Zeus's rebirth. Non typical, all steam brew stand.

[512brew-com]

Here it is: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=475456

 

[brewman !]

Hey brewman, search for Doug Edey and his open-source strange brew controller software, here in the forums. Seems like it would fit the bill.

Looks like it would work perfectly. And if it didn't, I could modify it. Many thanks for the tip.

Good timing this. I was lamenting that the kettle controller wasn't going to be automated. I'd rather not wire up a big control panel only to take it apart once I went with the RPi.

I picked up a 10x10x4 control box for the kettle controller. I have a 12x12x4 box for the boiler control.

FWIW, the boiler controller just brings the boiler up to temp and holds it there. It also monitors the sensors (water level, boiler pressure) to make sure that nothing goes awry. I'm using a PID on it, but it is overkill. But the PID gives me a visual temp reading, which is nice. I backed it up with an old fashion pressure gauge. I'm, looking for multiple levels of redundancy to prevent a mishap.

Thus far I have

- Watts 30PSI relief valve. I wish it was 35 PSI, so there are no accidental discharges.
- 35 PSI adjustable pressure switch
- 30 PSI pressure gauge
- water level sensor switch
- PID measuring temperature, controlling the elements

Any one of these devices, except the gauge, can shut off the boiler. Multiple devices would have to fail and you'd have to ignore a lot of signs before the boiler pressure would get above 30 PSI. And then all that would happen is that the pressure relief valve would open and vent.

Edit: StrangeBrew looks like a great controller or start thereof. It looks like I need to spend more time on HBT to keep abreast of everything that goes on.

 

[brewman !]

Here is the schematic and control layout for the boiler controller.

The SCRs are missing a ground connection to complete the 12V circuit.

The level and pressure sensors are actually on the boiler, but drawing them there would have messed up the schematic too much, so I left them as part of the controller.

The boiler is controlled by temperature, not pressure. It could be pressure controlled. I'll see how this works first.

Excuse my chicken scratches.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=323114&stc=1&d=1450284325

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=323115&stc=1&d=1450284325

 

[StMarcos]

Glad to see the updates. Keep em coming....

 

[Stephonovich]

Just read through the entire thread. Posting to follow. Great stuff!

 

[brewman !]

Thanks for the support, guys.

I'm doing the best I can to get time to work on this. FWIW, in addition to doing a big drainage project in our yard, we insulated and rewired a triple car garage this fall. Now I find that our house has heating issues, so that too needs attention.

Having said that, I'm making brewing a priority, meaning this projects gets time even when the other projects need doing. If I don't do that, it will never get attention. I had to do the drainage project first because there was water getting to the foundation of our house at all 4 corners. We fixed 3 of them. And insulating and wiring the garage was a big priority because now it is comfortable to work in in the winter. That will help immensely with this brewing project.

 

[brewman !]

There has been a lot of mucking around figuring things out for the steam system. But I feel it will be the best way to heat the mash and possibly the boil without carmelizing or scorching and getting around some of the temperature control issues discussed in this thread.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=565660

FYI, I attended the 2015 NHC in San Diego.

Warren Haskell of Devil's Backbone Brewing Co. gave a presentation entitled " Bringing the Brewery Home".

In his presentation, he described an experiment whereby he brewed 2 identical Czech lagers, one at his microbrewery and the other on his home system. He brought tasting samples from both to the presentation to allow the participants to experience them side by side.

There was a considerable difference in taste and appearance between the two. In a post presentation discussion with me, he opined that 80% of the difference between the two was due to how the worts were boiled. The homebrew version was heated by direct flame on the kettle, which resulted in a darkening in appearance and flavor due to caramelization. The microbrewery version was boiled using steam and was thus considerably lighter and cleaner tasting due to the lack of caramelization.

It is my opinion that all homebrew suffers from this effect, especially heavier beers and beers with longer boil times. It is something that homebrewers don't yet realize and chalk up to a "homebrew flavor profile". If and when homebrewers realize the source of this flavor "profile", they will be looking for ways to remove it, ie they will want a steam based brewing system.

The fast heating times, safety and precise mash temp control will just be additional benefits. There is a reason why real breweries brew with steam.

 

[orangehero]

There are many "real breweries" that use direct fire gas and electric heating.

It's going to be cool looking forward to the finished system.

 

[alha]

Hey Brewman, any time over the holidays to work on the beast? Oh, and I sent you a PM.

