Steam Mash Tun

hudsonbaydistiller

nice job FC glad its working good, you have paved the way for me to modify our steam kettle.

grim

Dang, nice job guys.

FloridaCracker

@hudsonbaydistiller said: nice job FC glad its working good, you have paved the way for me to modify our steam kettle.

Good luck with it. I had tons of help from the guys here on SD.

Smaug

So what kind of heat up time where you able to achieve FC?

I'm wondering if you'll need to insulate and put some type of lid to help with heat loss.

Are you cooking corn?

FloridaCracker

Haven't brought it all the way to temp (190) yet. Last time I used the Pint o Shine method with corn, wheat and oats and it worked great except for the heating. Had to switch to propane. Might get another go of it this next week and I will post results.

Definitely losing heat out of the top with the constant stirring. I don't have a lid but will have to use something. This was my first AG;

Edited by @Moonshine: YouTube link removed because video unavailable.

punkin

How bout a yoga mat or other piece of closed cell foam? You could cut it to shape and float it on top of the mash like a raft.

FloridaCracker

Not a bad idea. Something that would go around the shaft.

hudsonbaydistiller

fc are you fermenting in your kettle

FloridaCracker

Yes and then after straining the grain I put the liquid into my conical to let the solids settle out. Amazing how much solid material gets through the paint strainer bag.

I just bought a mop bucket to help with the squeezing of the bags. Only took one time to learn I don't like hand squeezing strainer bags.

Everything worked out great because the stripping run was uneventful. Felt I needed to get solids out because my boiler has 3 ULWD heating elements and I didn't want to take a chance with scorching after all of the work.

CothermanDistilling

you should not have to stir with no chance of scorching...

FloridaCracker

I was doing it to keep the corn from setting up. With the enzymes, I might not have to.

Smaug

One of our guys has a heck of a time getting to temp (and holding) so he simply triples up on the prescribed amount of enzymes.

Not sure what that means from a $ point of view?

CothermanDistilling

@FloridaCracker said: I was doing it to keep the corn from setting up. With the enzymes, I might not have to.

I can give you a couple hundred ml or the three enzymes I use if you ever visit... also they guys are heading over Tuesday afternoon for a couple totes of molasses

FloridaCracker

@CothermanDistilling said: I can give you a couple hundred ml or the three enzymes I use if you ever visit... also they guys are heading over Tuesday afternoon for a couple totes of molasses

OK, you have just given me ANOTHER reason to drive over and visit! Are you coming on Tuesday? Maybe we can grab lunch.

CothermanDistilling

I will not...

FloridaCracker

Well, the news is good.

Did an AG with corn, wheat and oats in the kettle and the steam generator performed flawlessly. No burnt elements, no excitement whatsoever. That being said, the heat up time was not very impressive and I noticed a few kinks in the whole setup;

From flipping the switch to 200F took almost 3 1/2 hours with 25 gallons of water and 100lbs of grain. During the heating after the mash hit about 140F the outer layer of the mash would get dense from the heating. With no circulation, the steam from the jacket really cooks the outer 1" and just steams straight up the side, not really heating the center of the kettle. I helped it along by circulating every now and then plus scraping the thick shit away from the sides. I added more high temp enzyme and that helped thin out the mash and reduced thickening but still had to circulate occasionally.

The pressure did hit 1 bar a few times and the PRV let me know. Otherwise it stayed between 10 and 15psi. The good thing about the heating process is that once I hit about 190F, conversion was complete without waiting at that temp. This was because the outer 1-2" of mash was much higher in temp during the run and with circulation would eventually affect the entire mash. Iodine confirmed a total conversion. Dropped the temp to 150F with cold water and added the low temp enzyme and let it sit overnight. In the morning the temp had dropped to about 100F and the mash was sweet as syrup. Cooled it down to about 85F and dumped the yeast.

This entire project has been a real learning experience in a lot of ways and I really look forward to the results of the AG. I'll keep you guys posted.

Big time thanks to all who helped with suggestions and parts. Couldn't have done it without you.

FC

Smaug

Thanks for the report card FC.

So what will you do to speed things up?

Smaug

BTW, that is by far the nicest hobby sized electric cooker I think I've ever seen. There might be one thats sorta close on HD? But not as well put together as yours.

Any more available power? Can add another element? Or maybe a hot water tank to create a higher starting temp in the cooker?

grim

Sounds silly but a lid will go a long way. It is also a nicer way to reduce heat loss without resorting to shitty looking insulation.

The hot mash at the edges is bad, not good, as it’s acting as an insulator. But, I don’t even want to suggest a mixer, because you’ll spend more money.

Lid before mixer, for sure.

Pair that with a hot liquor tank to cut mash time.

grim

By the way, it's nicer than I've seen at a lot of distilleries lately! ;)

Smaug

Needa gitcha this here, and modify to this paddle design.

hudsonbaydistiller

FC great news glad to see it working as planned . im no expert on agitators but here my idea of a agitator to help with mashing when we tried a r and d mash on some wheat lol ...its portable and brushless so it explosion proof .

FloridaCracker

I do have a ghetto agitator that works awesome but it seems to take longer to heat up with it running. I used as best a lid as I could on the last run and I'm sure it helped.

Smaug, I don't know if more BTUs (another element) would help because I already hit 1bar with just one but that was without agitation. Agitation keeps the pressure down so maybe another would help. Since I will only be using this every now and then I probably won't look to doing a lot more to increase heatup time. Maybe a better sealing top.

Oh, this 60 gallon kettle must be 60 gallons to the rim. I pretty much am only using about 50 gallons of it otherwise agitation would cause an overflow.

Edited by @Moonshine: Invalid YouTube link removed.

grim

The fact that you can hit 1 bar without agitation tells me that your heat transfer is limited.

The fact that agitation keeps the pressure down makes absolute sense, as it reduces the insulation effect of the hot mash, and with more heat transfer, you have less pressure.

hudsonbaydistiller

grim do you think heating oil would be better , higher temp with less pressure . tim

grim

Steam is a more efficient conductor of energy. Remember, it's not the temperature we care about, it's the energy that can be transferred.

hudsonbaydistiller

ok makes sense , so one bar is about as high as a guy should go to be safe ?

hudsonbaydistiller

FC awhile back there was a steam kettle on kajji for sale and the guy made a sealed oak lid , hole in centre for mixing and a 4 inch column on it for stripping , looked like a pretty cool one man band set up . we use beam clamps to lock down our lid seems to work fine . tim

FloridaCracker

I tried to post ANOTHER video showing my kettle in action with the agitator but Moonshine once again took it down.

Not sure why.

Moonshine

@FloridaCracker said: I tried to post ANOTHER video showing my kettle in action with the agitator but Moonshine once again took it down.

Not sure why.

Sorry, I should have told you about it, but I thought you have seen the issue yourself. Both videos were not available ("video unavailable" error message from YouTube). May have to do with either the link to video wrong, or wrong privacy settings for the videos set. Just try again and confirm if the video is viewable if not logged in at Google.