Yuri goes big with steam! (new boiler/point of use water heater)

[Yuri_Rage]

I have no HLT. The steam "nozzle" heats incoming cold tap water to sparge temp (all the way up to 180+ if I so desire). I can regulate the temperature by changing the steam and water flow rates.

It's too slow to heat strike water that way, so I use my electric boil kettle for that.

 

[duckdogs]

Very nice! How large are your batches, and about how much water are you going threw in the steam vessel to maintain/ramp up the mash temps and heat sparge watter? I'm trying to decide if this is something that will work for my system. I have 58 gallon HLT & BK but currently using 2 sankys as HLTs. A typical brew for instance last weekend we(4-5 of us brew together) made a Drifter clone we mashed 58.77 lbs of grain with 18.6 gallons loosing 7.6 to the grain absorb this required 27.53 gallons of sparge water bringing our boil volume up to 38.84 gallons after 60 min. boil we ended up with 34.5 gallons loosing about .5 to trub. This looks like something that would be fun(& a little dangerous) to play with. If it will work to maintain/ramp up the mash temp & provide the needed sparge water while maintaining the original footprint of my system it's win win.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I fill the boiler with 10-12 gallons of water and never run out of steam. I'm guessing I only use 3-4 gallons of water for steam generation per 1/2 bbl batch. I'm considering using a large pressure cooker instead, since it takes a long time to heat 10+ gallons of water to beyond boiling.

 

[duckdogs]

Thanks for the info and the OP on this subject.

 

[duckdogs]

Right now, it's just a 1/4" dump. It hammers a bit and is obviously inefficient, so I plan on silver soldering a screen like you showed in a previous post.

What is this screen that you mention? I searched around and don't see any posts by Klaudue mentioning a screen. I have some hammering as well but it seems to only be when there is some liquid still in the pipe at the bottom of the MT once it is cleared out the hammering goes away. I'm using 1/2" id copper for the steam delivery & 1/2" id silicone for the tap water into the "point of use" my tests with raising mash temp have been very promising. I'm still working out the tap water temp increases.

 

[mikescooling]

Nice welding man! Did you install a low water cut-off and a high pressure release? I'm guessing you've worked in the trades, ya got some skills.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

A fine mesh stainless screen over the steam output at the point of cold water in-rush would likely keep the hammer effect minimized. Kladue did some fancy silver solder work on the end of a stainless fitting, inside his steam injection port.

The one thing I'm missing is a level indicator/cutoff switch. I DEFINITELY installed a blow-off valve!