Ask The Brewmasters

Good morning & "Happy New Year"!  I do not have an idea of the size of your operation or steam availability.  I did have eight years experience with Adolph Coors in the late 70's & early eighties, all dry brewers grain at that time.  However I did have 15 years experience marketing brewery by-products for Miller Brewing late 82 through 1996.  We marketed some 700,000 tons/yr. of wet brewer's grain in the later 90's.  Our colder climates, Fulton, NY, Trenton, OH, Milwaukee, WI, & Eden, NC  had some type of heating jacket on the lower section of the wet brewer's grain tank.

An observation you may want to consider is referencing your by-product as brewer's grain, not spent grain.  It is brewer's yeast, not spent yeast.  While at both Adolph Coors and Miller Brewing we had exhibits at the national IFT shows demonstrating the benefits of malted barley bran.  You only dissolve out the simple carbohydrate to brew beer.  You concentrate the dietary fiber, protein, complex carbohydrate, and achieve about a four plus concentration of barley oil.

In my bias opinion this is the best part of very nutritious malted barley!

Good luck with your project!

George Wornson

I am dusting off this thread as we are fighting a frozen silo in real time. We're facing much colder temps in North-Central Oregon than we are used to: multiple days ≤10°F, whereas we usually sit around 32-40°F at river level during winter. Our silo is frozen solid in the cone and has been since at least Monday, and we assume it is mostly right around the knife gate valve. 

• Silo cone is uninsulated but has four heat pads (~1' x 2' each) that are set to turn on when ambient ≤35°F. All four pads are working. 
• Silo is unloaded by a straight auger with the silo bottom ~12-13' in the air. Auger is spinning freely and gate valve is opening and closing. 
• Silo is full, our pre-storm pickup was unable to make it. 
• Spent grain line is insulated and heat traced. We put the last hot grain into the bin at ~11am on Monday. 

We have frozen the silo once before when the heating system failed and put additional safetys and checks in place to make sure they were working ahead of a storm. At that time we pumped hot water from the brewhouse on top of the grain and it eventually drained through and defrosted the grain. We have pumped ~750gal at this point but the silo is full and we cannot add more. We have also sprayed down the cone with 175°F water but that did not defrost the cone and mostly just caused icing around the valve and motor housing. In the previous instance we tried a torch but that just melted powder coating and singed the valve gasket and we have not tried it again. 

Does anyone have any other suggestions for getting the silo defrosted or are we just stuck until temps warm up? We're kind of at a loss. We have upgrade plans in the works, but first need to get the thing empty and us brewing again!

Thanks

I am dusting off this thread as we are fighting a frozen silo in real time. We're facing much colder temps in North-Central Oregon than we are used to: multiple days ≤10°F, whereas we usually sit around 32-40°F at river level during winter. Our silo is frozen solid in the cone and has been since at least Monday, and we assume it is mostly right around the knife gate valve. 

• Silo cone is uninsulated but has four heat pads (~1' x 2' each) that are set to turn on when ambient ≤35°F. All four pads are working. 
• Silo is unloaded by a straight auger with the silo bottom ~12-13' in the air. Auger is spinning freely and gate valve is opening and closing. 
• Silo is full, our pre-storm pickup was unable to make it. 
• Spent grain line is insulated and heat traced. We put the last hot grain into the bin at ~11am on Monday. 

We have frozen the silo once before when the heating system failed and put additional safetys and checks in place to make sure they were working ahead of a storm. At that time we pumped hot water from the brewhouse on top of the grain and it eventually drained through and defrosted the grain. We have pumped ~750gal at this point but the silo is full and we cannot add more. We have also sprayed down the cone with 175°F water but that did not defrost the cone and mostly just caused icing around the valve and motor housing. In the previous instance we tried a torch but that just melted powder coating and singed the valve gasket and we have not tried it again. 

Does anyone have any other suggestions for getting the silo defrosted or are we just stuck until temps warm up? We're kind of at a loss. We have upgrade plans in the works, but first need to get the thing empty and us brewing again!

Thanks

I am dusting off this thread as we are fighting a frozen silo in real time. We're facing much colder temps in North-Central Oregon than we are used to: multiple days ≤10°F, whereas we usually sit around 32-40°F at river level during winter. Our silo is frozen solid in the cone and has been since at least Monday, and we assume it is mostly right around the knife gate valve. 

• Silo cone is uninsulated but has four heat pads (~1' x 2' each) that are set to turn on when ambient ≤35°F. All four pads are working. 
• Silo is unloaded by a straight auger with the silo bottom ~12-13' in the air. Auger is spinning freely and gate valve is opening and closing. 
• Silo is full, our pre-storm pickup was unable to make it. 
• Spent grain line is insulated and heat traced. We put the last hot grain into the bin at ~11am on Monday. 

