Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption
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Bodger
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Pasteuriser?At the moment we pasteurise our bottles of cider and apple juice in four separate Baby Burco like pasteurisers and they're proving to be very labour intensive and time consuming. Each one of them, depending on the size of the bottle will take about fifteen bottles each.
The next step up in commercially available pasteurisers are hellishly expensive ( £3,000 plus) and also need three phase electric. These will do a hundred bottles a time. A number of small scale producers that I know have had their own made. Do we have anyone on here who'd consider making me one?
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tahir
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Re: Pasteuriser?Do we have anyone on here who'd consider making me one? |
If Bodge's works then I'm up for one too, the little ones a real pain and the big ones just too expensive
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Bodger
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There you go any future entrepreneur, you order book is half full already.
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dpack
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am i correct in thinking
batch load maybe 50 bottles
rapid heat up to temp
rapid cool
or would tank >hot>cold >sterile bottling be better ?
in many ways the second one is easier much like milk processing
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Bodger
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We need at least a hundred bottle capacity.
Rapid heating would be good but then the temperature would need to be held constant for a period of time.
Forget the rapid cooling, because the bottles are taken out of the vessel and placed on their sides so that the underneath of the bottle caps are pasteurised.
Its the actual liquid inside the bottle that needs to be taken up to a certain temperature. With cider its to stop secondary fermentation and with the apple juice, to stop any fermentation at all.
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dpack
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for milk
htst is 20 seconds at 72c(uht 2 seconds at 138c which needs a pressure pipe etc)
a hundred bottles of fruit juice/cider would take ages to heat and cool ,would that affect the taste?
i was thinking that a poshed up shower unit would be able to heat a flow which could then be bottled after passing through a cooling coil
barrel>pump>showerheater>insulated pipe long enough for the required time>cooling coil> sterile bottle
if the flow was adjusted via a thermostat/pump control circuit so as to give long enough time at temp in the insulated pipe it would be a simple rig and the bottling bit would be much like bottling from a pipe on a barrel tap
or just make a big water bath with a big basket
sterile before it goes in the bottle seems to work for milk
another option is high pressure micro filtration but the kit is a bit complicated
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tahir
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The taste definitely changes the longer it's heated, not experimented though
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dpack
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it may be that a shower unit would be a mistake as the pipes in the heater are copper and fruit juice/cider are acidic unless there are any available with stainless steel heater pipes
the principal of rapid heating and time in an insulated pipe could work though
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RichardW
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If your going down the route of rapid heat of a flow you will want a plate heat exchanger. Try looking for dairy milk coolers. Could be altered to use hot water instead of cold.
In a shower unit some of the liquid will be in contact with the heater element & some wont. You would need some sort of mixing flow inside to ensure it was all heated to the same amount rather than 50% over heated (taste change?) & 50% under heated then mixed to the right over all temp.
I think a large container of water heated to a fixed temp & then use a basket to dunk the bottles. Would need a hoist as 100 bottles is going to be heavy. Then just need to work out the water temp & dunk time to ensure correct pasteurisation.
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dpack
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i need to do some maths but a serious consideration is how much energy needs to be supplied per litre to raise the temp by say 70 degrees (a cool shed>past'temp) and how fast will a heater transfer that energy.
the energy supply should work on domestic electric/gas/fire etc a system that needs connecting to drax direct isnt going to work
one possibility is high pressure steam to power the heat exchanger but that has issues although it is a good heat transfer material but im still thinking electric will be easiest ,that limits the input to about 10 kw like a kettle or shower
any big pot/basket and a thermometer would be the simplest but it even a big pot with a good heat source and a stirring paddle will take ages to heat litre bottles en masse
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dpack
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ps a venturi in the feed pipe will sort the stirring issue that richard pointed to
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tahir
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I think a large container of water heated to a fixed temp & then use a basket to dunk the bottles. Would need a hoist as 100 bottles is going to be heavy. Then just need to work out the water temp & dunk time to ensure correct pasteurisation. |
100 bottles at a time will need a huge open tank of hot water, could be a H&S issue.