 

[brewman !]

Hey Brewman, any time over the holidays to work on the beast? Oh, and I sent you a PM.

I got nothing done on it over the holidays. Too much celebrating and my wife had me working on other things. I'm probably going to take a couple days off and focus on it, because I'm tired of not being able to brew. Ugghhh...

As far as choosing a suitable water heater, most any one will work provided it has 2 elements and a port in the top for steam vapor to escape from. A side port will work as well, provided it is near the top and significantly above the top element.

There are 2 over riding principles here.

1) The water level needs to be below the steam output port so that the boiler supplies water vapor (ie steam) and not liquid water.

2) The elements need to be submersed in water (ie liquid) all the time. They will probably burn out if the water level drops below them as I doubt that steam would keep them cool enough.

As far as durability goes, I don't think this is an especially hard usage for a water heater. Since we are removing the stock elements, they are of little concern, as is the temperature control. So the durability of those components doesn't matter. All we are basically buying is a pressure rated tank. I can't see corrosion being a problem as the thing will only be fired 20 hours a year and can be drained in between sessions.

The biggest concern I have is how the plastic liner (coating) inside the tank is going to react to 275F steam. Normal hot water temperature is less than 140F and the liner is in contact with liquid water, not steam.

 

[alha]

Thanks for the replies. My initial worry was that you had found and were happy with the side intake style, and since they changed the efficiency rules for water heaters last April, it seems that the side discharge style has now gone away. One thing I believe you mentioned was that you might be laying them on the side, and this is something you were happy about for your setup, with the ports coming out that way would work particularly well? I might be remembering wrong, so if it really doesn't matter, top or side, that is a good thing to know.

I did find a similar one by both American Water Heaters and A.O. Smith (lowboy style), which have a glass lined tank, that I would think would stand up to the abuse better than plastic. One thing I don't understand is how they can use glass as a lining, in a cylinder that is made out of metal, under pressure. I know the tanks are designed for about 300psi, but as they are metal, when pressurized, the metal would I believe expand at least a little, as well as when being heated. The expansion coefficient of glass and metal must be somewhat different, but maybe not significantly? I didn't think glass would expand under pressure at all, and would crack, so though it is probably very durable, how does it not crack from expansion of the underlying metal? More a rhetorical question than anything else, unless someone knows of course!

If it is now going to be vertical, how much headroom for steam does it need? 1/4 tank? The elements have to be covered of course, how much do you plan them to be covered, so they don't accidentally become exposed during a boil? Or are you thinking of adding an automatic water fill to the tank to keep it's level consistent? How many pounds of steam per hour do you think that this setup with the dual 6k elements is going to produce?

What do you think of using an RO to supply the water in the system? I have a fairly high flow (150 GPD) system that I purchased from an aquarium supply house, and even bought the deionizer for it as part of a package deal. So, I have plenty of water, for all purposes, but not sure if water that pure is good for brewing? Does it need some minerals in it for taste?

I have a couple questions about building a similiar setup, using materials I already have. For the tubing coil, I have about 160' of type L 1/2" ID (5/8" OD) copper tubing. I know that you are using 1/4", would there be a problem using some a little larger? It's rated to over 700psi, and has a thicker wall than standard tubing, so I'd think it would be ok, but what are your thoughts? Are you plumbing your tubing permanently into the tanks, or are you making the coils removable? What about running it at 40 or even 50psi, as it is only 1/3 of it's max working pressure, and 1/6 of it's burst rating, would there be any significant downsides? Possibly getting the other components that are rated that high may be an issue? Are the steam valves you have proportional, or just open/close, and are they the normally closed design?

I am watching this with keen interest, and can't wait till you get it bolted together, and start the actual testing, and then brewing! I'm sure there will be a lot of trial and error, as well as upgrades along the way, and that's a part of the fun of it, at least for me. Improving when needed, to make it work better and more consistently. Thank you for building this and documenting it so well. You are truly blazing a trail for the rest of us to follow, and I appreciate it.

 

[brewman !]

Sorry for the delayed reply. It has been a long week.

Thanks for the replies. My initial worry was that you had found and were happy with the side intake style, and since they changed the efficiency rules for water heaters last April, it seems that the side discharge style has now gone away. One thing I believe you mentioned was that you might be laying them on the side, and this is something you were happy about for your setup, with the ports coming out that way would work particularly well? I might be remembering wrong, so if it really doesn't matter, top or side, that is a good thing to know.

