Spike Brewing Steam Condenser Review
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 26 сен 2020
- Looking for a solution to prevent steaming up your brewing area. You need to take a look at the Spike Brewing Steam Condenser as a solution.
spikebrewing.com/products/ste...
(It does appear that they are making condensers for smaller systems now)
Patreon Link
/ shortcircuitedbrewers
Stuff I use all the time
4# PBW FREE SHIPPING amzn.to/3fiRJD8
pH Meter I use amzn.to/2zbFM1J
Hydrometer/thermometer amzn.to/2xJI3kk
Refractometer amzn.to/2L3YtXw
Drill I use for my grain mill amzn.to/3fnYtQd
1/2" tubing I use amzn.to/2L7ELKx
Best keg washer amzn.to/2L7ELKx
Co2 Regualtor amzn.to/2xBJWPM
Co2 supply line amzn.to/3camhox
The fan I use in my hood amzn.to/3b8gyOZ
Glass rinser in my bar amzn.to/35zPIxU
Delta glass rinser amzn.to/35AKCS8
My gear
Canon M6 Mark ii amzn.to/3b8j9IJ
Speed Booster amzn.to/3fu07jw
Main lens amzn.to/35zc3fc
2nd camera amzn.to/2SHM7Zr
Lens adapter amzn.to/35D9714
Lav Mic for livestreams amzn.to/3b6rCvT
Lights amzn.to/3b8kP4Z
Softboxes amzn.to/2WyAqFv
FB - Facebook.com/shortcircuitedbrewers
Instagram - @shortcircuitedbrewer
Twitter - @shortcircuitbru
Reddit - shortcircuitedbrewer
Support our channel by purchasing a t-shirt or sticker: www.shortcircuitedbrewers.com...
If you find value in our content, please consider shopping for all of your home brewing needs using our affiliate links below. It does not cost you a cent more and it helps us bring you more quality content. Thank you for your support! -Brian
Morebeer:
goo.gl/wkSI4L
Adventures in Homebrewing:
goo.gl/u3NCMc
Great Fermentations
goo.gl/FPb7Zy
Brew Hardware:
goo.gl/Q27Vso
Williams Brewing:
goo.gl/ZJqxaR
Badass video badass b-roll! Definitely getting this product. Thanks for the great information.
Welcome! Glad you enjoyed! 👍🍻
Thanks for the review Brian. Been considering getting this for my system
Thanks for watching!! 👍🍻
I love that brew montage super cinematic, I think I know how much work that must have been, I definitely think it was worth it. Steam condensers are the way of the future I'm thinking if it's within your budget. I especially like this shot of that light shining into the steam lid 🍻
Thanks Bradley!! It was a little work but it was fun!
Interesting review, kinda wish they made this product back in my apartment brewing days. But DAMN that brewing montage was slick!!!
Haha thanks!! 👍🍻
Great review Brian! Wow....really upping your game on the sexy brew footage lol 😜 Sláinte!
👍🍻
I received my Condenser earlier this week. I set up a recirculation of the chill water through my plate chiller and ran the fermentor chiller hoses to cool. My glycol temp rose from 27 to 44 ºF over the hour boil. I started with 2.5 gallons of water in the bucket and unit added 1/2 gallon of condensate to bucket. I was very happy with the lid and recirc of water to limit water usage.
Nice thanks for the tip! 👍🍻
I’m going to need a cold shower after that sultry montage! 🍻
Haha!! Glad you "enjoyed" it!! Lol
I agree. Leave it to Brian to make brewing beer pornographic. The way he slips in his heating element, and clamps down those tri-clover valves... WOW! 😅
@@HomeBrewingTV hahaha!! Just making sure everyone is still awake! Cheers Paul!!
Very nicely done Brian! Really like the slo mo sequence section, very cool. This hood looks well designed and thought out. I just hope Spike start looking at the European market soon! They have so much great stuff to offer and it seems crazy that their range is not available to Europeans!
I know!! They need to get these products over to you all!! Thanks David!!
@@ShortCircuitedBrewers You know ive tried! Its like they do not like money?! :P
@@DavidHeathHomebrew haha maybe?? Or they have their hands full with the US market.
Yep - wish we could get our hands on these in Australia too! They would sell very well
@@WoollyCraftBeer I'm sure!!
Roll that beautiful beer footage.
