Planning my brewery, the very beginnings...

I've made some 3D CAD models of some equipment, in between my assignments or whenever I've felt like getting away from the all coursework. My background can be found here. When I return home I plan on building a steam heated mash all-grain system using 1/2bbl kegs. Here are some preliminary ideas for my mash tun.


Simple view of the mash tun with glass sight and ball valve at bottom.


My idea for steam heating the mash using some fairly simple copper tubing. The top of the tube will have to have some sort of rotary coupler (c'mon ebay!) so that the assembly is able to rotate in the tun and stir the mash as it heats. I'm still trying to figure out what kind of sparging system to use but that can come later. Eventually I plan on automating the process (eventually being when I have money to) using some built from scratch controllers and computer software (electrical engineering student).

Let me know what you think about the steam arm and if you have any recommendations for the part or system I'm planning. As time goes on I will post some more models for the brewery that I am working on. If anyone here uses SolidWorks or similar and need some decent 3D models let me know and I can share what I have made.

Looks good. The rotary coupler will be the tricky part. Just be careful. Unless you buy a really high-end rotary coupler it will likely leak a little hot steam.

As an alternative I really like this guys setup. I think it is a bit on the over kill side, but the concept is great.

PS- ProE kick Solidwork’s ass

fifelee said:

Looks good. The rotary coupler will be the tricky part. Just be careful. Unless you buy a really high-end rotary coupler it will likely leak a little hot steam.

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Although I don't have one around to look a little closer at it, I was thinking a coupler from a compressed air spool could possibly work. My guess is that they are made from brass and they should work good at the lower pressures I have planned. A slight leak wouldn't be to big of a deal provided I keep it safe.

PS- ProE kick Solidwork’s ass

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I actually have and use them both, but to me its a lot easier to pump out some quick and dirty models in SW than ProE. My work used SW and my school basically only uses ProE and Autocaddrunk.

Why not consider injecting the steam into recirculating wort and skip the hassle of direct steam injection to the mash. Direct steam injection is great for pushing a lot of heat into the mash but is going to require a lot of manual effort in the mixing of the steam into the mash to even out temperatures.

kladue said:

Why not consider injecting the steam into recirculating wort and skip the hassle of direct steam injection to the mash. Direct steam injection is great for pushing a lot of heat into the mash but is going to require a lot of manual effort in the mixing of the steam into the mash to even out temperatures.

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Has steam injection into the recirculating wort been done before? I just feel that it would bring slower temperature changes due to the fact it is limited by the pump flow, plus the hot wort would still have to be mixed in the tun. With a injection arm like the one I drew up the program would simply tell the steam valve to open and the mixer to start then turn off the valve and end mixing shortly after. I actually plan on having multiple temperature sensors in the keg as to get an idea of efficiency of the mixer, once a simple embedded system is made to monitor the temp adding 1 or 2 more sensors should be a breeze.

Have been using steam injection into the recirculating wort for 5+ years, pump gpm is at .85 gpm which is limit of flow to prevent mash compaction. Step times are 10-11 minutes from 122-152 degrees with 13 qts& 10 lbs grist, superheated steam temp 219 deg at start reduced as mash target temp is approached. Boiler is flow through design which heats strike water, makes steam for injection, and heats sparge water which flows through steam input to wort mixer and on to sparge ring in mash tun without changing plumbing during operation.

kladue, do you have any diagrams or photos of the setup? Sounds pretty interesting anymore information would be nice. I also think I saw you had a ton of solenoid valves and whatnot... where did you score those?

Here is a few pictures of the old system that was used to test materials and ideas on a smaller scale to work out any problems before scaling the system up.http://picasaweb.google.com/kevin.ladue/OldBrewingSystem Here are some shots of hardware destined for the new automated system based on steam injection into recirculating wort.http://picasaweb.google.com/kevin.ladue/ControlHardwareThe old system is nearly identical to the new system with out the automation. The only hurdle left is to scale down the mash hydration mixer used in 3-10 barrel systems to a 10 gallon system to eliminate the stirring during dough in.
As for the source of the hardware, it was purchased on ebay over 2 year period while working in arizona, and is mostly industry standard 4-20 Ma devices, 100 ohm Platinum rtd's, type j thermocouples, and opto 22 plc hardware. Control system is designed for 24 volt power in control cabinet with line voltage switching in seperate enclosures for pumps, mill, glycol coolers, and screw conveyor.