Steam for Mash Tun

THE pressure cooker setup?

Why are you having problems maintaining temp in a 10 gal cooler?

 

I hadn't heard of steam in a homebrew setting, but it sounds pretty awesome, a quick google search turned up this nice article;

http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/library/backissues/issue2.4/jones.html

 

Are you wanting to use steam in a circulating system, or are you talking about injecting steam into your cooler? If you are injecting, that would be too hot at 212 degrees, plus you'd somehow have to allow for condensation.

 

Unless you have a steam jacketed kettle/mash tun, plenty of intestinal fortitude, and a death wish...just lag your ball valve on your cooler mash tun, use towels to insulate the lid and bottom and do what MANY other homebrewers do with excellent results. Don't overthink this. Cheers

 

I have a 40 gallon steam jacked kettle that I use to mash. Works perfect. Check Craigslist for restaurants that are going under.

 

I'm inclined to agree. To the OP: Are you having difficulty maintaining mash temps in your cooler, and are you convinced that being able to maintain them more precisely will improve your brewing? I mash in a cooler, and while the temps drop some during the mash, it always seems good enough. If you do not feel like it is good enough, try wrapping a blanket around your cooler to help insulate it. Working with steam sounds like an added and unnecessary level of hazard.

 

"Now I want to do the same with my Mash Tun , keep it within a degree or two."

Not a problem...keep the lid on except when stirring (batch sparging), lag your metal ball valve (dish cloth should do), wrap the whole thing (as others have suggested) or just the top and bottom (a few towels will do).

 

It obviously didn't work for you the first time with the yellow Walmart towels.

 

OK, I get where you are coming from. The "homebrewer as an engineer" thing isn't my bag, but I can see how some folks get into that. I think mash temp is one of those fairly forgiving variables in homebrews. I guess I feel this way because I don't always hit my numbers dead on, and because I see a great deal of variation in the temps within my mash tun. I don't feel like I have seen any obvious correlations with beer quality. The precision you seek may not have as big an impact as you think. In other words, you might be overengineering this. I'm just speculating, though, so knock yourself out. Take pictures (not of you knocked out -- of the steam adaptor thingy you are going to build).

 

HAHAHA. No. Throw it in the oven and cut the heat.

 

What I'm struggling with is the fact that in a mash tun, you want the wort to be recirculating or mixing when you are adding heat. That is why HERMS, RIMS and direct fire recirculating systems are so popular. So if you are recirculating the wort and want to send the wort through an exchanger with the steam or steam inject while vorlaufing...that would be a great idea. But to just put a steam coil into the mash tun I don't think would be a great idea as you'll have major discrepancy problems between the wort nearest the coil and furthest from the coil. My thoughts on it...
I use a RIMS system and personally like it.

 

Heh. Did you forget typing this...

You asked a question about something that nobody on this forum (or likely most any forum) has done. What would you expect other than speculation? Here's mine: There's are reasons people haven't tried this. And some of them have been mentioned.

 

If steam is your preferred way to maintain temp, you might not wont to use a cooler, plastic tun can get melted. You might consider using 8 gallon Stockpot.

If you decided to go mainstream with plastic cooler, use folded towel underneath the cooler, one around and on on top of it.

 

If you find an article more recent than 1994...you might have better luck finding someone with some experience on this "basement forum".

I will usually give the benefit of the doubt to new brewers, but everyone has their limits

Your avatar and username says it all.

 

I sort of remember that article, or the discussion it started on the old hbd.
Here is a reply, tannins/astringency would be an issue.
http://www.beerandloafing.org/hbd/fetch.php?id=61649

Many production breweries, use steam, but I have never heard of one directly injecting to the mash-but they have more thermal mass so less temp drop.

 

I would bet that fewer than a dozen people have tried mash direct steam injection in the 20 years since that article was written. Best of luck finding them.

Please do go ask on a non-basement forum and share your results here. And congratulations, I suspect you made it onto a few "do not help" lists this week.

 

You are making brewing WAY to complicated... preheat the cooler with 200 degree water and let it come down to your strike temp of 165 or so ... put that steam idea out of your mind.

 

I was genuinely curious about the technique, but it certainly seems like quite a bit of trouble to go through for what I can't imagine are much different results than my very low tech Denny cooler method. It feels like too much copying pro technique for the sake of being "pro" when it just doesn't make much practical sense. I imagine that Vikeman is right and very few people are going through the trouble.

Yes there were some overly snarky replies, but this really is one of the least pretentious, helpful home brewing communities on the web. If this is a basement forum I guess I'm happy to be a basement dweller.

Good luck with your engineering and I'd love a report back if you think you can achieve a meaningfully better result.

 

10 gal coolers are sometimes just too big for low/medium gravity 5 gal batches to maintain mash temperatures easily/effectively (no snarkiness or pretentiousness intended)

Sometimes I forget I'm doing 10 gal batches now...I brewed 5 gal batches for years with (2) 3 gal coolers.

 

Thanks for the link . . . and yes it has been done. Several youtube videos show steam injected mash tuns, all made recently.

I offer these ideas: If you have an open system (where the steam exits into the mash tun), condensation will adversely effect your water/grist ratio. You can correct this by using superheated steam or a closed system. Superheated steam will certainly prevent any extra liquid in the mash tun but it's a little bit dangerous. At least one of the videos did not show the narrator, which leads me to believe there may have been some "scalding" involved. A closed system will also work. You will need to drill through your mash tun (easily done with an igloo cooler) and install a closed loop similar to an immersion chiller. This will handle the heat transfer and on the exit a simple condenser will recycle the liquid. You will be dealing with conventional steam which I consider safer. If you install redundant blow-off valves there should be no need for protective shielding.

If you brew before you complete the fabrication I would use red towels . . . they seem warmer to the touch.

 

I have thought of something like this in the past when I struggled to keep my free headspace warm on small beers but never got around to making anything. Ill be curious to see what you put together.

 

I think some here are encouraging a process that is not only potentially dangerous, but serious overkill for the vast majority of homebrew setups...youtube videos exist for just about anything...some good and instructful...others, not so much IMHO

Those that have suggested RIMS or HERMS systems excepted...cheers