Haha! 👍🍻
Looks really nice option for basement brewing. When you factor in the cost of an exhaust fan and a hood seems to kind of equal out the price
That is true..! 👍🍻
I love it. Might have to get one. Cheers 🍻
👍🍻
Nice review! I've used mine twice now. Overall, I like the condenser since it allows me to brew in the basement without a hood. Couple other gripes for me is this thing is loud! Doesn't make for a pleasant boil session but it's a minor gripe. I've also noticed that I've had some very long boil over warning periods with the condenser installed. My last boil kept foaming for 30 minutes before it settled down and I decreased the power. I think next time I'll let it boil uncovered for a good five minutes before installing the condenser. It wasn't a fun experience constantly spraying the foam down and shutting the heat off and waiting a bit. I'll get it dialed down eventually but it's not as simple as I had hoped. Fermcap ordered. I think that will help.
Yes ferm cap should help. 👍🍻
Even with a steam condenser, I've found it's necessary to have a vent due to the odors. A condenser definitely helps by not needing a hood and huge fan ($$). You can get by with an inexpensive bathroom fan and smaller hole. As you mentioned, some people are sensitive to the smell, my wife among them. There's that and I just don't want my house and the clothes in my closet to smell like a brewery.
Not a bad idea. My wife likes the smell so it's not an issue for me. 👍🍻
That slow motion!
RIGHT?!?!
Good content in this review. Nice editing work on the vid. Spike make a great product. The water consumption is a concern but seems like some good suggestions on recirculation. I noticed that you just dump your hops in and don't stir them in due to the lid. Any issues there?
Not that I've found. The rolling boil does a thorough mix IMO. Thanks for the comments! 👍🍻
Thanks for this video Brian. I just ordered one of these lids for my 20 gallon Claw Hammer system. It just dawned on me that I can't use a hop basket. I don't use a bazooka that came with my system as I have modified it with an elbow to draw more wort from the kettle at the end of the brew. I run the system through a whirlpool at the end of brewing to pass the wort through my plate chiller so I can't have hops going through there. I guess I will need to go back to the old hop bags but am worried about them coming in contact with the element. Cheers!
Set the hop basket on the.bpttpm of the kettle next to the element. You might need a taller hop basket but that works fine. I did something similar in the breweasy compact.
@@ShortCircuitedBrewers Thanks for the advice Brian. Have not brewed in a year as I moved 6 months ago and am building my new home brewery. Can't wait to get a brew out of the new space. Cheers!
@@CanadianBrewingChannel Cheers! 👍🍻
@@ShortCircuitedBrewers Hi Brian, I am using my condensation lid for the first time today and it just hit me. How do you deal with hot break? I am worried about a boil over. Do you leave the 4" port open until hot break happens? Cheers!
Researching these now and am on the fence. It seems like alot of water but in the same sense I'm not digging having to drill a hole through a brick wall.
Feels like a solution looking for a problem. 300+ to have my kettle look like a pro setup, i'm good. Someone who's bored with some bonus money to spend maybe a good fit.
It's not a solution for everyone. Cheers! 👍🍻
I use this steam condenser on my Blichmann 10gal kettle (5gal BrewEasy system) and my observations similar to yours.
Cool! It's is nice to not have to worry about the steam. 👍🍻
also on the water loss you can dump hot water back into pail with cold water throw some ice in and keep recycling the water there is no need to keep using fresh water. Just 3 gallons in a fermenter pail will work just fine. You just need to keep water temp below 60% or so of steam temp to make sure it is efficient.You can use the hot water to clean that way you don't throw it way as well.
Good tips. I'll have to try it. 👍🍻
Great review Brian! I know spike "engineered" this, but that effluent temp and volume usage indicates there is an inefficiency in the implementation. Thought I haven't seen it myeself, I suspect that pump's low pressure (6 psi) is not atomizing the spray as well as tap pressure does (~40 psi).
Probably right. Out of anyone you would know. Since you were the first to design and use one in homebrewing.. cheers!! 👍🍻
Great video Brian!! I just tried one of these last night with a 5 gallon batch on the 20 gallon system and had a boil over from the hot break. Did you wait until the hot break dissipated before putting hooking up the condenser?
No I just waited until the boil started and turned the power down to 40% that kept it from boiling over. 👍🍻
Thank you for the reply, one last question if you don’t mind. Did you have a lot of grain that made it through the basket?
@@ryanamuso there is a little usually but not much. There is always some residual grain that makes it through the screen on these type of false bottoms. Unlike a HERMS or cooler mash setup your grain basket is on the boil kettle so some of that does not get filtered out from the vorlauf or recirculation.👍🍻
The water condensate from the condenser lid can be collected and used for something else rather than going to drain.
