Direct fire recirculating mash tun with ranco control

[Miket1099]

I'm in the process of designing a Brutus 10 and has a question for those who have more experience with the ranco controls and how close they keep the temp to the set point. I asking to see if its worth going direct fire or just having my hlt supply my dough in water. So any information would be helpfully

 

[JonW]

I do direct fire on HLT, MLT & BK and it works great. You'll need the Ranco probe in a thermowell where it can read the actual MLT temp. The best way to do this is to do a continuous recirc on the MLT and put a T with a thermowell either at the kettle valve output or at the pump input. You can then have the Ranco cycle a burner on/off to maintain the temp.

Just some FYI's: Have your MLT burner on high to heat your strike water, but then make sure you turn it down low or you will get spikes in the temp when the Ranco cycles it on. I usually heat my strike water in the MLT, then pause the pump and burner for about 10 minutes while I dough in and let it sit. I then start continuous recirc for the duration of the mash and stir it every 15 minutes.

What area of HB are you in?

 

[Miket1099]

I'm located in like south Huntington beach ca around Brookhurst and Hamilton. Are u located I'n HB

K that's a good idea to take the reading and the out going flow with a t and the temp probe. I knew I had to do continuous recirculating to get the right temperature reading. I plan in doing batch sparging. I would collect the first running them heat strike water in HLT and transfer on my grains and stir them collect does that sound right I'm still new to most of this

 

[JonW]

Your process sounds about right. Just some clarification... The initial water you heat in the MLT is the "strike" water that you mash into. The second round of sparging you are just heating "sparge" water, not "strike" water. The difference being that you likely will heat the volumes of water to different temps as the initial strike water has to account for temperature loss from the cold grains.

If you are doing a direct fired Brutus style stand, then fly sparging is always an option for you also.

I am near Warner & Bolsa Chica at the North end of town. I saw in another post you were looking for some OC brew clubs. BrewCommune is a good one with many knowledgable people. Our gatherings are usually pretty informative.

 

[Miket1099]

Got it now I know the difference and fly sparging seems like alot more work than batch sparging also I was looking into going no sparging brewing I read a good article in BYO about it and it seems like it works. But what kind of burners do you use I'm thinking in going natural gas and I don't know what to use.

I heard about brewcommune where do they meet

 

[JonW]

If you have two pumps for a single level stand, fly sparging isn't any more work and I actually think it's easier. It all really comes down to what type of process you are comfortable with and what works for you. Nothing wrong with batch sparging and it's really just a matter of preference.

BrewCommune meets in different places. We just had our Christmas party at the Bruery. We sometimes meet at Out of the Park Pizza in Fullerton, Addison Homebrew or other places. We also do club brew days that are hosted at someones house. Those are only open to paid members, but the regular meetings are open to everyone. We also have a booth at the CA Homebrew Festival every year. It's a good group of people and a lot of knowledge sharing going on. Check out the online forum at BrewCommune.com.

My next brew day will be sometime during the week right after Christmas. If you're interested in coming by and checking it out, let me know. We usually have a group of us hanging out on the brew days sharing ideas and just BS'ing. Lot's of talk on brewing, so it's usually a good time to learn.

I'm using the 6", 10 tip wok burners (on NG). I know others that are using the BG-14 burners on NG and they work very well also. My burners work excellent, but they are loud and I may move to the BG-14's down the road because of that.

 

[Miket1099]

Yea I only have one pump right now but I might pick one up when I get the money but for now trying to use one pump. Those jet burners were what I was looking at but I also saw the hurricane burner with a NG valve that looks pretty cool.

Yea that would be really cool to check out the brew day the only thing is I work all that week so it depends when you guys plan on having the meeting but thank you for the invite I really want to get involved with brew commune seems really cool.