SSBrewTech Announced a New Insulated Mash Tun!

[killerbee]

I lose about a 1.5 degree per hour without the separate heater.

At what room temperature?

 

[AfroHopster]

at what room temperature?

70

 

[pvpeacock]

mine only loses between 1 and 1.5 degrees F in an hour in outdoor, ambient temp. of 65-70 degrees F. That's also without preheating the mash tun. However, once I dough in, stir and put the lid on it, I don't touch it for the entire hour -- no stirring during the mash, etc.

 

[killerbee]

I lose about a 1.5 degree per hour without the separate heater.

mine only loses between 1 and 1.5 degrees F in an hour in outdoor, ambient temp. of 65-70 degrees F.

10 gallon or 20 gallon?

 

[pvpeacock]

10 gallon, no heater

 

[AfroHopster]

10 gallon with heater

 

[bd2xu]

Yes and no...

With RIMS, probably not. With HERMS, depends upon efficiency.



With HERMS we're going to be using our HLT water later for sparging AND of course, IDEALLY you don't want to raise the temp of the wort coming out your HEX/RIMS tube up into the mashout / enzyme denaturing temp ranges as it will hurt our precious enzymes. When you tweak a recirculating mash system this way you will get slower temperature ramps; the speed is also dependant upon the efficiency of the HEX in a HERMS system -with many people using stainless steel coils in HLTs now after the example of Kal's theelectricbrewery.com system, the efficiency can be pretty low ESPECIALLY if you're not stirring or whirlpooling the water in your HLT.



-Combine all these factors with a completely uninsulated keg-based mashtun and you can end up with very slow temperature steps that many people are seeing the purpose of temperature steps is to have MORE control over the process and the enzyme activation times; when you can't move quickly enough from one temperature to another you end up resting too long and the whole brewday takes longer.



Insulation can definitely help increase your temp ramp speed and give you more control which is the purpose of HERMS/RIMS in the first place. An insulated mashtun (which is a standard in the British brewing tradition) also means that you can do super simple infusion mashes that don't REQUIRE any application of heat to hold temp for the entire hour or 90 minute mash time.



Insulation also means increased energy efficiency and decreased costs (although I admit that electricity is a very minor contributor to costs at home brew scale).





Adam

Agree on this. I am currently using a single tier, three keggle (Brutus 10 style) rig with a herms in my HLT. I have insulated my mashed tun with reflectix but it still does not hold heat very well. When using the herms coil, in order to raise temps fairly quickly I need the HLT to between about 10° higher than where I want my mash to be. On my last brew, my target was 154. When my temperature dropped to about 152, I recirculated through my coil with the water at 165. I was able to raise the temperature in just a minute or two with stirring. In the past though, I have tried to make the temperature in the HLT just a couple degrees above my target and it took forever to get to that temperature. I am hoping with this insulated tun (mine is coming in a couple days) I won't have to use the herms as much and when I do it will work better.