GreenMonti

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What Kladue is talking about has never left the topic of this thread.

You want OD hot water?......Do what Yuri does and blow steam into the incoming cold water and heat it OD........Just as Kladue has mentioned about the steam mixer.

On the subject of the flash boiler........all one needs to do is turn down the fire or increase the flow rate so the output is nothing more then hot water. With a flash boiler there is two ways to get hot water OD.

willynilly

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If you only want OD sparge water, what is more practical in terms of cost (build/operate)?

Maybe I need to change my 1BBL design...

passedpawn

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Heating sparge water with a DIY electrical element is NOT what this topic was about (although I am intrigued by it). At the time, I was proposing the idea of an off-the-shelf OD water heater.

I now believe that it would not be capable of accurate real-time temperature regulation.

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GreenMonti

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Again, I will reference Yuri. An electric element in a sanke and some fail safes. Bang you have steam. Not to mention the fact that you get to use electric as the heat source.


On the flash boiler......I may have a bit more time in my build then a few pieces of plumbing being put together. But I bought it all local and I have 50 bucks invested.

On a practical note.......that all depends. On my last three brew sessions using the flash boiler I have only needed the use of 2.5 pounds of propane per session TO...pre-heat my MLT with steam (for 20 mins cause I can), heat my strike water OD, heat my sparge water OD, and then boil. I am still boiling via direct firing of my kettle. So the last three brews have cost me a total of $1.67 per brew session. Not bad considering I am using the dreaded propane. My days have run me in the 3-4 hour range in time for the session.

I guess it just depends on how you want to get to the finish line. As you know there are lots of ways to get there.

kladue

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With both the R&D and automated system flash boilers you heat water at high flow rate high fire rate for strike water, low water flow and low fire for sparge, and low flow medium fire for steam. It is something that I could show SWMBO how to use in about 5 minutes so she could use R&D unit to brew high gravity beer for competition. The advantage of the R&D and automated system design is the boiler outlet flows through mixing device on way to the mash tun sparge ring where all the water is headed anyway, no hose changing or valving. When wort is pumped through mixer and boiler generates steam, the steam condenses in and heats the flowing wort without hitting high surface temperatures. Temperature control is accomplished by holding water flow steady and increasing/decreasing burner flame with needle valve while you monitor mixer exit temp. In practice you need to ramp fire down about once a minute to keep mixer temp under control as mash tun warms up from circulating wort.

brewingmeister

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What brand is your tankless? I have never seen one that exceeds 140F, I thought that was a safety standard.[/QUOTE]


Eco temp. Two adjustment knobs for burner and flow. Led temp display, safety shutoff at 170. Gpm is 3.5. Good for a small house.


Tankless is a possibility for brewing. I could definitely see one put to use in a gravity setup although it seems everyone is going with a multiple pump setup using electric. To each their own I guess.

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............Alright Brain, you don't like me, and I don't like you. But lets just do this, and I can get back to killing you with beer......~Homer

willynilly

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That is awesome Monti!!

7.5 gallons of strike from 60F to 165F will take 6567 BTUs of heat
7.5 gallons of sparge from 60F to 165 will take 6567 BTUs of heat
13 gallons of wort from 160F - BOIL will take 5421 BTUs of heat
60 minute boil at 1.5gal/hour boil off will take 12,134 of heat

Grand total of 30,689 BTUs

56% Eff. is excellent from gas, that is an awesome setup!

Way out of my league, and way out of the league of the people I am building for, but awesome just the same.

I cant get propane that cheap though either, about $17 per 20 pound tank, which is only 17.5 pounds of propane, so about $1 per pound here, for me.

willynilly

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A tankless water heater would be really neat... but I hate having something that pricey that can only serve a single purpose... Id want to mash with it too

Steam can be used for anything, it is really versatile, but out of my realm for the time being. I have a hard enough time getting people comfortable with the idea of an 11,000W electric RIMS tube. I have found that many people, even starting small nano breweries, have never touched anything automated, period... there is a huge learning curve to just use a PID and turning on a pump, let alone steam injection.

rico567

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Yes, the temperature rise is all-important when dealing with tankless heaters. We are on our third in about 35 years, a Bosch Aquastar propane model. It works well.....as long as you're happy with a hot water temperature of only about 140F or so....adequate for any normal household purpose.
The "Titan" unit linked wouldn't provide 170F water with our well, even on its lowest flow rate......we run around 55F year-round.

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