mechanical stirring

Hey all, first post. Hope I get the rules right.

I've only been doing all grain about 6 months. I've been doing full volume, single infusion mash of 10-12 pounds grain and am going to try this contraption with a slow stir to try to get more uniform water temp and hopefully better extraction. Anyone see any other products that enable stirring throughout the duration of the mash?

tell me if I am wrong, but I thought you didn't want to disturb the grain bed in a single infusion mash?

SeligmansDog said:

Hey all, first post. Hope I get the rules right.

I've only been doing all grain about 6 months. I've been doing full volume, single infusion mash of 10-12 pounds grain and am going to try this contraption with a slow stir to try to get more uniform water temp and hopefully better extraction. Anyone see any other products that enable stirring throughout the duration of the mash?

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Not that I want to open this can of worms but at least at commercial breweries where mash stirring devices are employed it is considered to be very important to design them to be low shear.

A far more popular method of accomplishing your stated goals is to use a pump to recirculate the mash liquor from the bottom to the top of the mashtun throughout the mash. This is typically combined with some method of temperature control.

Search for RIMS and HERMS to get more info.

Robo-stir???

Low shear's pretty easy using the right stir blade and speed. RIMS is a ton more equipment, nice, but pricey.

put some of these at the bottom of your wort lol

DoubleFisted said:

put some of these at the bottom of your wort lol

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hahahah what the hell.... that gave me a good little laugh... cant believe how lazy some people are getting

It wasn't done because of laziness. In a mixture like this, it's tough not to get uneven pockets and thermal highs and lows. Just wanted to even it out.

SeligmansDog he was talking about the link in my post

Sorry about that. It is darn silly for regular cooking.

Here's my updated rig . I'll try to get a real run in next weekend.

just have to ask, do you think that the drill gun will burn out after running for an hour? as well as with a load on it (mash being much more viscous)

I was planning on utilizing my old Ice Cream maker which is very low speed and has a lot of torque. However, the more I think about it, the more I consider just recirculating back into my mash.

I've been brew in a bag lately, so I've been thinking that a tube going straight down into my mash with a cap and tiny holes along the length of it might be perfect. I've got two elements at the bottom of the kettle, so I'd be able to skip the RIMS tube as long as I had a sensor for temp at the bottom.

I was going to try one of these:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#6142k46/=ajlsrx

There are better quality motors with tones of torque, but they are pricey. Fractional HP gear motor, google it.

Jawbox0 said:

I was planning on utilizing my old Ice Cream maker which is very low speed and has a lot of torque. However, the more I think about it, the more I consider just recirculating back into my mash.

I've been brew in a bag lately, so I've been thinking that a tube going straight down into my mash with a cap and tiny holes along the length of it might be perfect. I've got two elements at the bottom of the kettle, so I'd be able to skip the RIMS tube as long as I had a sensor for temp at the bottom.

Click to expand...

I'd be surprised if an ice cream motor would last, frankly.

Although in theory it should have the torque, when making ice cream the mix gets thick only towards then end of the run (as the mix freezes). This is in contrast to a mash which starts out thick. Plus, I'd bet those household ice cream makers are built knowing that they'll only be used once/twice a year (if that). I'm wondering if the motor would last if being used once a week, an hour at a time (you brew once a week, right?).

Just saying....if its anything like our ice cream maker...it sits on the shelf anyway, I guess you can put it to good use until it fails....

Hex said:

I was going to try one of these:

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Not enough touque!

AnOldUR said:

Not enough touque!

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That's what I thought! thanks for confirmation. How much torque would be required to do 14 lbs grain?

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Awesome! Got a link or manufacturer for that motor? Nice paddle too!

Bought the gearmotor on eBay.
It's a Merkle Korff
The rest is homemade except for the thermowells.

http://www.merkle-korff.com/

Cheers!

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Agreed! Thanks for sharing!

broadbill said:

I'd be surprised if an ice cream motor would last, frankly.

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Just saying....if its anything like our ice cream maker...it sits on the shelf anyway, I guess you can put it to good use until it fails....

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That's the thing, all it does is sit on the shelf anyway, so even if it fails, it wouldn't be a huge loss. On the other hand, I'd like to get a pump anyway, and doing recirculation would solve my uneven temps better than stirring and I'd probably get clearer beer.

I guess I'm just going to have to make some decisions.

Jawbox0 said:

That's the thing, all it does is sit on the shelf anyway, so even if it fails, it wouldn't be a huge loss. On the other hand, I'd like to get a pump anyway, and doing recirculation would solve my uneven temps better than stirring and I'd probably get clearer beer.

I guess I'm just going to have to make some decisions.

Click to expand...

But the stirring will help prevent stuck mashes once you start recirculating. I am about to use a RIMs system I got from Layne and I am very interested in a motorized stirrer.
Keep us posted.

AnOldUR said:

This is 58 in/lb start and 90 in/lb run.
Works fine down to 1 qt/lb mash thickness.

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Hey AnOldUR,
Can you tell me more about your stirrer. Is that 2 Thermoprobes?
What are you mashing in and are you recirculating?

Thanks!

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This is where I want my brewery. I believe there are benefits to direct fire mash, like 100% starch conversion. After stirring for an hour and a half, from dough-in, through step rests, to mash out, there is not much left of the grain besides hulls and germ.

So, do you transfer the mash to a separate lauter tun? That's what I'm a-doin'.

I wonder if the 12v and 24v gear motors have more torque, and can they be easily wired from 120v AC using an appropriate transformer?

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Yup, got it, I re-read your post, I got excited...
Randy Mosher has a diagram of his setup in the back of Radical Brewing. At least that is where I thought I saw it.
He uses direct fire, auto-stir mash and dumps the entire mash into a lauter tun via gravity and a two inch ball valve on the side of his mash tun!
Not necessary for 5 gal batches, I ladle, but my next set-up might incorporate that technique.
Thanks again for sharing.

@rustbucket It's an old drill, should be interesting to see if it survives. I'm willing to take the risk, will post if it dies.

@JawBox0 I like the ice cream bucket idea a lot. By doing a full volume mash, torque required shouldn't be much at all, pretty thin mash.

@AnOldUR I hail to your greatness, nice rig! How do you heat it (or is the water added at strike temp)?

Thanks for all the discussion, this is a great forum.

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