Owly055
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- Feb 28, 2014
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I thought I'd get really clever and put the Annova right in the middle of my mash, so I built two HDPE washers 3" outside diameter, and 1/4" thick, that just slide on the Annova. The idea was to make a sieve that would slide onto the body of the annova, and screen the intake. I then drilled a series of new holes higher up on the stainless tube, and bought an expensive T bolt clamp to seal off the lower ones. Yesterday I went to Walmart looking for a suitable sieve, and came back with one I was not happy with, so I proceeded to drill the washers in 9 positions, and attach them together with an old brew bag sandwiched between them instead of a sieve, cutting a hole in the center of the bottom.
I then preheated my strike water a bit below my intended temp, and doughed into my main brew bag, and set the Annova which is mounted through a hole in a one by four so it can hang in the middle of the pot, into position, bringing the second brew bag up over the top of the pot with the first one. The washers are resting well below the suction openings (new), and the wort must pass through it to reach those openings.
Simple and cheap...... right? Well it worked for about 5 minutes before the grain clogged the weave enough that it pushed the bag into the Annova blocking the suction holes.
I then set a bunch of knives and spoons down inside the pot to hold the bag away, and discovered that they needed to be tied to the edge of the pot or they would be pushed by the liquid pressure. The water level inside and outside the isolator bag has a difference of about 3 inches!! It's very near to running over.
By allowing the mash to pile up around the "well" that is formed around the Annova by the silverware, I am just able to maintain enough flow oosing through the bag to satisfy the Annova.
I would not call this an unqualified success ;-)........ but it isn't a failure either. The next step is to create a wire cage to hold back the bag. The better solution of course is to use a large strainer as I had originally intended, or order one from Utah Biodiesel.
Better still is my plan to built my own STC 1000 based system using a rod type heater rather than a coil. That heater as it happens is sitting on my desk as I write. It's an 8" long 500W heater that is a straight stainless steel rod. A heating rod, and a thermocouple and an STC 1000, combined with an inexpensive electric motor driving a simple circulator using some cheap Walmart mixer as a drive unit. The whole thing designed so the grain circulating with the wort isn't a problem. It would sit over the mash tun like an ice cream maker, with the guts in a tube to give it all a "sanitary" appearance.
This mash is far from a failure, but neither is it a walk away and leave it and come back an hour later to a finished product affair. But it is a first try. The next go will be with a wire armature to hold the bag back.
H.W.
I then preheated my strike water a bit below my intended temp, and doughed into my main brew bag, and set the Annova which is mounted through a hole in a one by four so it can hang in the middle of the pot, into position, bringing the second brew bag up over the top of the pot with the first one. The washers are resting well below the suction openings (new), and the wort must pass through it to reach those openings.
Simple and cheap...... right? Well it worked for about 5 minutes before the grain clogged the weave enough that it pushed the bag into the Annova blocking the suction holes.
I then set a bunch of knives and spoons down inside the pot to hold the bag away, and discovered that they needed to be tied to the edge of the pot or they would be pushed by the liquid pressure. The water level inside and outside the isolator bag has a difference of about 3 inches!! It's very near to running over.
By allowing the mash to pile up around the "well" that is formed around the Annova by the silverware, I am just able to maintain enough flow oosing through the bag to satisfy the Annova.
I would not call this an unqualified success ;-)........ but it isn't a failure either. The next step is to create a wire cage to hold back the bag. The better solution of course is to use a large strainer as I had originally intended, or order one from Utah Biodiesel.
Better still is my plan to built my own STC 1000 based system using a rod type heater rather than a coil. That heater as it happens is sitting on my desk as I write. It's an 8" long 500W heater that is a straight stainless steel rod. A heating rod, and a thermocouple and an STC 1000, combined with an inexpensive electric motor driving a simple circulator using some cheap Walmart mixer as a drive unit. The whole thing designed so the grain circulating with the wort isn't a problem. It would sit over the mash tun like an ice cream maker, with the guts in a tube to give it all a "sanitary" appearance.
This mash is far from a failure, but neither is it a walk away and leave it and come back an hour later to a finished product affair. But it is a first try. The next go will be with a wire armature to hold the bag back.
H.W.
