It would be a single vessel, using the full volume BIAB technique. The vessel would also serve as a fermentation vessel.
This vessel will be of the electric brewery type and I’ve started looking into that. I would like to keep it simple and might have a simple element that I turn on and off.
Blichmann are coming out with a coil type element for under $200 that fits in the bottom of the pot and wouldn’t interfere with the BIAB bag. I wouldn’t run the element during the mash.
I’m thinking this could perhaps be a 40 - 50 gallon setup, potentially with nano applications.
After the mash, I would drain from the vessel to a simple tank on the floor and when draining has finished, I would scoop out some of the grains until the bag was manageable and then lift that out.
Then I would put the wort back into the main vessel using a pail to avoid pumps and lines that would need cleaning etc. Simple is the theme.
Then boil.
Staying with the simple theme. The vessel would have a built in immersion chiller or a double wall to run water through for chilling to pitching temperature.
Then I would ferment in that vessel for 5 – 6 days, using the chiller for correcting fermentation temperature, and then keg for keg conditioning and move kegs to a cellar.
Thus I would have a nano with one shiny Stainless Steel tank and not a room full of them, and one vessel only to clean (apart from kegs), no lines or pumps to clean and sanitise.
This one machine would produce a new batch for kegging every week. Adding another machine would double output with minimal extra space required. A high capacity output could be potentially achieved from one small room.
For marketing, the real ale could be racked from the kegs to polypins or growlers, or even to stainess steel 1L drink bottles
Any ideas, comments, improvements. It’s spacy I know, but it is a “space machine”
...Thanks.