Interesting design
Yes it can as I said in the video. 👍🍻
Hello from UK - I reversed engineered a system for my grainfather - key is finding the TC spray nozzle - only needs 0.6l per minute - only review’ve seen that mentions the mild rotten cabbage odour - no big deal I work from my garage but not ideal for the kitchen
Awesome if it works for you!
Great video. I made my own condenser this spring but don’t have all the bugs out yet. It’s been too hot this summer to brew. Why and how did you modify your mash water volume? Why not just leave the water volume the same as no condenser and boil for the same time but condense the required amount of steam? Is that to cut down on cold water use? I’m no expert...just looking for a better understanding. Thanks!
The condenser is only going to condense a certain amount of steam. Even if you crank up the power it's still only going to boil off a certain amount. At higher boil the steam will just wind up back in the boil. My profile I had the boil off rate at .5 gallons and it wound up being 1 gallon (as opposed to 1.75 without the condenser) so I could have started with a half gallon more which would have helped with the mash thickness. 👍🍻
Ok thanks. I have been meaning to do a calibration test on my condenser equipment but like I mentioned earlier it’s been too hot. I’m changing my brewstand propane burners at the moment. When I get things operational again I’ll take a fresh look at how much water I mash with. Cheers!🍻
Hi Brian, can you please explain why the boil off rate is lower? Apologies if I missed that in the video.
The top of the kettle is not open to the air to allow for the steam to escape. Some condensation takes place inside the steam hood, not only the tube, and that drips back into the kettle. There is enough steam carrying DMS boiled off to remove it from the beer though..
@@ShortCircuitedBrewers Thanks! I was thinking the vacuum it creates would draw off as much steam. What's the difference between the two methods?
@@IanTriggs the condenser boil off is about 1 gallon per hour. Without is 1.75+ gallons depending on the element power.
I looked in Brewfarher for the equipment profile but I did not see it. I just purchased the unit and it looks great. Looking formward to brewing with it. But I am curious on what changes to the equipment profile I need to make. Can you please update us with them? Maybe Brewfather has not updated their software as of yet.
I'll check and see and let you know.
Jon, They were waiting on something from me. I did not realize it, but I have provided them the info they needed and it should be in there soon.👍🍻
@@ShortCircuitedBrewers it is uploaded today. Excellent job!
👍🍻
Have you used brew hardware’s steam slayer to compare the two? Considering going with it instead because it uses less water and can be installed either on the side of the pot or the lid
I have not. This one will be going back to spike So I may look into getting one from brewhardware.
Do you think a stainless mesh hop spider that hangs off the side of the kettle would effect the seal of the lid thus making it ineffective? Was interested in the solo w/ a steam condenser but I'm concerned about clogging with no sort of hop filter.
Just stand it on the bottom of the kettle. They make some that are pretty tall.
You didn’t get any back flow into your kettle like I did with it?
No they sent me the production model nozzle and it worked perfectly. It was longer and sat down in the tube farther. Which was part of the issue with the original nozzle.
any tips on recalculating your recipe given the lower boil off? did you only adjust your strike and sparge water amounts or did you modify the grain bill as well?
Water amounts will need to be adjusted. If you use software you can input your actual measurements as. Adjust for the next batch.
Hey Brian, do you have any experience with the Steam Slayer? The Spike lid does look more turnkey.
No I don't but I have the parts for a DIY solution I'm working on that is the same concept.
Can you just recirculate cold water in a bucket? You may have to add some ice occasionally.
Also, did you find that exit tube to be too short to run to a bucket on the floor or a floor drain?
I did run the tube into a bucket on the floor. You could recirculate the water as long as you had a good temperature differential to allow for the low pressure to occur. The exit tube can be any length you desire as long as it does not get submerged. 👍🍻
With the tubing length, I assumed that what we saw is what we get from Spike. Silicone tubing of that gurth has got to be expensive. (Insert joke about the size of Brian's tubing here.)
@@jsudduth7465 haha.. it doesn't need to be silicone.. lol I long black hose (for automotive hot water 😉) would work as well.. 👍🍻
Will this work with a 10g SS Brewtech kettle? it’s nice, but haven’t found much info if it works with other kettles. Figured I ask you before buy the condenser.
They give the dimensions on their website. Have you checked there? The one on the video is for 20 gallon kettles. 👍🍻
What about boil overs? I know with electric systems you can sort of control that, but at times when distracted you may have a boil over. So would the condenser lid self control that a bit or not?