The only real criteria is that the tank has an outlet right at the top for the vapor to get out from. My tank had an anode rod going in from the top. This is now the steam exit. Some hot water heaters have internal pipes for the hot and the cold. I think the cold pipe goes right to the bottom so that any cold water introduced can't easily make it to the hot water exit. The cold inlet on my hot water heater is right at the bottom and has some sort of plastic diffuser plate on it.

I think all hot water heaters come with an anode and I'll bet that 90% of the time it goes in from the top. That would make a great steam outlet port.

I did find a similar one by both American Water Heaters and A.O. Smith (lowboy style), which have a glass lined tank, that I would think would stand up to the abuse better than plastic.

For the record, I'm not sure if mine is plastic or glass lined. It looks plasticy to me, but maybe it is glass.

One thing I don't understand is how they can use glass as a lining, in a cylinder that is made out of metal, under pressure. I know the tanks are designed for about 300psi, but as they are metal, when pressurized, the metal would I believe expand at least a little, as well as when being heated. The expansion coefficient of glass and metal must be somewhat different, but maybe not significantly? I didn't think glass would expand under pressure at all, and would crack, so though it is probably very durable, how does it not crack from expansion of the underlying metal? More a rhetorical question than anything else, unless someone knows of course!

I'm guessing that the liner material has a high co efficient of expansion than the steel and that the shell keeps it from cracking in that scenario.

If it is now going to be vertical, how much headroom for steam does it need? 1/4 tank?

I don't know exactly. A few inches should suffice.

The elements have to be covered of course, how much do you plan them to be covered, so they don't accidentally become exposed during a boil?

I have a level switch that I haven't discussed much and there is a boil fill valve that I haven't told you guys about yet. It keeps the level the same all the time. I have one, but I'm waiting for specs on it.

Or are you thinking of adding an automatic water fill to the tank to keep it's level consistent? How many pounds of steam per hour do you think that this setup with the dual 6k elements is going to produce?

12Kw x 3412 btu/kwhr = 40,944 BTU/hr worth. I think I did the calculation previously.

What do you think of using an RO to supply the water in the system? I have a fairly high flow (150 GPD) system that I purchased from an aquarium supply house, and even bought the deionizer for it as part of a package deal. So, I have plenty of water, for all purposes, but not sure if water that pure is good for brewing?

None of the water from the boiler is going to mix with the brewing water in my system. The steam system is closed. Normal tap water should work fine in the boiler. Lower mineral water is better. Not sure softened water is good though as it has a lot of sodium in it.

Does it need some minerals in it for taste?

Yep, but that is a whole subject unto itself outside of the boiler.

I have a couple questions about building a similiar setup, using materials I already have. For the tubing coil, I have about 160' of type L 1/2" ID (5/8" OD) copper tubing. I know that you are using 1/4", would there be a problem using some a little larger? It's rated to over 700psi, and has a thicker wall than standard tubing, so I'd think it would be ok, but what are your thoughts?

As far as the coil goes, it is all about surface area. 5/8" OD copper tubing has more surface area than 1/4", so you should be fine.

Are you plumbing your tubing permanently into the tanks, or are you making the coils removable?

Eventually they will be permanent.

What about running it at 40 or even 50psi, as it is only 1/3 of it's max working pressure, and 1/6 of it's burst rating, would there be any significant downsides? Possibly getting the other components that are rated that high may be an issue?

The higher the pressure the more dangerous if something breaks and the harder it is to get components. 15 PSI would be idea, but the steam temperature is too low. 30 PSI gets the steam temp up to 275F, which theoretically gives enough temp for good heat transfer to boiling water. 15 PSI components are easy to find because lots of domestic hot water systems run at that pressure - just make sure they can handle the temp and they are rated for steam. 30 PSI components are less available than 15 PSI, but still available. Once you go above 30 PSI you are in big boy territory and stuff gets more difficult to find.

I'm also a bit concerned about how the elements stand up. They are normally used in 140F water. I'll be using them in 275F water. Big difference. Increasing the pressure only compounds that issue.

Are the steam valves you have proportional, or just open/close, and are they the normally closed design?

Just open/close.

I am watching this with keen interest, and can't wait till you get it bolted together, and start the actual testing, and then brewing! I'm sure there will be a lot of trial and error, as well as upgrades along the way, and that's a part of the fun of it, at least for me. Improving when needed, to make it work better and more consistently.

