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  • Hot Water Storage (not a water heater) ?

    All,

    I need some help. I am trying to plan out a brewhouse, and I only plan to heat water in my brew kettle. I am planning to do BIAB (2bbl system) so one of my processes will be to heat my sparge water in the kettle first, transfer it from the kettle to a storage vessel, and then heat my mash water in said kettle. Once the mash is done in the kettle, I want to pump the sparge water from the storage vessel over the grain hanging above the kettle.

    I am looking for an inexpensive storage tank that will hold 180 degree water so that when I sparge it will not be cooler than 165 degrees (~70 minutes later). I do not want to buy a full-on water heater or an HLT as they are fairly pricey. I am looking for something cheap. Kind of like an insulated (or something i could wrap with insulation) stainless steel pot with a sealed lid (or maybe this kind of thing doesnt exist).

    Any ideas?

    Thanks!

    Phil

  • #2
    Good luck finding/making a well insulated stainless vessel that is cheaper than a water heater. Water heaters are usually made of cheaper carbon steel that is ceramic coated and then insulated, so they are about as material cheap and properly insulated as you can find for this purpose. Usually they fail at the element. But tanks will eventually rust through. If properly maintained they can last twice or more the rated life. Just replace the anode and elements when needed.

    Get proper equipment, or get a “non working” water heater that you can visually inspect & retrofit. Go electric so you can just replace an element, tie it to a PLC, and have a cheap working HLT. Pre-heat your water on the boil kettle, transfer it, the. Maintain with the water heater PLC setup. Test your water regularly to check for iron content from the steel. If the ceramic coating is good you shouldn’t have any issues.

    Alternately, if you at least have proper jacketed vessels, then you can pump your boiled water into a FV. I have done this at undersized facilities. Similar techniques can be done when making lagers without a regulated CLT also.

    Comment


    • #3
      Dairy tank

      Originally posted by dendron8 View Post
      All,

      I need some help. I am trying to plan out a brewhouse, and I only plan to heat water in my brew kettle. I am planning to do BIAB (2bbl system) so one of my processes will be to heat my sparge water in the kettle first, transfer it from the kettle to a storage vessel, and then heat my mash water in said kettle. Once the mash is done in the kettle, I want to pump the sparge water from the storage vessel over the grain hanging above the kettle.

      I am looking for an inexpensive storage tank that will hold 180 degree water so that when I sparge it will not be cooler than 165 degrees (~70 minutes later). I do not want to buy a full-on water heater or an HLT as they are fairly pricey. I am looking for something cheap. Kind of like an insulated (or something i could wrap with insulation) stainless steel pot with a sealed lid (or maybe this kind of thing doesnt exist).

      Any ideas?

      Thanks!

      Phil

      The best you're going to do is finding an old storage tank for dairy. You can probably find one in the 1500-2000L size for cheap on the used market. They're typically used for keeping the milk cold, but are exceptionally well insulated and will hold hot water no problem (if I knock out a beer and send our heat exchanger water to it, it will hit the tank in the 110F ish range and stay above 80F for 2 weeks).

      Comment


      • #4
        You pretty much answered your own question. Get a big kettle, or a few kegs, insulate well. Sides, top, and bottoms.

        As someone with a similar issue at our nano, id say spend some money on a tankless water heater. Just bought one for our new 15bbl brewery for about 1300 bucks that does 200k btu and 6gpm at 40 degree rise. Thats plenty to take the water from our water heater and bring it to sparge temp. You could use a much smaller and cheaper one.

        Its worth the money. Always have hot water for cleaning. Double brew days get way easier. Etc.

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