dylan byrne

Glenn Herbert wrote:Gap C between riser and pot needs to be at least 5 or 6 cm and gap D around the pot probably 2 or 3 cm; and you need a big transition area from the top of gap D to the chimney pipe - ideally a thick donut of airspace that the flue gases can flow easily around and reach the chimney. All of these are to avoid choking the draft. 8" is a pretty big system and I think as big as you want to get.

Depending on the consistency of the beer material you might have issues with overheating and scorching, so keep that in mind as you test and be prepared to add a diffuser plate so the 2000F flue gases don't hit the pot directly. (Water doesn't care of course as it can't scorch )

Hi Glenn, sorry I've been away from this for a while, just wanted to say thanks for the reply! Really helpful....

Hey Alan Loy (and others),

I took your advice and looked into designing a j-tube version of the Institutional Rocket Stove. I have looked around for something similar but can’t seem to find anything; most J-tubes and batch boxes seem to be for Mass Heaters not cooking.
See my design here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fvuidnz9cxe547i/diagram%2001.jpg?dl=0

As I mentioned I need to boil beer in an open pot for 60-90mins. Ideally I would like to be able to scale up my design to boil quantities of up to 200L at a time. The system here is for a 100L pot (70L) boil so I am looking to double the amount of beer I need to boil.

As you can see the design is a hybrid of an institutional rocket stove (Apravecho research centre) and a J-tube rocket system – hopefully not a total dog’s dinner! I haven’t included any trip wire or Peter Channel yet as first of I am just wondering if the basics of this design are actually going to work. I will be using highly insulative bricks throughout to ensure all of the heat hits the pot and doesn’t get lost on the way.


Questions:

Is this any good? Would it work?

If it might work, what tweaks could I do to improve it? Or have I got it all completely wrong!?

What would be the best way to scale this up to double the size? Could I keep the J-tube the same but make a wider/taller barrel configuration to hold a bigger pot, or would I need to increase the rocket stove itself?

I am using an 8inch (20.3cm) system – do I have the J-tube set up correctly? I have used a 1:2:4 ratio shown by the dotted line.


Thanks

Dylan

Hey...

Wow thanks for all the help already!
Jason Learned, sorry to hear about your Thai brew setup being stolen! However your plans for the next one sound pretty epic, and quite technical - I like the immersion heater idea to keep at temps, I am guessing it doesnt use much power to keep temp rather than raise it. And good thoughts on the scorching and valve.  Better book that trip to California

Alan Loy - Thanks man really useful, good to hear from an Ozzie on the subject of beer!  ok I get you, I am familiar with the j-tube but will do some research on the batch burner...do you mean batch box? I just found some very interesting stuff on that - where you can load lots of wood at one...oh and just discovered the P-Channel - time to crank it up a gear and get back to the drawing board

Mat Smith - So yes the plan is to have a 3 tier gravity system - no pumps - no HERMs just Hot Liquor Tank (HLT) - Mash Tun and Boil Kettle.
The plan was to use rocket stove heater 1 as the HLT, so I can have a load of hot water on tap as and when I need it, however it could also be for household use when not brewing?? (not sure yet.)
The 200L is split - 100L for the initial Mash, then another 100L an hour later for the sparge
(so for non brewers that is basically 100L poured on the grain then you let it sit for an hour - Mash, then another 100L poured over the top to rinse the grain - Sparge)
So I could heat 100L then start again and heat another 100L as long as it took less/= an hour, so I had the next 100L ready for the sparge...

What I like about the coil system, if it can reach 78C (170F) is that it is scaleable - so if I decide to make a bigger brewery it still works, as long as i have enough wood!

And if I can increase the boil kettle size too with a batch burner/box it could all start coming together....with lots more research.  Including how much wood do I need to heat X amount of water! Any ideas? Are there any rough calcs out there, or are there too many variables?  I am thinking of growing Willow coppiced and kiln dried...

On a side note: Its funny i went to an old 19th century house today for a visit and in the back courtyard you can see how, back in the day, they made cheese, laundry, bread, salted meat etc AND there was a brewery! There were 2 massive (1000L approx) vats with fires underneath, the fires weren't huge and very simple. Apparently the beer would leave the vats, travel along a long pipe to the cellar (to cool) then get tapped and ferment - but guess what the vats were made of.....LEAD! lovely lead lined brewing pots...yummy! Also lead boxes were used to salt the meat in!

Thanks again guys, beers coming your way if this thing works!

Hello!
I am pretty new to rocket stoves however in typical newbie fashion I have my sights set high for what I would like to achieve with one!
I am aiming to set up a brewery that is fired completely with two(or more) rocket stoves. The fuel would be coppiced willow grown on our land and kiln dried.

Here’s my rough plan:

Rocket stove water heater 1
For the initial part of the brewing process  (hot water is mixed with the grains)

Design based on:
Immersion coil design (similar to this - http://www.permaculturenews.org/images/rocket_water_heater_diagram2.jpg)

What it needs to do:
Raise 200 Litres (42 gal) of water from ambient temperature to 78C (170F) in less than 3 hours.  Water will then be used up in 2 x 100L batches.

Questions:
Will the water ever get that hot in this type of design?
Is it the most efficient way of heating lots of water?
I imagine this is scaleable (as long as temps are reached) whilst the fire burns, and the tap is running?


Rocket Stove Water Heater 2
To boil the beer.

Design based on:
Institutional barrel stove -    

What it needs to do:
Boil 160L (42gal) of beer rigorously for 1 hour.

Questions:
Is this the best design for this?
Is there a limit to how big this design can get? (i realise i would have to make my own drums etc, i.e not a 55gal drum)
What if I wanted to boil 400L (105 gal) of water?


Thanks to all in advance!

D