I know this is a little late. But as a few others had mentioned, the condensor needs to create a vacuum. By putting the exhaust tube into water it is applying pressure, therefore preventing a vacuum. I've seen in their instructions it specifically stating to keep the exhaust tube above the water level if collecting in a bucket.

+1 on brew day! Good luck on licensing! Happy holidays!

James Is a great guy! Best of luck on his cool brewery! Cheers!

Since steam is warmer than boiling liquid, you don't need to worry about anything getting back into the kettle - and if it did, it would boil and sterilize. I would say it's not even necessary to sanitize the bucket. Thanks for creating this video. My Spike Nano is on its way and it helped in doing some extra homework before it shows up. I'm thinking about putting a 20+ gallon bucket down for steam so I don't have to keep monitoring the liquid level.

Congratulations on your nice Brewhouse and cellar! Amongst several other objectives of boiling your wort is to get the DMS out of it. If you use a steam condenser you have to create vaccum in it to draw the steam and the undesirable volatile substances our of your wort. If you are are going to recirculate the condensate, make sure you have the pumping power to make the recirculating condensate mix at the velocity that your nozzle needs to create such vaccum. If you don't evacuate vigorously enough, you may end up adding back DMS in to your wort when the steam condenses under the the kettle lid and comes back into the kettle....

Great vid! Would also love to see your brew day filmed. Immaculate shop.

Sweet setup, thx for the video. But like past comments u need a cold water source in the condenser to create a proper vacuum to pull the steam out properly. I think if u could create an ice bath or something through a glycol chiller u would be good. I don't think u would have to worry about reintroducing dirty water or dms back into the boiling wort.

Wish I could get hold of Spike system up here in Scandinavia. Cheers

K-9 Handler? I was a military handler for 13+ years. I've just gotten into brewing, but its nice seeing others taking next steps. I hope to one day have a nano brewery and tap room.

Nice setup.

Condensation is happening in part because spray nozzle in tube (vertical) is creating a partial vacuum as it sprays past the T....helps pull steam from kettle. That said, if you’re getting fluid (water/wort) flowing back into kettle something is wrong. You’ve probably already figured this out, so let us know how well your system is working. Great overview - thanks!

Good video, nice system. Do NOT run submerge steam tube under water in bucket. Leave tubing free-flow condensed steam (water) into bucket - it creates back-pressure to boil kettle. I’m writing this as a mechanical engineer who also uses a condenser on boil kettle.

Could run the steam condenser run off into your HLT or another holding vessel for end of day CIP to save the water

Steam full of sulphur compounds. Down the drain. Maybe for cip as others have suggested. Sweet setup.

I use a steam condenser on my home brew setup. I just run a water line straight to the device though, no pump. I don’t think that recirculating will work with how hot the water will get. I’d love to see an actual brew day on the system though. I’ve been commenting on Spikes page for them to upload one.

A lil late on finding this vid. Nice setup! I have a 1/2bbl spike system. I change the boil heater element to manual @ 77% before the hot break. Usually around 205 degrees(ish) is when I change to manual @ 77% Not sure if its directly applicable to your system.

Add ice to the bucket if needed. I think that would work just fine 🤔

the bucket and sanitizer might get really smelly with the off gasing of dimethyl sulfide but just an idea love the system

The steam condenser works off a vacuum: as it pulls out the steam, you need to keep the exit tube from going below the water level, or it can mess with that vacuum. Also, I imagine cold water is better than warmed water, and the steam coming off is going to be hot/warm. You'd prefer to have fresh cold water in the bucket.

So you do a double batch to fill the fermentors, with a bit of overlap of 2nd mash & first batch boiling?

Will the bucket overflow with the several gallons of steam condensed and added?

What about recycling/recirculation of the condensed steam and then no wasted water. And then no losses. Just asking. Good video.

Hey brother, great set up. Coming from a plumber, I'd say solder in a 3/4" trap. Will allow flow while keeping germies from condensing back up.

Can you post a video on clean up and transfer into a fermentor

Excellent video! How many times do you brew a week and how many barrels does PawPrint produce a year?

What are the benefits of using a steam condenser

Don't know if this has been mentioned, but you said that you lost little water over the hour. But hot water takes up more space than cold water. 30gal of 56F water equals about 31.29 gals when boiling. I calculated that if you read 30gal of water at boil, then it would have read about 28.77gal when returned to 56F, losing about 1.23gals in the boil. I think you said it was actually slightly below the 30gal mark, so you would have lost in excess of 1.23gals per hour.

Looks like you got your brewery open from a quick google search, congrats, great to see. Now that you have brewed on this system for a while, what do you think of it? Any longer term issues or annoyances? I'm thinking of buying one too for 2x batching.

can it be used for iced tea brewering with potato leaves

Did Spike get back to you one the condenser?

Is your spike system your only system for your brewery? I’m just a home brewer but one day would love to try to open my own pico brewery. Just wondering if the spikes system is enough. I also see all your fermenters in the background. Assuming you brew on the spike daily. If you could get back to me I’d appreciate it

My buddy Drew and I are planning to open a small brewery. What size conicals are those I can see in the background? Do you brew back to back batches? If so how long is a brew day typically? Thanks I look forward to more Brewing videos

A certain volume of water at 212F will be greater than that same water at 75F because of thermal expansion.

More videos!!!!!

So, has been a while since you posted this video. Are you still happy with the system? How long is a typical brew from start to finish? cheers

hopefully by now, he moved the rig so that the front of the kettles and panel are on the same side so he doesn't have to walk around the rig every time to access the panel controls.

Why did you stop making videos ?

How long had you been brewing when this video was made? To be honest you didn’t sound like you had much experience at all

What size are those SS Brewtech fermenters?

add star san to the bucket

you don't want the DMS coming off the boil, so I would let it go.

How much did all that cost?

Hey, what if I told you we have the space and we have the the market and the licences. Would you partner with me to sell in India ? 1.3 billion people and atleast 10 million in each city. We will share goood profits if we start one brewery. I'll take care of all the paperwork and give you the space. Let me know if you wanna talk.

Sorry, misleading in previous message. Having end of tubing under water is what creates the back-pressure. Poorly written 😖 Recycle you’re hot water from steam - use mine for cleaning.