I'm actually going to work on it this afternoon !

Thank you for building this and documenting it so well. You are truly blazing a trail for the rest of us to follow, and I appreciate it.

My pleasure, really. Thanks for the interest and the discussion. It motivates me to see other people see the value of doing this.

 

[alha]

Thanks for the great reply, and sorry about mixing in non-build related questions, I just got going and apparently put down whatever questions came into my head at the time... I think I may hold off on buying a heater for now, as all my scrounging has come up blank for a side intake like yours has, and I'd like to see how yours holds up on the inside. I know that the other ones I had found start at double what your model in its currently available, top in/out form costs, so if it causes you heartburn, I can just go with the 'better' version.

The reason I had asked about water was if it went thru an RO, it should have nothing in it, and theoretically should have no deposits on anything internal, elements, tank, lines, etc. I'd think the same thing with distilled water?

The reason I asked about lbs of steam, is that for fun I was perusing Fleabay and came across this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/371074377211?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

which it says on it's label makes 10 lbs of steam/hr. The price is very steep, but I was wondering if something that size would be able to keep up with the needs of the brewery, if one came across something similar at a screaming deal of a price? I don't know how to convert BTU's into lbs of steam.

Is a proportional valve your end goal if possible, or isn't it necessary, off and on would be good enough?

You mentioned permanently mounted coils, are there any special design considerations where cleaning is concerned?

I'll hold off on more questions, and just let you build it, watch what happens, and proceed from there. Thanks again, keep up the great work, take lots of pics, and post on the build as often as you can. All the best! Oh, and I hope next week is a lot better week for you than last week was, because I can relate, I had a _very_ bad week last week as well.


*edit* Well, while searching around about steam and HP and such, I came across this explanation of steam lb/hr via BTU calculation (below) on ask.com, and it looks like, if I did the numbers correctly, this will put out 42.2 lbs per hour if your heat input is a little over 40,000 BTU. Which makes that "big bad boiler" I mentioned above seem pretty small fry. Especially considering it is designed for that, but then, looking closer at the #'s, it is only pulling 6 amps (three phase) at 480, so that's 12a at 240 (+/- with single phase, but ballpark), so I guess it isn't such a surprise, as 12,000w is pulling 50a at 240v, that yours would stomp all over it.



"Convert the BTUs into hp units first. One unit of hp is equal to 33,472 BTUs. Thus, you will divide the BTUs by 33,472 to get your hp units.

For example, if your BTUs equal 7,363,840, then we'll divide that number by 33,472, giving us 220 hp units (7,363,840/33472 = 220).


Convert your units of hp into pounds of steam per hour by multiplying the number calculated in the previous step by 34.5.

Using numbers from our previous example, if you multiply 220 by 34.5, then you get 7,590 pounds of steam per hour created by your boiler (220 x 34.5 = 7,590)."



Just for fun I pinged the mfg of the boiler I referenced above, asking about slightly larger units, and this is what I got back:

7 lbs per hour / ampere draw 16 amps / weights approx. 65 lbs
12 lbs per hour / ampere draw 24 amps / weights approx. 150 lbs
18 lbs per hour / ampere draw 36 amps / weights approx 160 lbs
30 lbs per hour / ampere draw 48 amps / weights approx 140 lbs
50 lbs per hour / ampere draw 72 amps / weights approx 165 lbs


I did reply, asking for information on even bigger units, still single phase, he replied that he had 30, and 50, nothing in between. He also said that you will get up to 60 pph on the larger one but not warranted. Interesting info to know. And even the least expensive one is 3-4x the cost of your heating setup, and doesn't have nearly the output, which I find surprising. Guess I'm just geeking out a little bit here, sorry...

 

[alha]

You make any more progress on the build, Brewman?

 

[brewman !]

A bit. I'll reply later in the week.

 

[alha]

Givin' it a bump!

 

[brewman !]

I just got back from a week in Mexico on vacation. I'll reply when I get caught up.

 

[alha]

Lucky! lol Sounds great, thanks for the heads up and looking forward to seeing what's new and exciting. I'm making slow progress on mine as well, so consider yourself an inspiration!

*edit* Wait a minute, aren't you in CA? You're almost in MX already! Hope the weather for you was even nicer down there than it was at home. The 70's in CA would be quite welcome after enduring months of the 20s-30s (and much worse) here... ;-)

 

[mal209]

I've been following this thread for a while- any updates?

