Ampco has always manufactured quality American-made products for the brewing industry and is thrilled to be growing and adapting with global market expansion. Ampco Pumps aggressively entered the cellar theatre with the introduction of the ROLEC DH dry hopping unit in 2014. Since that time hundreds of fermenters have been dry hopped with astounding results. The ROLEC DH system is offered in three model sizes making this technology available to any size brewery. Models include DH250, DH90 and DH45.
How does it work?
There are several principles that make the DH a tremendous advantage in brewery cellars and a quality improvement to your brewery’s process. The Ampco ROLEC DH allows dry hopping to be done in a closed environment, purged with CO2 mitigating oxygen exposure. All of this works on the principle of a recirculation pump with a chopping impeller. The unit comes equipped with the pump, VFD, input cord and CO2 regulator. The DH is fully portable, and dry hopping happens at ground level providing a safe and efficient experience.
Just the beginning.
Hop pellets are induced into the stream of recirculating beer by the pump and contact with the entire volume of beer is forced through recirculation. This method is much safer than traditional methods, more consistent, improves hop yield, and most importantly gives huge gains in flavor and aroma. The pump has blending teeth to increase the surface area of the hops. It will chop a typical T90 hop pellet 3-4 times, but has no adverse effect on suspended yeast, head retention or any other aspects of the beer. Other positive effects that have occurred; reaching terminal faster (when dry hopping before terminal), saving day(s) of conditioning (on the hops), decreased hop requirements, removing the necessity of double-dry-hops, and less dissolved oxygen pickup.
Not just for hops.
The ROLEC DH can be used on: wine must, biofine, dextrose, spices, lactic acid, fruit puree, cocoa nibs, coffee, peppers and more.
ROLEC DH FAQ
How do you stop tank foaming or expansion?
Ampco has extensive experience balancing pressures in the fermenter, the dry hop chamber, and in the hoses/tubing while beer is flowing. Ensuring that the pressure is higher in the chamber than in the tubing makes induction quick, dry and easy. This target pressure mentioned must not drop below 3 psi keeping the beer from getting anywhere near atmospheric pressure. Even in a CO2 environment, nucleation from hop particles, or just the nature of the pellets themselves can cause foaming in the fermenter. It’s a good idea to watch fermenter pressures during the recirculation since smaller tanks are affected more by the recirculation process.
What is the most common utilization of the ROLEC DH?
Most breweries dry hop at terminal after the yeast is harvested or dumped. Some breweries dry hop a few points before terminal, but that’s up to you! Hooking up to the racking arm and using that as the inlet ensures clean beer can enter the ROLEC DH. Pushing the hop/beer mixture into the bottom of the fermenter creates an always dynamic environment and promotes extraction, while pushing to the top (non-spray-ball-arm) creates a recirculating environment through the chopper pump several times and maximizes distance between intake and outlet.
How is this unit CIP’d?
The ROLEC DH can CIP itself; simply fill with water and chemicals and recirculate. The optional sprayball kit allows less water and chemicals into the hop chamber for CIP and promotes proper cleaning of the upper-chamber. The same hoses used for the dry hopping process are used for CIP, this saves time and effort. Caustic, sanitizer, acids and other chemicals are all compatible with the 304 stainless steel, highly sanitary design.
Who is using the ROLEC DH?
Large and small breweries around the world have installed the ROLEC DH Dry Hop system. Please contact us for our references.
The Ampco ROLEC systems are installed worldwide and references are available upon request. Please contact the Ampco Applied Products team with additional questions or to schedule a trial at your facility today. [email protected] / 800.737.8671
Be the first to comment