We have frozen the silo once before when the heating system failed and put additional safetys and checks in place to make sure they were working ahead of a storm. At that time we pumped hot water from the brewhouse on top of the grain and it eventually drained through and defrosted the grain. We have pumped ~750gal at this point but the silo is full and we cannot add more. We have also sprayed down the cone with 175°F water but that did not defrost the cone and mostly just caused icing around the valve and motor housing. In the previous instance we tried a torch but that just melted powder coating and singed the valve gasket and we have not tried it again. 

Does anyone have any other suggestions for getting the silo defrosted or are we just stuck until temps warm up? We're kind of at a loss. We have upgrade plans in the works, but first need to get the thing empty and us brewing again!

Thanks

I am dusting off this thread as we are fighting a frozen silo in real time. We're facing much colder temps in North-Central Oregon than we are used to: multiple days ≤10°F, whereas we usually sit around 32-40°F at river level during winter. Our silo is frozen solid in the cone and has been since at least Monday, and we assume it is mostly right around the knife gate valve. 

• Silo cone is uninsulated but has four heat pads (~1' x 2' each) that are set to turn on when ambient ≤35°F. All four pads are working. 
• Silo is unloaded by a straight auger with the silo bottom ~12-13' in the air. Auger is spinning freely and gate valve is opening and closing. 
• Silo is full, our pre-storm pickup was unable to make it. 
• Spent grain line is insulated and heat traced. We put the last hot grain into the bin at ~11am on Monday. 

We have frozen the silo once before when the heating system failed and put additional safetys and checks in place to make sure they were working ahead of a storm. At that time we pumped hot water from the brewhouse on top of the grain and it eventually drained through and defrosted the grain. We have pumped ~750gal at this point but the silo is full and we cannot add more. We have also sprayed down the cone with 175°F water but that did not defrost the cone and mostly just caused icing around the valve and motor housing. In the previous instance we tried a torch but that just melted powder coating and singed the valve gasket and we have not tried it again. 

Does anyone have any other suggestions for getting the silo defrosted or are we just stuck until temps warm up? We're kind of at a loss. We have upgrade plans in the works, but first need to get the thing empty and us brewing again!

Thanks

1/19/2023

Back in 2019 we had a winter where 40 below hit us in Trenton.   Barry was able to help us load trucks and thaw out the tank.   His recommendation is below, or rather how they overcame the crisis.

If you flooded the tank from the top with hot water, it will cool down before it reaches the outlet on the bottom.  If this is the case, you may have a solid brick in the tank.    What temperatures are you dealing with during the day?  If you are in the 20s and 30s but well above 32 in the day, you may be able to attack the freezing in the tank.  Consider changing your pipe going into the tank into a temporary truck stationed/parked nearby if the former.  It's not perfect and messy but your horse may already be out of the barn.    

To: Bill Cromie  wcromie@gmail.com

From: Barry Issacs   <Barry.Isaacs@molsoncoors.com>  Tenton Ohio 

We used direct steam on the cone to thaw it in the past. We subsequently insulated the base of the come and added on demand steam trace. Hope this helps. Thanks,

I am dusting off this thread as we are fighting a frozen silo in real time. We're facing much colder temps in North-Central Oregon than we are used to: multiple days ≤10°F, whereas we usually sit around 32-40°F at river level during winter. Our silo is frozen solid in the cone and has been since at least Monday, and we assume it is mostly right around the knife gate valve. 

• Silo cone is uninsulated but has four heat pads (~1' x 2' each) that are set to turn on when ambient ≤35°F. All four pads are working. 
• Silo is unloaded by a straight auger with the silo bottom ~12-13' in the air. Auger is spinning freely and gate valve is opening and closing. 
• Silo is full, our pre-storm pickup was unable to make it. 
• Spent grain line is insulated and heat traced. We put the last hot grain into the bin at ~11am on Monday. 

We have frozen the silo once before when the heating system failed and put additional safetys and checks in place to make sure they were working ahead of a storm. At that time we pumped hot water from the brewhouse on top of the grain and it eventually drained through and defrosted the grain. We have pumped ~750gal at this point but the silo is full and we cannot add more. We have also sprayed down the cone with 175°F water but that did not defrost the cone and mostly just caused icing around the valve and motor housing. In the previous instance we tried a torch but that just melted powder coating and singed the valve gasket and we have not tried it again. 

Does anyone have any other suggestions for getting the silo defrosted or are we just stuck until temps warm up? We're kind of at a loss. We have upgrade plans in the works, but first need to get the thing empty and us brewing again!

Thanks