Great work, looks similar to what I have been working towards. Do you have anything after the hose bard in the Mash tun lid? That's the one thing I have not worked out yet. My thought was to have a tee to 2 pieces of tubing with holes to spread the return water over the grain bed.
Dual Element 5 Gallon Batch 120V Build
- Thread starter Jeebas
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
NathPowe
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2012
- Messages
- 601
- Reaction score
- 146
I use the same type of recirculation port with the same type of cooler MLT. I just attach a piece of silicon tubing to the barb and let it hang down into the MLT. It floats in a coil on top of the grain bed and keeps the return flow from disturbing the grain bed. I considered a bunch of complex solutions, but ended up trying this and it works really well. Plus it follows K.I.S.S.
Just something to consider.
Just something to consider.
OP
OP
My efficiency isn't all that great - low 60s I guess - I need to pay attention more the next time I brew but honestly I don't really care so much about that as much as I used to.
There is a sparge aspect of a sort, I don't recirculate during the mash, and then after I introduce the sparge water that has been heating in the kettle.
As far as heating times, I thought I had posted something to that effect but I guess not. Combing through some chat logs with a coworker from around the date that I ran the tests I found that it went from 120 to 190 in 8 minutes, and from 120 to 212 in 19 minutes total. That was just water though, but I'm not sure what difference that makes.
OP
OP
Just the hose, I have thought of doing something different but have not gotten around to it.
NathPowe
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2012
- Messages
- 601
- Reaction score
- 146
Thanks for the reply. Impressive heating times. Great job on the system and I hope you enjoy lots of successful brews with it.
Jeebus, do you know what happened to the pictures on pages 3 and 4. I'm not seeing them, just a circle with a dash.
OP
OP
I changed the visibility on my Picasa albums, apparently saying "Limited, anyone with the link" means that you cannot directly link to photos. I changed it back for that album.
Tagging this thread.. i want to do something very similar (hopefully i can!) Are you still liking your setup.. are there things you may want to change or do differently? How are the elements holding up?
OP
OP
To be honest I haven't brewed on it since January - life getting in the way. But I tested the elements vigorously and have brewed two batches on it and they seem to be doing fine.
I would have put the temperature probe directly into the kettle instead of in the tee off of the kettle out. It basically means that I can't use the temperature control aspect to heat the water if I am not circulating since the probe is past the valve. I could realign the probe to be BEFORE the valve, but then, with no liquid moving I think that the probe being in the middle of the kettle would be better than right before the valve.
But really thats it.
I wish I didn't need two separate 20A circuits for it, but that's not anything I can control.
I would have put the temperature probe directly into the kettle instead of in the tee off of the kettle out. It basically means that I can't use the temperature control aspect to heat the water if I am not circulating since the probe is past the valve. I could realign the probe to be BEFORE the valve, but then, with no liquid moving I think that the probe being in the middle of the kettle would be better than right before the valve.
But really thats it.
I wish I didn't need two separate 20A circuits for it, but that's not anything I can control.
BrokenDog
Well-Known Member
This looks like a similar setup to what I was thinking about in my head, but with 240v 10g batches.
Similar threads
