Hi everyone,
I've been pretty much living on ProBrewer for the past few months, but somehow there is one topic that I can't seem to find any good answers on. Any help, guidance and novel ideas are highly appreciated!
We are starting up a 10 bbl brewery; configuration MT + LT + BKW with a HLT. We are currently finalising the design of the brewhouse, and haven't placed any equipment orders yet.
In an ideal world, we would go with a steam boiler, and have all vessels steam-jacketed, except for the Lauter Tun. However, this being the real world with crazy boiler regulations and hidden costs, we are seriously considering a direct fire system instead. This is fine for the HLT and BKW, but what we're struggling with most is the MT. Our brewery will have a big focus on using crazy exotic grains, which means it is paramount for us to have full control of temperature adjustments inside the mash tun. We are considering a few options, but none of them seem foolproof or ideal.
Challenge: Adjusting temperature (heating) of mash tun (for multi-step mashing) without steam jackets.
Our question to the brewing community: What equipment setup / method would you recommend to us to achieve above goal?
Below, I have detailed the different options we are considering. We would appreciate any comments or recommendations, either on choosing one of below setups, or any other setup that you think would work well for us.
Many thanks in advance!
Possible options we are considering:
Kind regards, and again many thanks to all those contributing,
Dieter
I've been pretty much living on ProBrewer for the past few months, but somehow there is one topic that I can't seem to find any good answers on. Any help, guidance and novel ideas are highly appreciated!
We are starting up a 10 bbl brewery; configuration MT + LT + BKW with a HLT. We are currently finalising the design of the brewhouse, and haven't placed any equipment orders yet.
In an ideal world, we would go with a steam boiler, and have all vessels steam-jacketed, except for the Lauter Tun. However, this being the real world with crazy boiler regulations and hidden costs, we are seriously considering a direct fire system instead. This is fine for the HLT and BKW, but what we're struggling with most is the MT. Our brewery will have a big focus on using crazy exotic grains, which means it is paramount for us to have full control of temperature adjustments inside the mash tun. We are considering a few options, but none of them seem foolproof or ideal.
Challenge: Adjusting temperature (heating) of mash tun (for multi-step mashing) without steam jackets.
Our question to the brewing community: What equipment setup / method would you recommend to us to achieve above goal?
Below, I have detailed the different options we are considering. We would appreciate any comments or recommendations, either on choosing one of below setups, or any other setup that you think would work well for us.
Many thanks in advance!
Possible options we are considering:
- Step Infusion Mash: simply add hot water from the HLT in the right amount for every step increase, to reach the next desired temperature
Pros: easiest headache-free method; cheapest; immediate temperature jumps; no pumping around of mash; no burner needed
Cons: increasingly diluted mash (first step thick mash, last step very thin mash) - is this a big issue? Also, infusion additions inherently limit the temperature that could be reached in mash tun. So decoctions would have to be pumped over to boil kettle for boiling.
Other considerations: - Direct Fire: having a (forced air) burner underneath the mash tun.
Pros: easy to implement; easy to work with; quick heating; no pumping around of mash, decoction boiling or gelatinisation rests can be performed directly in mash tun (liquid mash pumped to lauter tun)
Cons: denaturing of enzymes due to extreme temperatures; scorching of grain material leading to off-flavours; general fatigue on vessel metal; dirty mess to clean up; additional exhaust vent; adds to noise
Other considerations:- We will have an agitator (mixer) inside the mash tun. This could at least help with better heat distribution, and possibly alleviate the scorching/denaturing issues. Or is that just wishful thinking?
- Maybe a relatively low-power burner, or some other type of burner that has better heat distribution (e.g. venturi burner?), would allow for more temperate heating?
- Indirect Fire: I have seen this term being thrown around on the forums. Seems this involves having jacketing similar to steam jacketing around the vessel, but instead of steam you have the hot burner gases entering the jackets.
Pros: similar to direct fire, slightly more even heat distribution; more efficient?
Cons: burner gases are much hotter than steam, so you would remain with the scorching and denaturing concerns as with normal direct fire above. Risk of dry-fire if mash not covering the jacketing fully, and general fatigue of metal. I'm particularly concerned this would warp the vessel and break down quickly - delicate jacketing and extremely hot gases, probably not a good combo. As with DF: also dirty, additional vent required, noisy. - HERMS: this is a common homebrew setup. Pumping the wort through a circulation loop, through a coil submerged in the HLT, back to mash tun.
Pros: no need for burner (and associated cons); no risk of scorching/denaturing enzymes; relatively easy to implement and control
Cons: slow heating (small temperature differential between mash temp and HLT temp); grains getting stuck inside the pump and coil (this is my main concern); tougher to clean; coil in HLT, no decoction in mash tun
Other considerations:- Pump could be sped up to increase heat exchange speed. But I don't like the idea of pumping around porridge, especially with our special grains...
- HLT temperature could be increased, but then we would be back to denaturing enzymes.
- Hot Water Jacketing: similar to steam-jacketing, but instead of steam you would circulate hot water from HLT through the jackets.
Pros: no need for burner; no risk of scorching/denaturing; easy to implement and control; no pumping of mash; easy to clean; heating would be quicker than HERMS if using hotter water from HLT
Cons: decoction not possible in mash tun, ...?? very few I can think of, to be honest. The water temperature in the HLT would need to be ramped up significantly to perform quicker step temperature increases, but the heat exchange would lower this again and then cold tap water can be mixed into HLT just before sparging to bring back to 75C.
Other considerations:- This is not something I've come across yet, and I was wondering why? Is there some obvious reason this is not a good idea process/design-wise, or simply wouldn't work?
- Would the jacketing need to be different than for steam jacketing? i.e. could I simply use a steam-jacketed vessel, and hook up hot water hoses to it as opposed to steam piping? Or would some adjustments be necessary?
- Decoction via boil kettle: pumping over a portion of the thick "solid" mash to the boil kettle, boiling that, then pumping back over into mash tun to raise mash temperature
Pros: it's a functioning method
Cons: labour and time intensive, clogged pumps, no parallel batch brewing, overall not a very flexible method
Kind regards, and again many thanks to all those contributing,
Dieter
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