Home Brewing Systems for Lagers

Not sure what you mean. I have a 50l+ and a 20L+ that I use for R&D purposes that I got from Braumeister for developing parts for them (hint the new low oxygen brewing kit!). What exactly are you looking for?

 

Hrmm..

The BM is the brewing system. Not the fermenter, same with the Grain father.

You still need to be able to lift (I use an electric winch) the grain basket, and then be able to transfer to a fermenter (but they have pumps).

Conical will certainly be able to fit in chest freezers and fridges, especially the 5g ones.

 

If you are talking something that mashes, boils, AND ferments all in one connected system, I'm not sure I have ever seen anythng like that either.

Now if you were to take one of those hot side systems, like the Grainfather, and combined it with a fermentor like this from SS brewtech- https://www.ssbrewtech.com/pages/chronical-brewmaster-edition - which cools with a coil, transferring between the two with a pump, would that be in line with what you thinking?

The coil attachment would be cheaper than glycop jacketed, I would think (though they have those as well). You could also get a standup fridge that fits a conical. Again, pumps would be your biggest tool. Cleaning could be an issue though.

Then you still have to get the beer from fermentor to keg. If you wanted to skip that, and blow a ton of money at the same time, I guess there is always this - https://wlabsinnovations.com/products/vessi-fermentor-dispenser - though they are sold out, probably not a good sign for that company.

 

Well, that stinks. Net searching certainly didn't return a genuine all-in-one single-vessel solution.

If your brewhouse has relatively level and smooth access to the outside would it be feasible to get a fermentor with a wheel kit and a warming jacket* then move it outside during the colder months, maybe even to a small insulated hut to keep the wind at bay and help prevent it getting too cold? But that's not a year-round fix and you'd still be relegated to small batches in the warmer months.
Looking for a silver lining, smaller batches might rekindle some creativity for experimentation.

I'm optimistic there's a solution, even if it doesn't jibe with your current visualization.

*I realize the GrainCoat is for straight-sided vessel. Without knowing your threshold for expenditures, the concept behind this contraption might work as it specifically mentions "it can get to and hold lager fermentation temperatures of 48-52°F".

 

Certainly Ontario is conducive to brewing lagers in small batches in the winter...maybe split batches between 2 fermenters to make moving them easier.

 

The Brewers Edge Mash & Boil has a fermentation lid that allows you to do this all in one vessel. However, @OldBrewer would still have to lift the grain basket and come up with a temperature solution.

 

Right, you did, oops. For some reason I thought they were jacketed, but they do sell a separate glycol unit.

I had thought someone actually told me they rigged it to circulate cold water from their keezer, but I'm not sure of the logistics or efficiency.

I have a Stouts fermentor that fits in an old Pepsi fridge, but you are right about the moving around to clean and such.

 

Maybe you were remembering this McGyver gizmo (scroll down to video)

 

Paraphrased from a description of the double-walled Grainfather Conical Pro:
The cavity between the walls has a 30 Watt, 12V heating element. The element heats the space between the walls, transferring the heat to the inner wall and then to the beer.
In between the two stainless steel walls sits a liquid cooling sleeve. The outer walls have ½” female threaded outlets and inlets for installing hose barbs that run to/from a water pump or glycol chiller.
The double-wall design makes it easy to clean because the interior of the fermentor is smooth....no protrusions inside because the ½” females are made into the outside wall.

8-gallon capacity....plenty for 5- but way short of 10-gallons (you'd hafta get two).

Not many reviews around, and the two I did find complained about things that could be related to “getting the bugs worked out” of a new product

 

I have the SS Brewtech 7G Unitank with standard FTSs (run from a 10G cooler and frozen water bottles) This system will not keep 5-6 gallons down to correct lager fermentation temps. I can’t imagine trying to control bigger batch sizes without a chamber to put it in. I think the FTSs is only good for maintaining temps 10f lower than ambient. Certainly won’t let you get anywhere near cold crash/ lager temps for a meaningful length of time. What you’ll need is the FTSs + Glycol unit they sell - but it’s spendy.

It weighs an absolute ton empty and is a bit of pig to move around without casters. They’re quite compact and will fit in an upright freezer, but again bit of a pain getting it in and out. (Could fill via pump from BK and use a CIP attachment to minimise this)

Other than those points it’s excellent. The Braumiester also looks like a great bit of kit. There’s a guy on YouTube with some excellent brew day videos with his in action. I think he has an electric pulley set up to lift the grain basket. Makes brew day seem effortless.

It has a couple of limitations though. It’s a long time since I looked into buying one so I may be incorrect. I think the malt pipe won’t hold enough grain to produce wort over a certain gravity (guessing 1.070 from memory) If that’s an issue for a huge doppelbock or whatever you might have to reiterated mash or carry out a long boil to get round this. If you like to vary your batch size, 5G and 10G - I don’t think you can produce a smaller amount of wort without buying the additional short pipe. Something to do with the way in which the pump flows up over the heating element and grain.

 

It sounds like the braumiester and a pulley system could fill your wort making needs. For fermentation, if you don’t mind dropping to just less than 5G batches you could look into using corny kegs. They’d be easier to move in and out of a stand up freezer and still allow fermenting under pressure/ closed transfers to keep oxygen out. Head space needed for a lager under pressure is minimal. If you only racked the cleanest of wort to the keg your trub losses should be pretty negligible.