Brewman ! -- as before, thanks for your knowledge and sage advice. I am hopeful that you are correct and that the system works well for my mash. Am going to start in an hour or so (once my work is finished).
As for the manifold holes, yes that was a typo -- 11/32 should have been 1/16. Just a slip of the fingers -- DUH. Don't know where I came up with that figure!!!
I have corrected it in my original post so it now reads 1/16" holes. Thanks for spotting that.
I also added a 3 inch piece of 1/4" copper tubing to the valve (it has a built in 1/4" compression fitting) to attach the tubing. A 3/8" inch hose clamp would be a good idea – mine held without it…. until I kinked the silicone tubing and it blew the hose right off the pot!
Not to take away from anything that Flyguy has done, but one should really use a regular hose nipple to prevent such hose slippage. I use a 1/4" hose nipple and my hose stays on with no problems, even if I dead end pressurize the hose. I can also work it off when I need to.
The hose slipping off is one of the few things that could be potentially dangerous about this setup. Spending an extra $1 for a nipple minimizes that risk.
BTW... I'd love to brew a hefe... are you freezing some yeast ? Is that a starter I see going on your counter ? Care to swap a Wyeast 3942 for a hefe yeast ?
BTW... I'd love to brew a hefe... are you freezing some yeast ? Is that a starter I see going on your counter ? Care to swap a Wyeast 3942 for a hefe yeast ?
Yep, that is the Wyeast weizen yeast building-up on the counter. I am going to freeze some very soon. I would be happy to swap! A wit beer is on my list of 'brews to do'!
Also, regarding the use of a barb to hold the hose. I completely agree. However, the angle valve I used terminates in a hose connection, not a MIP connection. The nuts on the hose connection aren't NPT threads, so you can't get a barb connector that will fit. That's why I used the 1/4" copper tubing.
In all honesty, while a barb and hose clamp would be best, there is no way that the hose would ever come off that piece of copper tubing if it were clamped down right. Even without the clamp, it only came off once when I blocked the flow of steam through the tube (and it got blocked multiple times before this happened). But I agree - better safe than sorry.
LOL - you caught it! I looked at the photo, too, and wondered if anyone would notice. It does look a lot like B E E R though, unless you look carefully....
Flyguy... does steam come out all of the holes in the manifold or just one/a few ? I'd like to know what kind of steam distribution you get and how your mash is for temp hot spots.
If people are wanting to use steam with a recirculating system, like a HERMs or a RIMS, you could probably inject steam into the recirculating line after the pump. Inject it right into the circulating wort. It would bubble in the line a bit, but as long as the line was long enough the wort would absorb the heat and the bubble would collapse.
My regular brew rig was a HERMs system. I'll be using it with steam when I resurrect it this fall.
The thing I worry about with injecting steam into the line is overheating the wort. And then you always have to worry about having a high enough wort flow rate so as not to over heat it. With direct injection, you don't have to worry about that or hot wort aeration.
This is a great thread, I like the Idea of using steam. Back in the day I worked in a Coffee shop and the espresso machines used steam to heat the milk, and as long as you did not run the steam too long you did not have a problem for burning the milk. The espresso machines used steam wands with a nossil on the end.
Do you think if you had four steam wands in each corner you might increase the efficiency of the steam manifold?
I am really intrigued about the Steam/HERMS Idea, I've been putting one together for a While in my spare time and an almost done. I had this idea though, if you modified a counter flow chiller so you run steam through it, instead of cold water, to heat the wort. As well though I guess It would make most sense to use a heat exchange plate...Hmm
I guess you could run the steam through the center coil of a counterflow chiller. It would exchange the heat. Some liquid would condense in the coil, but it could be blown out or just leave it drip out, no harm done.
I was thinking of injecting the steam right into the wort as it was being pumped.
You have to remember that the steam is damn hot, like maybe hot enough to kill the enzymes in the wort. The heat needs to be spread out over a bunch of wort (or mash) or you could have some problems.
I think the beauty of injecting the steam right in the mash is you don't have to pump it - at all. No chance of getting the mash too hot with injecting straight in and no chance of mash aeration issues either.
I know I complained about stirring, but you only have to do that while you are adding heat. Once the heat is added, if you are using a cooler, you close the lid and go watch TV. There is really nothing to do except check the thermometer a few times. And there is no wort outside the cooler cooling off either.
Steam mashing has been the easiest mashes I have ever done.
Linear Mode
