Easy Steam Infusion Mash System

[GNBrews]

The weight of the grain will probably smoosh the silicone tubing, but it might work. The copper manifold is nice because it's denser than the wort, so it stays on the bottom, and is harder to bump around when you're stirring the mash.

 

[MaxOut]

I use 3/8" hi-temp silicone tubing.

Just a thought-
I would use a high temp "pressure rated" tubing for this application. The standard HTST is only rated at 3 PSI and will explode quickly if pressure builds in the tubing. I love the All American Pressure cooker!! Nice Project

 

[Carlscan26]

Reading through this thread it seems like the OP was gettimg temp rises that took about 10-15 mins. This doesn't seem any faster than a HERMS system...am I wrong on that?

 

[Carlscan26]

What kind of mash temp change rates are you steam folks getting?

 

[Vesku]

I tried this too, but I couldn't make it work properly. It was slower than my "normal" HERMS, I think that my steam engine was under powered. The heat was very much concentrated near the steam output, mash needed to be stirred for a good result. Really hard to get the steam jets work so that the steam comes out equally from every jet. I gave up before I mastered this one (and the pressurized steam was too scary stuff for me to work with).

 

[aarong]

So how much water is typically infused I into the wort to increase the temp? Let's say from protein rest to sach rest. I'm looking for the typically temperature rise per amount of water infused. I am planning on running some heat transfer calcs for my design thanks!!!

 

[kladue]

As you have probably found out by now, there are very few threads about steam injection mashing, most if not all have not panned out. Limitations have been steam generation and steam delivery into the mash evenly and quietly. A couple systems have been built, but steam requirements are more than a typical pressure cooker can deliver safely.

 

[day_trippr]

I dunno, seems like the OP established steam mashing could be done rather successfully using hardware that isn't exactly exotic.

In my own experiments with a steam infusion rig I was able to rapidly raise the temperature of 5 gallons of water by swings suitable for stepping. A 23 quart PC was at the heart of it and stored a lot of thermal energy.

Quiet? Well (LOL!) anything but (indeed, the sounds were otherworldly).
For entertainment value alone I hope to actually use it on a batch one of these days

Cheers!

 

[kladue]

I do steam injection into flowing wort,quiet, controllable, repeatable, and with flash boiler it is about 1 minute from cold boiler to full output steam. Wort heating is controlled by boiler fire level, water flow is held constant, with typical steam temperature of 220 degrees for first part of step, and reduced as wort warms up.
Manual control rig is 10 years old, and fully automated system is 5 years old, both with SS tube boilers and wort mix chambers.

 

[Carlscan26]

I do steam injection into flowing wort,quiet, controllable, repeatable, and with flash boiler it is about 1 minute from cold boiler to full output steam. Wort heating is controlled by boiler fire level, water flow is held constant, with typical steam temperature of 220 degrees for first part of step, and reduced as wort warms up.

Manual control rig is 10 years old, and fully automated system is 5 years old, both with SS tube boilers and wort mix chambers.

Kladue, do you have a build thread and/or pics you can share?

 

[kladue]

Here is a link to pictures of the first rig https://picasaweb.google.com/110297595278760536729/OldBrewingSystem#5035126853377761794. I have a grocery bag of ribbons from competition beers made with this rig, simple enough that SWMBO brewed a barley wine with it.
Since the manual system worked well, next step was to automate all the manual operations. Here is a final system build picture, touch screen control on left, malt conveyor hopper on lower right, and keg on wall in background was eliminated in a later revision. https://picasaweb.google.com/110297595278760536729/Panels#5339967138764297570.
Here are the screen shots from the software I created to operate the system https://picasaweb.google.com/110297595278760536729/OneTouchProgramGraphics.
The automated system was 2 years in design and parts acquisition, 1 year fabrication and testing, and about 2,500 hours in the final software package programming and testing. With vented combustion, flame safety controls, and sufficient safety scenarios programmed in, I can do other brewery chores without having to constantly monitor the brewing process to keep from being blown up or gassed.

 

[aarong]

That is awesome!

 

[killian]

that's a sweet rig!

 

[Carlscan26]

Impressive! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Backwoodsbrewing]

Bump

 

[Backwoodsbrewing]

Excellent thread a simple way to step mash that is inexpensive. Very ingenious


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[Farside]

Kladue, have you experimented with the screen mesh size for the diffuser? I notice you used a MESH 12. I imagine a coarser mesh would result in larger bubbles and louder operation. What would be the cons of a finer mesh like 20 or 30?

 

[Farside]

My parts are slowly arriving

I've decided to use NPT threaded fittings rather than the ferrule fittings Kladue used for his injector.

I have a 1/2 to 1/4 tee and a 1/2 to 1/4 reducer:

The inside of the reducer measures 8.5 mm or 11/32'' and I'm hoping to press fit the stainless tube though this.

Either I will have to go with a 9 mm tube and somehow reduce it a bit, or use an 8 mm tube and use an epoxy. At this point I'm thinking the epoxy route will be best.

Edit: I got the 8mm tube today and it's too small. It actually measures 7.5 mm OD and there is just too much of a gap to even epoxy without making a huge mess.
I'll have to try the 9 mm. My luck it will arrive measuring 9.5 mm :-/

 

[Farside]

Good news is that the fittings for my thermocouple arrived this morning and they all fit nicely together.

This will be used to measure the temperature of the flash boiler outlet. Since it will also be measuring steam, I needed to use a thermocouple rather than the semiconductor probes I made for the rest of the system.

 

[brewman !]

Funny to see this thread still has life, after all these years. FYI, I posted in it back in 2007.

There are 2 critical items in any steam system. The steam generator itself and the manner in which the steam energy is transferred to the liquid being heated.

As far as the steam generator goes, remember that steam is just the transfer mechanism to transfer the "burner" energy into the liquid being heated. While the burner to steam vessel heat transfer may be efficient, one has to look at how much heat is being lost from the vessel and the piping.

As far as the energy transfer between the steam and the liquid, you can't just inject the steam and hope for the best. If you do this, the steam will probably bubble to the surface, resulting in much heat loss. Remember that the heat transfer occurs when the steam vapor condenses to a liquid. If the vapor bubble makes it to the surface before collapsing, the energy didn't transfer to the liquid, it gets released into the air.

I like the mesh idea for direct injection into the mash. It would break up the bubbles into really fine ones, dramatically increasing the surface area. It also probably spreads them out. However, I'm not sure that I would want to direct inject into either my mash or my boil. In the latter there will be little to no boil down.

FWIW, I'm in the process of building a steam brewery. It utilizes a 30 gallon (12 Kw) electric hot water tank for the boiler. I'll report my findings as soon as I run it.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f253/zeuss-rebirth-non-typical-all-steam-brew-stand-455905/

 

[Farside]

The other parts arrived so I can now assemble the steam injector. The cool wort enters in at the bottom, the steam enters in on the right hand side (the temp probe attached in the top part of the port), and the hot wort goes through a non return valve and out the top.

 

[EthanWalker]

https://youtu.be/IbPOxJdaxvE
Just got finished with my steam system. Thank you flyguy for the helpful info. I couldn't make it exactly how did yours, I live in the country and made due with what the local store had. Can't wait till next weekend to try it on a dunkleweizen.