A few comments: Your water heater should be OK. I sell "american water heater" at my day job at a boiler manufacturer (i believe the same parent company as AO smith) and they are typically "glass lined" not plastic lined. If i remember correctly, they spin a thin film of glass for corrosion resistance, very thin and flexible enough to not crack with thermal expansion (although over time you may exceed this and shorten the life of the tank- not the point). They do, however, typically ship with a dip tube and the nipples on top are "dielectric" nipples, with a plastic interior- so those might need to be removed (they are just threaded into the tank).

Storing your tank at high temperature/pressure will be good for storage, but i ran some numbers with the system I'm designing, and i only need 5.5 psi of steam to boil a 1/2 bbl batch (start with 19.5, end with 15). and this is through a 1mm thick stainless pot.

I can lay out the numbers if anyone is interested, but the whole metric to imperial and back and forth gets ugly fast.

Once you start running, your steam pressure should drop significantly, but shouldnt be a problem. The one catch is if you are running an open loop, i think you might need to constrict the vent so that your steam-water phase change occurs above 212 to get the bulk of the energy of the steam into the wort. Ball valve or back-pressure regulator, perhaps?

For my calcs i needed the phase change at ~230F (5.5psig) to get the proper heat transfer.

Very cool project, and thanks for posting everything in such detail. The engineer in me cant help but geek out over builds like this...

 

[alha]

Mal, thanks for the kick. A week or 2 ago, of course while I was no where near the computer, I was thinking about Brewman and if he had made any progress on it as well, and by the time I got home I had completely forgotten. I've been really busy with non-brewing things, so I've been away pretty much since my last post here, but just recieved the email reminder of your posting, so I thought I'd log back in and see what was up, hoping he had replied to your thread. Nothing so far, but he is a pretty busy individual, so I expect he'll pop back in in the next couple days, hopefully with some exciting news and more great pictures! I plan on following in his footsteps once I get the brewery built, but that won't be completed till mid summer (if everything goes well), and if I am lucky, he'll have his setup up and running.

 

[mal209]

This is interesting if you feel like making a free log in... http://www.esmagazine.com/articles/97570-designing-a-steam-systems-for-a-brewery?

They say that commercial breweries operate at 12-14.5 psi steam pressure.... 15psi is the threshold where it becomes a power boiler ( higher ASME class) which increases boiler and installation costs a bunch... They said over 50bbl, you need to go over the 15 psi limit....

 

[alha]

Things aren't looking good at this point, I hope he's ok, as it's been about 6 months since Brewman's been back. Really looking forward to him picking up where he left off, as I will be trying to make the same thing as he did this winter once I have my brew cave (literally) finished.

 

[alha]

Brewman, just thought I would post a quick ping here in case you might get the email notification of new posts to this thread, and if you might pop in and post an update to the brewery. Hope everything is ok for you.

 

[brewman !]

Hi guys.

Everything is fine with me. I hope to be brewing again soon, as a matter of fact. We recently rewired the electrical panels in the house and the garage so that I now have spare breaker slots to run an electric brewing system. I'm also taking time to work on an electric brewing system. I hope to have it running in the near future.

Big Announcement.

I have ceased working on the steam project and have started to dismantle it and sell off the pieces.

I stopped working on it for 2 reasons and 2 reasons only.

#1) Steam is friggin dangerous.

With enough people using steam over a long enough time, sooner or later someone is bound to experience a leak. Maybe a fitting gets left undone, maybe a hose breaks, maybe a compression ferrule slips. It is inevitable.

Steam is very unforgiving safety wise. It will burn skin instantly. If you breathe it in, it will scald your lungs. It can displace the oxygen in a room quickly if the leak is big.

I couldn't live with those risks in my house, with my family nearby. And I was apprehensive about sharing the details of the project and assisting other people to use steam.

With propane you can brew outdoors where accumulations simply blow away. And you'll smell it before anything bad happens. With electric you have a GCFI that will trip before anything bad happens.

There is no warning with steam. You could be stirring a mash, accidentally bump the steam coil. It could disconnect, blowing a big volume of mash onto you.

This hobby isn't worth the risk of injury, especially when there are other heating methods that are safer.

#2) Steam isn't portable.

