Hot water for coffee production

Al Corelli

How about a diesel or gasoline generator to power the Bunn units?

Honda makes some seriously quiet generators. Some specifically for the film industry that are virtually silent, I'm told.

I know it is a "quick and dirty" approach, and is not as infinitely cool as the other ideas, but is would be using the equipment that the staff is most familiar with, Meets the exact temperature needs, and may just be the safest.

I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor.

Geoffrey

Hot water for coffee production

Greetings,

We are a coffee roaster who serves coffee several times each year at outdoor events. We need to find a way to product our hot water using propane.

We only use a pourover method of brewing to maintain gourmet quality and at our biggest event we serve 45 gallons in 1-1/2 hour. This year we are looking into doing an even bigger event. We started out with Bunn pourovers but finding electricity at various sites has been too challenging so two years ago we switched to using stock pots over propane stoves which works, but it quite dangerous, and tough to maintain 190-200 degrees so we lose some consistency.

So what would you recommend, and do you have something that would ideally provide 190-200 degree water at a rate of .5 gallons/minute (1/2 gallon that is).

Thanks,
geoffrey/pax

Brad White_38

At that flow rate

(0.5 GPM) and a temperature rise from say, 50 degrees to 200 degrees, you will have an hourly BTU net requirement of 37,530 BTUH. This is about 11.0 kW if electric.

Given that most appliances are between 70 and 80 percent efficient, you would need an input rating of 47,000 to 54,000 BTU's per hour.

Given also the 45 gallon volume, I am thinking a commercially rated domestic hot water heater piped to work on propane. I say commercial to make sure you have the burner capacity but also the temperature you need. Heaters sized for dishwashing boosters come to mind but they might top out at 180 degrees.

Still I think the overall arrangement of BTU input and volume is in range of your needs. Setting it up as temporary in various jurisdictions may be an issue, but I suppose if it is a fixture on a vehicle (thinking as if it is a camper) you may get around that.

And you will have enough hot water to wash the cups and coffee pots too...

BTW: Dark Roast Rules.

hr

A small mod con boiler

one of the stainless steel versions. I know for a fact a small mod con without the pump operating builds steam in a heartbeat

Or an LP instantanous water heater if they could be adjusted to go to that temperature.

hot rod

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hr

What about solar

Here is my SDHW TOGO rig I am building. I sent a pic to Larry Drake at the RPA. Back in the 80's he built a trailer mounted solar coffee making rig for a demo at fairs and other events.

A couple 4X8 on a sunny day could give you some serious output. Solar expresso would be possible if you slow the flow through the panels.

hot rod

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Brad White_38

Hot Rod

Knowing your tendencies, you might weld up a propane-fired hot water generating statue of Juan Valdez and his burro; lift the tail for espresso.... shall I go on?

I did not think so.

Geoffrey

I Like it!

This would be a great addition to our setup. Even if we had to suppliment it for the 45 gallon morning, what a great conversation piece. Then we can pull it behind our vehicle running on vegitable oil!

Geoffrey

This sounds good, can you refer me to a source? I have been told that to get up to that temperature I would need to go with some type of boiler, but I would love to avoid that step if possible.

thanks
g

JackFre

You could try...

a Rinnai 2532W (outdoor)C (commercial). Max temp is 185F, but you will have about 1.8gpm at 135F temp rise.

Christian Egli_2

Coffee's got to be steaming hot.

I couldn't resist looking up this info. A table I have that grades kitchen and restaurant equipment states that a coffee urn calls for 3.4 lb of steam per each one gallon of brew.

So, there you have it, this is a job for a steam boiler Incidentally, isn't an Italian espresso machine exactly that? And coffee is their thing, they should know.

To plug in your numbers

3.4 (lb of steam) / (1gal of coffee) * 1000 BTU / lb * 45 gal / 1.5 h

= 102 000 BTU/h, or about 30 kW

This seems high. Compare these numbers with whatever equipment you are currently using. An instantaneous tankless water heater set on scald should do the trick I guess, choose a model that requires no additional electric power.

Perhaps look into Camping car and RV hot water hook-ups.

Is this Starbucks on wheels?

Geoffrey

The Challange continues...

Thanks for looking into that, I would love to see a copy of your chart.
It has been a long time since I have had much understanding of btu's, but all I could find from Bunn (the brewers we used to use before we became so popular) is: tankheater 1320 Watts 3.8 gallons/hour (we would need 8 of them!)
For a couple weeks out of every year we are the 100% Fair Trade version of Sbucks on wheels!
So Christian, could you or anyone else out there tell me how much copper pipe I would need to run through a pot of boiling water (length and diam.) so that I could feed 1Gal of cold water/minute with gravity in order to convert that water to at least 185 degrees? Is it possible? and would copper pipe withstand 2 hours of boiling water each day. I'll offer a pound of gourmet organic fair trade coffee as a prize for the person that comes closest. This is my project this weekend.

Larry Weingarten

Great Britain...

... might have just what you're looking for! The British used to make instant gas heaters that gave you boiling hot water specifically for tea. Anybody here have current info? Mine is somewhat dated. ;~)

Yours, Larry

Geoffrey

To bring closure to this, we found a product made by Cecilware (www.cecilware.com model mp05) that heats 10 gallons of water and has a 5 gallon chamber inside of the outer water heater for coffee. Nice design, doesn't heat as fast as I'd hoped, but uses very little propane so it can be left on all night to prepare for monrning coffee.

Thanks all for the suggestions and comments! See you at the bikerides!

Weezbo

This is something that i honestly feel requires Steam.

you cannot possibly be thinking of a promoting coffee made without Steam.

it is unthinkable.

You need to Hire a Pro. i hate to tell you the subtleties as it would divulge my somewhat Gourmand proclivity to the stuff. *~/:)