DIY Steam Mash System by Yuri

John Beere · Sep 9, 2008

I will begin researching as well but I have to get my current projects wrapped up. I swear I have OCD... once I get an idea in my head, I just won't stop until its done. I honestly just told my wife that after I finished the redesign of my rig, I would stop for awhile. I guess if I just sort of blend it all into a single project, I'm not technically lying... heh

Considering the wort will be probably be 150+ degrees when entering the boil kette, it should take much less than the 4 gallons to reach boil...

Yuri_Rage · Sep 9, 2008

Since we're talking about using steam as the heating mechanism for the entire system, the same math applies if you heat the water from 50° to 150°, wait for the mash to complete, then go from 150° to boiling.

kladue · Sep 9, 2008

Well consider this, water expands about 1400 times when flashed into steam, then the steam gives up 970 BTU's / Lb when it condenses on you. Having been on the recieving end of steam burns it is not much fun and takes quite a while to recover from. If one would use equipment built for steam generation with appropriate safety devices, it is as safe as any other method of heating used. My approach to steam generation was to build a flash boiler out of 1/4" tubing that holds about 6 Oz of water and uses burner firing rate to change steam output, here are a couple pictures (Old Boiler)Picasa Web Albums - Kevin - Boiler (New Boiler)http://picasaweb.google.com/kevin.ladue/NewBoilerAndMixer#

John Beere · Sep 9, 2008

Oh, well then, of course thats the case! heh

John Beere · Sep 9, 2008

how the hell did you wrap that tubing so perfectly?!? that is freaking nuts and looks like a great idea. Could that same idea be used with electricity? Say, submerge the tubing in hot oil at around 300 degrees?

kladue · Sep 9, 2008

The tubing was wound around 2" water pipe then spread 1" apart, then the 4 coils were meshed to fit inside a 6" diameter piece of SS duct. The other function is to heat water for strike and sparge operations, hold water flow constant and turn fire up/down to hit temperatures. Nice feature is with the small internal water volume startup to target temp is about 60 - 90 seconds. Both boilers have been fired to orange hot tubing then hit with full water flow to worst case test for failure, made a large shot of steam but no other changes other than blueing of tubing.

John Beere · Sep 9, 2008

This really settles it - I'm dropping everything and going to welding school... I *need* to be able to fabricate and weld metal like you two.

Couple if questions - how do you toggle the steam on and off with that thing? So I'm guessing the hot oil idea doesn't have much merit?

kladue · Sep 9, 2008

The way the system is set up water is pumped in to the boiler, burner fired and gas flow controlled to maintain temperature. Water flow is set to .5 GPM and gas flow is controlled to hit 165 for dough in, during steam production the water flow is reduced to ~3 GPH and gas flow controlled to maintain mixer outlet temperature (steam is superheated at start of step cycle to over 275 deg F), and then flow is set to 12 GPH for sparge to match wort transfer to boil kettle. All water and steam flows from boiler through mixer into the sparge ring in mash tun so no connections have to be changed, just start/ stop water flow and burner for steps, the mash tun circulation pump runs from dough in to when mash tun is emptied. With no valve on outlet there is no pressure buildup to worry about in boiler as burner firing rate controls temperature. You can see the flow meters and temperatures on panel during a typical step from protien rest to conversion, wort is flowing at 50 GPH and mixer entering temp is 121 Deg and exiting temp is 156 deg http://picasaweb.google.com/kevin.ladue/OldBrewingSystem#5035126466830705138

Yuri_Rage · Sep 9, 2008

kladue, what are you using to set and/or measure flow rates? The only hardware I could find for that sort of thing was EXPENSIVE!

John Beere · Sep 9, 2008

Here is a photo of his old control panel... you can see the two flow meters. He talked about it some in another thread...

kladue · Sep 9, 2008

The flowmeters are dwyer 4" VMB acrylic variable area priced at $47 Model 80 (.5 - 12 GPH) for water and Model 81 (6 - 60 GPH) for wort. The boiler water flow and burner gas flow is controlled by needle valves on the lower left side of panel. Wort flow during sparge cycle is controlled by a swagelok ball valve in middle of panel that directs flow to boil kettle. Old boiler can bring .25 gpm of water from 47 degrees to boil and new boiler twice that flow rate.

Rodenlager · Oct 21, 2011

Couldn't you just use one of those "Steam Mouse" steam cleaners?

Or does it take a ridiculous amount of steam to raise the temp in a 10 gallon mash?

Obviously I'm just thinking of stepping the mash with steam, not using it as a primary heat source for entire brewday.

Yuri_Rage · Oct 21, 2011

A steam cleaner would almost certainly not have enough power to get the job done. I used a 6000W element, and it ran almost constantly to keep the pressure up whenever the steam valve was open. A small steam cleaner would not have that sort of energy potential.

I've since replaced this boiler with a bigger, better version:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/yuri-goes-big-steam-new-boiler-point-use-water-heater-125953/

amb1935 · Dec 31, 2011

What is the black tubing you used?

DIY Steam Mash System by Yuri

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