The South Plains Project

It's been a long process since one year ago I decided to launch this microbrewery myself. I have changed ideas, purpose and the scope of this project countless times. After one year of saving & saving (thank you Icopal) I am finally as of this week purchasing my brewery equipment. I spent about 75,000 crowns ( $11,000) on five pieces of equipment. Most are 20-30 years old, I found them used in southern Germany. First my brew kettle:

It's a 1200 liter (317 gallons), steam jacketed stainless steel kettle with a hydraulic pump that can tilt it, mainly for cleaning, it has a conical bottom with a valve. Next my mash tun:

I bought a used 1150 liter agitator vessel that I will modify to use as my mash tun. I'll put in 125 kg of grains and 600 liters of water at the right temperature to get a perfect conversion of malt starch to malt sugar. The agitator propeller helps to keep the grains turning for a better conversion. The fermenting vessels:

I bought three of these to start with. I can use them for primary & secondary fermentation. They hold 900 liters and up to 3 bar pressure but I will fit it with a pressure relief valve I can control at say, ½ bar and keep my beer naturally carbonated. They have a really cool hatch in the top so I can dry hop.  And lastly, the Hot Liquor Tank. Funny name, it's actually a hot water tank but that's what it's called in brewery terminology.

It holds 650 liters and has multiple inlets and outlets and is heated by a steam generator via a inner coil. I'll use it for multiple purposes but mainly to heat the water to sparge (rinse) my mash, Right as I was ready to purchase, the Euro dropped and so the conversion was a great rate for me, saving me alot of money. The equipment is going on a truck this week and on it's way to Sweden

The South Plains Project- 'Circulating the Mash Tun Wort'

In designing this brewery I'm looking to use the latest in technology to create a maximum efficiency system to convert malt starch into malt sugar. Normally in a brewery, the grains are put in a large bin and by adding hot water to a certain temperature, they create a conversion from malt starch to malt sugar, the sweet liquid, called wort, can then be fermented into beer. Depending on how you obtain that conversion greatly effects the efficiency of the conversion. Many artisan brewers have efficiency ratings of 70-80%. This is often done by loading a large kettle with grains and heated water, and stabilizing the temperature at say 68 degrees Celsius, for one hour while continuously stirring the grains so they don't burn. Here's a drawing of how I perceive the HERMS system will work.

I'm trying to design a system that uses a concept called Heat Exchanged Recirculating Mash System or HERMS for short and the theory goes like this...

         The 630 liter Hot Liquor Tank with circulating coil

The March Pump


  the Mash Tun and Hot Liquor (hot water) tank  are combined to  circulate the liquid wort  through a  heat exchanger coil located in the Hot Liquor Tank using the using the March pump to keep the liquid wort temperature constant at 68 degrees Celsius. I have a thermostat attached to flip the March pump off and on to keep the temperature constant. The Hot Liquor Tank is powered by the Ghidini Steam Compressor.  So as the pump recirculates the wort at a constant temperature, I get a excellent conversion efficiency ratio, usually around 98 %

                                                    The 670 liter Mash Tun

Then by turning a valve, I pump the wort into the Boiling Kettle and sparge (rinse) the mash with hot water to collect the remaining sugars and later also pump those into the kettle.

Desserts

I'v been doing desserts every year now for the American Womens Club annual meeting, this year I did my Seven Fruit Tart and served it with a Moelleux au Cholcolat, made with Valrhona chocolate, it has a warm chocolate ganache center that melts when the dark chocolate souffle rises and runs out like a rich sauce. I served it with a Grand Marnier Chantilly Cream. It was quite a hit!

The South Plains Project

A simple floor plan design for the South Plains Brewery

The South Plains Project

                 I am currently in the midst of building a microbrewery. What a enormous project! I have been shopping for months online, searching for used tanks and kettle to build this within my meager budget. When I finally found a large kettle, I just thought I would get a gas burner. Then I emailed Kal at 'The Electric Brewery' in Canada to ask about heating element inserts. He said for my volume, 500+ liters, the only way to go is to power a steam jacketed kettle with  a steam generator. Here's a photo of the steam jacketed kettle I found, used in Germany.