I have a wife and 3 young kids. While brewing in the basement would be a huge step forward versus brewing in the garage as far as being able to interact with my family while brewing, brewing in the kitchen would be even better.

My house is laid out such that I could run a steam line from the basement brewery to the kitchen, but I decided that wasn't very practical. I also decided that I would like to brew in spring and fall and who wants to be stuck in a basement when the weather is nice outside ? We just built a very nice patio on the front of our house. I would like to brew there on nice days as well. That isn't feasible with steam.

I also have a couple friends that are getting into brewing. We want to do group brewing at each others houses and for that I need a portable brewing system. Steam doesn't allow that either.

For these reasons, I have stopped work on this project. I have no doubt about the technical aspects that were presented in this thread, but for me there are better ways to brew.

I am working on an innovative eBrewery. I'll probably write it up when it is closer to completion.

 

[jcav]

Brewman, happy to hear all is well with you! All great reasons to switch things up. You will love going electric. I converted to electric and I love my rig and brewing on it. Good luck on your new conversion and system!

John

 

[brewman !]

Thanks for the reply and well wishes, John.

I was just looking at your build the other day. I loved the pictures that illustrated finishing the inside of the Triclamp ports. And you didn't seem to purge the other side while welding ?

I'm just about to start welding fittings into my vessels... looking for all the help I can get.

 

[alha]

Morning, Brewman. I follow your thinking for choosing not to continue to pursue your build in this direction, you laid out your concerns and issues with it logically, and I think your changes are perfectly understandable. For myself, I am going to continue my build, as in my situation, I'm confident in my fabrication abilities and it makes sense for my location and setup. I will certainly respect it, but with proper design and installation, I believe the risks can be minimized to a acceptable level, because I have no desire to experience the things you mentioned in your post! Nothing is perfect obviously, but you have a solid design, and I think it would be a productive rig for me for many years to come.

I understand that you are selling off the items that you have already purchased, if you would like to PM me with what you have to sell, and the costs, I would certainly be interested in much of it, especially the smaller items. I already have the water heater, and that would obviously be uneconomical to ship across the country, but much of the rest would likely make sense to source from you. Glad to hear that you are ok, and that you are back to moving forward with your project! Good luck on it and keep us informed as to it's progress.

 

[jcav]

Thanks for the reply and well wishes, John.

I was just looking at your build the other day. I loved the pictures that illustrated finishing the inside of the Triclamp ports. And you didn't seem to purge the other side while welding ?

I'm just about to start welding fittings into my vessels... looking for all the help I can get.

Thanks I had fun documenting the build and taking the pics. The person doing the welding is Jay Lesher who is a professional welder. I took my kegs to him to have the 2 inch tri clamp ports for the electric elements sanitary tig welded to them. If I remember correctly Jay attached a fitting he made to the ferrule he was welding with another tri clamp. The end of the fitting had the hose attached that ran to his gas tank. The gas was on and purging and flowed down through the fitting into the ferrule and surrounded the weld from the inside. That was sufficient and as you can see the welds came out beautiful. If you have any other questions pm me. Jay loves to talk welding (he even teaches classes) and I can ask him about his process more.

John

 

[brewman !]

Alha: I understand why you want to pursue steam heating. But I should mention that I think we are on the cusp of an explosion in induction heating. The brewing system I'm working on uses induction heating. I tested it on the weekend and I'm thoroughly impressed.

- very fast heating rate
- ultra low watts/in^2
- no element in the vessel
- very efficient
- portable, as long as you have 240VAC electricity
- safe

I don't really want to sell any of my steam parts, not yet, anyway.

All my thoughts on the steam system are in this thread. The only thing I did recently was purchase some Hoffman 17C steam traps because they are smaller and easier to work with, packaging wise, though they are limited to 25 PSIG.

 

[alha]

Brewman, it's funny you mention this, I purchased about 4-5 years ago four new single burner built in induction cooktops, I think they are 12 or 14" but I haven't looked at them in years, that I had thought about building a brewstand out of. I think that I had even pursued it here, and after discussing the power ratings/available wattage, etc, I pretty much back burnered it, because I would have needed to add an immersion heating element the pot to make it heat at a reasonable rate.

What size is your pot that you have tested heating it with? Also, one issue I ran into at the time was finding a SS pot that was magnetic and worked efficiently with and induction setup. Not sure what your plans are for this, but I am looking forward to hearing what you have come up with, and how it is working out for you once you get it all together.