South Plains Project: The Steam Generator

A year ago I had never heard of a steam generator, now I need one. This is the most expensive piece of equipment I've bought, 3320 Euro (29,000 SEK or $4300) with the optional condensation recovery tank. I decided to buy new because I was a little nervous of buying a used thinking it could blow up. The Maxi 60 by Ghidini, just outside Milano, Italy can put out 5 bar of pressure and has a output of 55 liters steam using a 60kW fuse that can give me 51,700 kCal/hour or 81-83 Kg/hour. In short, it ROCKS! I'll be able to power my 1200 liter kettle and 650 liter Hot Liquor Tank and use a steam gun for cleaning. I need one more piece of equipment now, the brazed plate heat exchanger and I've found one I like for a good price, I just need to get the company to build me one and then I have everything for The South Plains Project.

Jennie Liwander's father's 60th birthday party

I wanted to write about a very nice menu I did for Jennie Liwander's father's 60th birthday party, he loves gourmet food so they hired me for the evening.  I started the menu with a seared scallop, on a bed of lemon braised greens with créme fraiche, then gratineed with a wine wine cream sauce & parmesan over it. It's a wonderful starter and sets the tone for the evening. Second course was Lobster Bisque, I made a fond from the shells and used real Canadian lobsters. The father said it was the best bisque he had ever had.Next was one of my favorites, Monk-fish...  I do this monk-fish in a way that is first poached in fish bouillon with herbs, then taken out and sauteed in brown butter with shallots & herbs and sliced so it's brown and green on the outside and white & moist in the center, served on lightly sauteed root veggies and served with a tangy white butter sauce on a bed of sweet polenta....many people have told me it's the best fish dish they've ever had. After they cleansed the palate with a raspberry sorbet, the main  course was fresh Irish Lamb Chops, seared then roasted and rested ½ hour so they are completely pink and very moist. They were served with eggplant caviar, thats eggplant roasted with garlic and thyme, pureed and filled in the roasted eggplant and baked with parmesan, also a cranberry chutney, Pomme Dauphinois Gratin potatoes and a black truffle sauce. For dessert they had the Gateau Basque, a vanilla bean cookie dough filled with  a rich dark cherry-rum filling, served with a red fruits sauce and I make some decorative caramel. It was excellent, and I'll quote Jennie Liwander who said:

Hej Jeff!

Vill bara tacka för en underbar middag! Vi njuter fortfarande av minnet av den utsökta maten och de goda vinerna. Småbråkar om vilken rätt som egentligen var godast....:-)!

Stort tack! 

Jennie 

which translated from Swedish means:

Hi Jeff!

Just want to thank you for a wonderful dinner! We still enjoy the memory of the delicious food and good wines. Small arguing about which course was actually taste the best ....:-)!

Many thanks!

Jennie 

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!