  This would work perfectly for me. It has a 550 liter capacity, can tip with a hand crank, a valve in the bottom, and a operating pressure of 1 bar steam. I could bring 550 liters liquid to a boil in 30 minutes. Cost: 1460 euro, 13360 Swedish Crowns or $2000. Less than one fifth of what it sold for new.
             Then I needed to find a steam generator (last week I had never heard of it, now I needed one) so after endless Google searches I found a small company in Denmark that could sell me a small steam generator. Cost: 6600 euro, 60,000 sek or $9000. I must say, I was shocked at the price. I'm sure it's absolutely worth it and that's what they go for but it wasn't in my budget. Here's a photo of the Maxi 60 steam generator.

                     Then I noticed the name...'Ghidini' and thought, doesn't that sound Italian so I went on Google Italy and after some searching and translation, I found a site for Ghidini and after numerous emails was able to negotiate a price for 2500 euro, 22,800 sek or $3500. Now suddenly it was within my range, with a huge saving from my first estimate!

AWC Regional Conference

I recently did appetizers and desserts for the American Womens Club regional meeting. The menu was simple but elegant

Smoked salmon crepes of herbs & fresh cheese

Pork filet, roasted potatoes, feta, cukes, ruccola

Wild mushrooms on puff pastry hearts

Goat cheese, sundried tomato pesto

Gateau Basque ( Cherries & rum in vanilla bean cookie dough)

Auteuil  ( White chocolate-anise mousse, genoise biscuit, raspberries)

Strawberry Napoleon

I got a wonderful comment from Kara Fairchild after the party I'd like to share

Hi Jeff,

I just had to send a note to you about your food at the regional. I have been member o f the AWC of Malmö for about a year, but  didn't get to a club event that you catered. Then, I moved back to Göteborg. So, the regional was actually the first time I tasted your cooking. It's...CRAVABLE. I am a foodie. I am also a vegetarian. The canapes and the desserts (I didn't try the white chocolate cake because I suspected gelatin (could be wrong, of course. Hope not though because it looked to die for and I would hate to think I missed out on it!) were some of the best foods I have ever had in Sweden. Suburb. Someone across the table from me said that the pork canape was the best thing she had even tasted. The smell of meat doesn't do much for me anymore, but even *I*, a seasoned veggie, have to admit that the smell and sight of the pork was making me salivate. Then I took a bite of my own food and the pork was a mere memory! =)  More than anything, and I can not stress this enough, I walked away feeling totally satisfied with the food that I had been served. Anyway, that is all I really wanted to say. You did such a fabulous job on the food!

Kara

A Brief Summary and The South Plains Project

A lot has happened since I wrote my last blog. My partner who I had planned to open my microbrewery backed out because he was worried it was too risky. I however felt I had a superior product and felt quite confident that my beer could sell. So I decided to do it by myself. I added a bifirma, a second company under my existing business and called the company 'South Plains Brewing Company', the region I'm in , söderslätt, means south plains in English, anyway, I liked the sound of it. I have arranged to rent a small workshop on a farm, it's set up like a kitchen, previously used to smoke fish so it's a perfect place for me to set up equipment, fermenters & tanks.However, I needed a way to finance my equipment so I took a full time job running a company's restaurant, Icopal, located in the port of Malmö, doing a international/Swedish menu daily. I do breakfast & lunch for 30-60 people everyday. It's been working out great for me. Since then I've been purchasing equipment every month. This month I'm purchasing two 600 liter fermenters from Germany, they are very cool with a floating lid that hermetically seals.
Here's a photo... It looks small but is actually pretty large, 72x150 cm.

 So I expect to be producing 1200 liters  a month by Christmas, and I am

very excited about it. Last month I entered a competition for microbreweries
and Artisan craft brewers here in southern Sweden, and I had been sick and didn't think I would be able to go but ended up going anyway. I had a booth with two kegs, my Pale Ale & my Imperial IPA. I gave out about 200 10ml
samples and at the end of the night, much to my surprise, I won.My IPA took the bronze medal. I know everyone always liked it but I never expected

to win the competition. Here's the label I made for the competition. The IBU figure is the level of bitterness, this amber ale is very bitter, a fairly high alcohol percent, 8%, with a wonderful floral hoppy aftertaste, very well balanced, completely organic, a absolutely fabulous beer!