New Equipment and Possible Uses

Being a chef for a living I have incorporated a few different tools into my home brewing that I thought I would share. I have not seen anyone use either one of these tools, so I thought it might spark some interest.

Immersion Circulator - This is a piece of equipment typically used in labs. Chefs have converted them over to kitchen appliances used to maintain a constant temperature to achieve perfectly cooked products. Immersion circulators work by running liquid through a heating/cooling element and recirculating it back through the mixture. Polyscience clams that their immersion circulators can hold any temperature between +5 degrees C to 200 degrees C. So for brewing this opens up many usages; boiling wort at a constant temp, steeping grans, mashing, etc. The only downfall is that they come at a hefty price $800-$1450, but some members of the forum seem to have a bit of extra cash for toys:cross:.
JB Prince



Chinois - This is a much simpler device. A chinois is a fine mesh conical sieve used to strain sauces, stocks, soups, etc. Chinois are much finer then the average home strainer, there for they will remove much more sediment after a wort boil. I almost always use one to strain my wort. Chinois range anywhere from $40 - $150. Check ebay!
JB Prince




So you may or may not want to use one of these, but either way I hope it sparked a little interest! Cheers

an immersion circulator would get gunked up with all the grains if you used one for the mash. You could have the mash inside a loose bag to keep the particulates out of the Imersion circulator but for 1500 bucks i can just build myself a nice herms setup.

It would get nasty and probably clogged but there are always ways around it. I for sure would not buy one just for brewing, but I just wanted to through it out there. I think it is an interesting piece of equipment.

Hey thanks for sharing, that immersion circulator is some piece! Maybe 200 C with oil, doubt you could boil wort w/ it might, turn into a steam generator...lol.

I would put it to use, but waaay out of my budget. Hah, I picked up a nice coleman cooler curbside today for perhaps another of many tuns, or maybe an electric HLT? I like free! A thousand bucks buys a lot of grain!

W/ regards to the strainer, sorry, but I detest straining, maybe I'm lazy, but I prefer gravity.

Mike

SchmidtyBeer; that's one nice looking unit but I see a few problems.
First off it would need to be hooked up to a coil in the MLT with glycol
circulating thru the system preventing it getting clogged up.
Second it's only 1,100 watts at 120 volts. Nice idea thanks for posting but
a HLT PID controlled HERMS system with 5-10,000 watts home made would not only be cheaper to build but could step heat faster. For boil I would be surprised to death to see 1,100 watts do a boil with a 14 plus gallon batch for 10 plus net.

It would work great scaled down to a one gallon metal paint bucket brewing system.
The paint bucket Mini-Micro brewing system? Not sold in stores as seen on TV only $19.95. I may have started something here for the small space limited apartment brewer? Sorry I get wacky a few times in the replies but again that is a nice unit as posted for those that have the money. My pocket holds very few clams im out on this one.

I've often considered using a Chinois in brewing for squeezing every ounce of wort from the expanded hops as the wort goes in the fermenter...Especially with he ones that have the rotary handle thing on the top. But even the ones with a pestle may have merit...