Steam Injected Mash

CothermanDistilling

thanks, went on aliexpress and found a place with the 1/4" and 3/8" at good price and ordered them to do some experiments with.

SQD

Hopefully someone will see this. I'm working on my first direct steam injection mash tun. It is a used 800 gallon Hamilton insulated/jacketed double action mixer kettle. Unfortunately I've found that the steam jacket leaks and is too fatigued to repair(repair welds 'spiderweb'). Since I've already rebuilt the mixer gearbox and the inner liner is leak free I'm looking at converting it to direct steam injection where I inject live steam into the mash to heat it.

I've got two questions.

1. Since this kettle has a very aggressive mixer(it has two counter rotating mixers on an 8hp motor) do I really need a nozzle for the steam? I was planning on using 15 psi at the very bottom of the sidewall of kettle with just an open 3/4" sch 40 pipe. I'll valve and vacuum break it so no mash gets pulled into the system steam piping. The mixer will keep the mash mixing so a nozzle isn't needed for mixing. I plan on using a "T" fitting at the interface so I can insert a cleaning 'wand' if the 3/4" opening should ever get plugged.
2. The other question I have is about any needed boiler feedwater treatment. My boiler is a 15 hp Fulton. I already soften/filter my feedwater and testing shows the parameters(PH, TDS, Hardness, etc) are within specs but my town water has been known to change dramatically in the past. If I need to condition the water further (say for PH or conductivity) what treatment chemicals or systems have others used in a direct injection system? I'm worried that the 'wrong' treatment will kill my mash or introduce some 'off' flavors in the distillate.

Also, even though the steam jacket is no longer good for steam I want to patch it so I can use it as a cooling jacket. I plan on circulating a boiler sealer or boiler solder through it at high temp(210) so it sets and was curious if anyone has used it to fix a jacket. I've used it successfully with a steam boiler and hydronic boilers and it plugged minor leaks in the boilers very well.

1 Gallon Boiler Liquid @ SupplyHouse.com

Thanks in advance

Smaug

Hi Kevin, I'll see if I can get Stumpy to respond. He uses a live steam set up on a fairly large scale.

Stumpy

Hey Kevin.

For live steam injection, we run softened RO water...could also run softened city water the boiler guy tells me as long as that softener is setup for the right incoming water hardness. We do live steam injection on our still and don't notice any off flavors at all. We inject NexGuard 22353 (3-in-1) and Nalco 1720 oxygen scavenger into our feedwater tank. We buy both of them from NALCO water. They do a great job but are a bit pricey. I figured the boiler is a big expense so justifies me taking great care of it!

Oddly enough, we are getting ready to setup live steam injection on our mash tun...which is very similar to yours. We are running a double action jacketed mixing tank as well. We are heating through the jacket but want to heat a bit quicker so are setting up live injection as well. We were going to dump steam straigh into the side of the tank as well but after a bit more consideration have decided to go a different route. Our main concern was that the steam and cold water would hammer and be incredibly loud with the large volume of cold water. We have since decided to set up a pump on the bottom side of the mash tun. The pump outlet will go to a steam injector, and then return to the top of the mash tun. So the plan is to come out of the pump and go into the bottom branch of the tee and have the mash exit out the side line of the tee, while injecting live steam into the other side line of the tee. We are hoping the turbulent action should help the steam injection and hammering. I'm sure it is going to be noisy but we'll see soon!

Hope this helps. Cheers!

Adam

CothermanDistilling

I think the T design will work great... even without agitation, pulling cold from the bottom and returning to the top seems the best route...

I would love to see the speed results in heating a given size 1000L or 3200L/800g in steam-kettle/Bain Marie/steam injection... in actuality, I am looking to see if Steam/B-M are worth the expense over just an insulation layer and direct steam...

grim

On the T setup - are you heating mash?

You’d need a lobe pump to move the grain-laden water and an injector system that won’t be clogged by grain.

Stumpy

Yeah, right now we are using a 2” usfip pump but the impeller is prone to failing if you don’t treat it just right. Just picked up a 6” sanitary lobe pump, 15 hp motor and a vfd for $975!!! Gotta love the dairy industry

SQD

Thanks for the feedback guys. I hadn't considered the issue of hammer. I guess I'll try it direct and see how it works but I'm am intrigued by the "T" idea of Stumpy's.

Another question I have is: I use high temp enzymes for starch conversion. Will direct steam injection 'destroy' the enzymes? Has anyone used enzymes with direct steam injection and what was their experience?

punkin

Your enzyme supplier would be best in a position to answer that.

grim

I use DSI with enzymes.

I dose high temp twice - half on the way up, half on the way down. I generally cereal mash around 195f.

SQD

I'll give a shout to my supplier but I'm thinking I'll have to do staged/stepped doses.....Creating a big solid mass of mash at high temp is not fun!

grim

We have zero hammer using eductors.

SQD

Thanks. jet cooker might be an option also.....