No that's basically what the commercial ones are.
Bodger
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At the moment, when we're pasteurising we have two of these on the go http://www.vigopresses.co.uk/Catalogue/Pasteurisers/Stainless-Steel-Digital-Pasteuriser-96474
plus two 30 litre Baby Burco's at half the price of the above, that do exactly the same job.
What we really need is a MUCH Much cheaper version of one of these, for in bottle pasteurisation.
http://www.vigoltd.com/Catalogue/Pasteurisers/In-bottle/Vigo-in-bottle-pasteurisers
If we were to press a ton of apples, we'd expect to produce 1000 x 75cl of juice, so you can see just how labour intensive our size of operation is.
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RichardW
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That looks a lot smaller than I envisioned for holding 100 bottles.
Looks like a small producers cheese making vat. Could be another thing to look at second hand.
Also look at catering bratt & boiling pans (single layer) or even the large boiling kettles that could double or even triple stack your bottles.
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Lorrainelovesplants
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so your basically looking for a stainless steel tank with an inlet in one end and an outlet at the other, with a heating element and a thermometer at both ends?
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Lorrainelovesplants
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Brytec near Longridge, nr Preston?
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Bodger
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Tell me more
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Lorrainelovesplants
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I dont know more....
It just occurs to me that if you have a stainless steel manufacturer near you it may pay you to either customise an existing ex-dairy (cheese) vat or have one made.
Brytec are in lancs but there must be someone nearer to you. Im going to see if I can get something stainless ex-catering/cheese and modify it. We have a SS welder in the next village.
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Bodger
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I've just hit the JACKPOT! I've visited a local dairy farmer this morning and for the price of £50 he's sold me a double skinned stainless steel milk cooler. Its a round one with the paddles in it (pictures tomorrow) its an impressive piece of kit and my son Tom assures me that it wont be too tricky to add a thermostat and some emersion heating elements.
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tahir
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Has he got another?
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Bodger
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I'm picking it up in the trailer at nine tomorrow morning and I'll get a photo of it on here ASAP. He'd only got the one and I really had to stop myself from snapping his hand off when he said he only wanted fifty quid for it.
I asked him for a rectangular tank and he said " Does it have to beround?" Have a look and see what you think, it maybe the way to go. I'm sure that there are other dairy farmers hanging onto them. Rob R might have some contacts he could try.
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tahir
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Thanks Bodge (lucky git), the only remaining dairy farmer round here sold up a few years ago.
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Bodger
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This guy is still into milking but obviously updated his kit, in line with bulk tank milk collection, so its still worth asking.
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Lorrainelovesplants
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Ive done that - all our remaining dairy producers are big and dont have anything small. Im going to try cheesemakers.
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dpack
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well found
just a quick h n s ,water,electric damp floor etc
make sure the heaters are safe,bond the tank to a well tested earth and use an rcd in the supply
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Bodger
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Phew! Just got it home. Its a lot bigger than I remember it being yesterday and its only just fitted into the trailer. There's quite a few techno bits and bobs to come off it, such as commercial size condensers and then, I'm hoping that it will be a bit easier to manoeuvre. Lets hope so.
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Bodger
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dpack
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it looks like it has glanded holes so powering the heaters should be fairly easy
good find
pyro might be the best "wires"to use
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Bodger
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I've had time to have a look at this and I don't think its going to suit, so I'm thinking of cashing it in for a profit and possibly investing in something like this and converting that.
http://www.mjabbottdirect.co.uk/kolist/1/AGRI-EQUINE/TROUGHS/TROUGHS-METAL-IAE
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dpack
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i was rather intrigued by the sewer saddle but it turned out to be a pipe fitting which was a disappointment
re the pasteurising for heating a big trough a fire in a wheeled tray might be a good low tech way of heating it .heat it,add bottles ,heat it til it gets back to temp ,etc
or a fire under a repurposed domestic radiator and convection to circulate the hot water with a thermostatic valve and blow off safety valve for when the temp is enough
immersion heater elements would work but might take ages to heat the number of bottles in something that size
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