"kinda" it will "puke" out of the down pipe and it makes a REAL mess..(ask me how I know) but it will kinda minimize getting the exterior of the kettle all grungy. Not a "solution" for boil overs the only solution for that is to monitor your kettle.👍🍻
Question: I am looking or comparing the Anvil versus the Spike solo... as I would like to re-start brewing after so many years... any insight? your comment will be greatly appreciated. Regards
They are two different systems. The main difference is one of them is somewhat modular and can have parts replaced if something goes bad. Not to say that the anvil will give you any issues but just something to know if you need to replace a heating element or something major like that you have to replace the entire thing.
Thanks so much for your valuable feedback... greatly appreciated. Regards
@@rpavon1959 welcome! 👍🍻
Could you use the steam water for cleaning after ? Cheers 🍺
Sure. It does smell pretty funky though from the DMS boil off.👍🍻
Could you recycle the spent condenser water to refill the sump? In essence, recycle about 10g of water between a few 5 gal buckets.
As long as the temperature did not get too high. You could. 👍🍻
@@ShortCircuitedBrewers Yeah I would say use a 5g bucket and some ice packs and put your pump in the same bucket it's draining to. That would keep the temp down, and you're using at most 3-4 gallons of water at that point. I'm waiting for this system to come back in stock. I plan to purchase it and will update you if/when I try this.
@@mattb6124 please do update us!
Well now I want one. Any idea if this fits the clawhammer system?
Martin over at @thehomebrewchallenge says it does not quite fit the 10 gallon system. He has a video coming soon on his experience.
I have the 20 gallon system...
@@jd7ncoke77 do you have a inside diameter of your kettle. I'll check it and see if it will fit.
@@ShortCircuitedBrewers it will have to be later today since I'm at work but will definitely get back to you. Ty
@@jd7ncoke77 ok sounds good
Just curious what electric controller you are using. Homemade ?? Store bought ?? If store bought where did you purchase please? Thx
It is the Spike Solo system controller. 👍🍻
Here is my review of that system ruclips.net/video/wooyS_fTUbs/видео.html
That was one of the fastest responses:). Thanks again.
@@StickyDankFingers no problem! 👍
If you don't boil off as much water, how can you be short of water? And the condenser is just for the boil, how and why would it affect the mash when condenser is not in use?
The calculation of boil off was wrong in my profile. (I was using ba profile I had made in brewfather) I accounted for .5 gallons of boil off instead of 1 gallon. I started with less water because of it.
@@ShortCircuitedBrewers I'm finishing my basement for a brewery and going to purchase either the spike 20gal system or the SS brewtech. Any suggestions or recommendations?
Hahaha, the dark lighting, slow jam, insertion of curvy heating element.... now all the ladies out there will understand why brewers are sexy!
Hahaha!! Boom! 👍🍻
Will it fit the claw hammer 20 gal ?
Not sure I don't have a 20 gallon Clawhammer letter to test it.
Well I guess we will see , I ordered one, Keep the videos going,
@@lakeside477 will do!! Let me know if it works! 👍🍻
No it doesn’t fit perfect but lik Martin did on his 10 gal, I’m going to give it a try this weekend and see if minimal steam leaves ,
The other con is you can't use this with an immersion chiller. Not a problem for everyone but it is for me.
True. With the element you couldn't anyway. But I agree.
12k?!?!? (old school b roll)
Lol yeah Braj!!
Brian have you been watching my videos 🤣
I did not realize you had a channel. I'll give it a watch. 👍🍻
Short Circuited Brewers ahh just seen the cinematics and thought I’d given you some ideas 😜
That water usage is a deal breaker for me. I don’t have a well.
I may toy with using ice water and frozen water bottle to recirculate.
@@ShortCircuitedBrewers Have you tried the ice water approach yet?
I was wondering if it would be possible to simply recirculate the drainage as long as it’s cooled. Using 30 gallons of water per session is a non-starter for me.
@@RussGuill I haven't but I think it's doable. Using 10 gallons of water with ice in it.👍🍻
Collect in a large water jug and dump into your washer.- great idea Brian. I recirc back into my cistern. This is a great solution for up here in Canada when it’s like 15F in the garage!
@@silveraven1 that's a good idea!
It's "Con-den-sate". 20 years in piping design. Why not just use a drip leg and a steam trap, you can coil around the drip leg with a water jacket if you really need. You could also redirect the already paid for steam to a jacket around your pot to increase the efficiency of heating, still keeping the steam trap at the lowest point to remove the steam condensate.
Not a bad idea.