400 kJ per hour by 3,600 gives 73 kilowatts of power required to heat the mash water.
To heat 1300 litres of sparge water from 10 degrees to 80 degrees over the course of an hour would require
(1300 x 70 x 4.2) / (1 x 3,600) = 106 kilowatts
How much power is needed to lift the temperature of the mash 10 degrees over 15 mins? The specific heat of malt is about 40% of that of water. Let’s say the mash is 1000 litres of water and 325 kg of malt.
((1000 kgs of water + 325 kgs of malt x 0.4) x 10 x 4.2) / (0.25 hour x 3,600) = (1130 x 10 x 4.2) / 900 = 53 kilowatts
Once the mash and sparge are finished the next step is to boil the wort. To heat the collected wort of say 1900 litres from 60 degrees to 100 degrees in 45 minutes would require
(1900 x 40 x 4.2) / (0.75 x 3,600) = 319,200/2,700 = 118 kilowatts
This is heating from a standing start, of course as the wort is run into the kettle from the mash and sparge heat would be applied so the actual power required would be somewhat less.
Now heating a liquid is one thing, getting it to boil and change state is another. While it only takes 4.2 kilojoules to lift the temperature of 1 kg of water by one degree, it takes 2260 kilojoules to change the state of the 1 kg water from a liquid at 100 degrees to steam at 100 degrees. Explains why a watched pot never boils. This is the latent heat of vaporisation.
So to boil this 1900 litres of wort with 7% evaporation an hour would require
(1900 x 0.07 x 2260) / 1 x 3600 = 84 kilowatts
So you can see that a 100 kilowatt (10 boiler horsepower) boiler would be the barest minimum. It would allow only one heating task at a time. For example, to raise temperature of the mash for a multi-temperature mash would mean cutting back the heating of sparge water. Lack of boiler power could limit the type of mash regimes and would make for a longer brew day.
A 150 kilowatt boiler would be a lot easier but brewing twice in a day would be quite tricky. Ideally you would want to start the second brew as early as possible, rather than waiting until the first brew is completely finished. Once the run-off is finished you would try to empty the mash tun as quickly as possible – remembering the grain will be hot. During this time you would be heating both the first wort number and mash water for brew number two. Next you would be simultaneously boiling the first wort and heating the second sparge water. If you were not doing a step mash, and with some careful planning and juggling then it might be possible to squeeze two brews out of a long day with a 150 kilowatt boiler. So, in the end it really needs to be a 200 kilowatt boiler.
Yesterday met with the boiler guys. The brewery needs a packaged steam boiler – the kettle, mash tun and hot liquor tank are all steam heated. The minimum requirements are about 100 kW or 10 boiler HP. This would only allow one heating task at a time. Brewing twice in a day would not really be feasible. 150 kW would still be a bit marginal for brewing twice in a day. Ideally you would want to start the second mash while boiling the first wort. So looking at a 200 kW boiler.
Initially considered an electric boiler as they are fairly easy to install. However a 120 KW boiler will pull 170 amps on each of three phases. Most places are just not wired for that amount of current. And electricity is not cheap. A while back I calculated the hourly running costs for a 150 kW boiler were $24.75 for electricity, $22.45 for bottled LPG and $10.75 for natural gas from the mains. One of the main reason for choosing the premises was availability of mains gas.
Should have a quote for the boiler, installation, pipework and commissioning early next week.
One of the major pieces of work to do is to install a sloping floor and sump on top of the current floor in order to collect liquid wastes. The new floor will be approximately 160 square meters and will slope down and into a sump of about 700 litres. Waste water will be pumped from the sump to a settling tank. Minimum thickness of the new floor will be 100 mm, the slope will be 5mm per metre. Will use a 40 mPa concrete, with 82 mm reinforcing, and an epoxy finish.
Met with the concretor on Saturday afternoon.
The last six months have been a bit of a mess, but now things are moving again.
The DA was approved, but with about six or seven pages of conditions. One of the conditions was to install a disabled toilet. Yes a disabled toilet in a factory not open to the public. The Building Code of Australia requires disabled toilets in new buildings. It also requires them when a construction certificate is necessary for any work and that work includes the toilet area. The Building Code of Australia does not require disabled toilets when a construction certificate is necessary and the work does not involve the toilets. However, Penrith Council does.
And, the toilets also have to satisfy food premises requirements – well of course you would expect that.
Met with the builder during the week and have now worked out how to do these bloody toilets without it turning into a major project itself.
It looks like Penrith Council has approved the development application for the brewery. According to the Penrith Council website, consent has been given for the brewery although notification was still to be “generated”. I expect I’ll receive a letter over the course of this week.
I think I have solved the problem with Council. This morning I had a phone conversation with someone from the Public Health Unit who initially raised a concern about the proposed disposal of the brewery’s spent grain. Their concern was relatively minor but the planner took it as a more serious concern. I will ring tomorrow, Tuesday, to follow up. The deadline turned out to be March 30th. It is the planner’s last day with Penrith Council.
I telephoned the planner’s number, it rang out to another extension and was eventually answered by a recording. I will try again tomorrow. The letters says that I have until January 31st, 2011 to provide the information. Not bad for a letter dated March 16, 2011. Welcome to the mash-tardis.
I’ve had a letter from Penrith Council about the development application. There is a hiccough over the disposal of the brewery’s spent grain. The plan was for it to go to Charlie’s cows at Llandillo. The letter is open to interpretation, so first, clarfication is needed. I rang the Council planner today but he was unavailable. I will try again tomorrow, Thursday.
Preparing for today’s phone call I found out how much a cow eats..