Siphon Boiling Water ?

[jonnys_spirit]

Hi, I have done some AG mashes with barley and wheat. I'm prepping to do some corn and have been reading up on and checking out the different corn protocols.

I like the idea of mashing the corn by adding boiling water to the mash tun with some sacrificial malt and probably some high temp enzymes to gelatinize. I've got a 10gallon water cooler with false bottom for my mash tun.

My main question for the group here is what kind of devices do y'all use to transfer boiling water? I have been using my auto siphon on other AG mashes but the water temp in those cases is 160* or 170* not 212* rolling boil as is desired with a no-cook corn mash. My last auto-siphon melted in boiling water so that's not going to work.

I have been using my 13 gallon milk-can still (5500W element) to boil (or heat up to temp) the mash water and it doesn't have a drain so I have to use a siphon with this current setup.

Any simple pointers or devices that I can purchase?

Thanks!
-j

[frunobulax]

I use the hi Temp pumps from my home brew set up. But you could make a racking cane out of a piece of copper and some hi Temp silicone tubing.

[bitter]

I use gravity. My vessel for heating water is above my mash tun. A silicon hose goes from the HLT to the mash tun.

I preheat the mash ton with boiling water and add boiling water to it then the corn as fine as possible. Once it get just below 190f I add high temp enzymes s the corn doe snot get too thick

B

[HDNB]

how would you start the siphon? i got a mouthful of gas enough times to know i don't want to try 212 water.

how about installing a drain? Until then you could use a small pot to dip it out until you get to where it's liftable with some insulated rubber gloves.

or build a steam wand head (don't forget the prv)

[jonnys_spirit]

I wanted to prevent starting a siphon the old fashioned way due to the high temp. I also have a high temp impellor pump but it’s not self priming. I might see if I can get it primed then feed off the boiler. Also just picked up a drain / ball-valve attachemnt from the lhbs on the grain bill run. I might have a 7/8” metal bit but that’s fairly large so home depot trip may be in order for a 7/8” hole saw. Inwould prefer a welded drain of course but this will probably work. I wonder if this drain/w washer will be ok with length if stripping and spirit runs and up to 80pf low wines? I guess I should wrap the washers in teflon tape too.

Cheers!
J

[zapata]

Lotsa ways to start a siphon without sucking. Hold the tube in the air and pour some water in it might be the simplest, but that kinda depends how long your hose is if it'll catch every time since it'll have to suck a bubble of air from the cane to get going. You can always fill the whole thing, cane tip held beside tube opening at same level, fill with water, thumb over tube tip while cane goes in pot. Now its primed and ready to siphon for sure.

But a drain is worth the few $ and half hour to put in to me..

[jonnys_spirit]

Ah yes! I’ll try that before I installnthe drain. I do have some hi temp tubing. Thank you!

-j

[cob]

submerge most of your tubing in the boiling water, cover the open end with your

thumb and transfer that closed end to your receiving vessel.

I mostly use air pressure to start siphons.

on a keg I put a rag over the siphon hose and the outlet,

hit it with a little shot of air and it starts right up.

you don't need a perfect seal or much air pressure to start a siphon

[DAD300]

Why would you attempt to move boiling water? Moving hot anything is asking for disaster.

If you're using gas to heat water, make a keggle. Boil the water and add the grain to the vessel with the water. Work the mash down from there and dump into cooler when cool enough to handle.

[jonnys_spirit]

I can make this work for now without drilling or welding. The thermometer port is the same threading as the ball valve I purchased. It’s just 1/2 way up the boiler. I can tilt it to drain some hot water. Ideally I would have the same thing down lower as a drain or to connect up the impellor pump so maybe I can get that welded at some point.

I already have a 10gal igloo cooler style mash tun so I need to transfer the mash waters into there to mash.

Submerging almost all of the hi temp siphon tube into the water and capping the end with my thumb then transferring receiving end to transfer vessel also works well without burns for anyone else that might be looking at low tech and economical "now" methods of moving around boiling waters. I'll just move 2 or three gallons at a time into a five gallon bucket to keep it safe.

Cheers!
-j

[zapata]

I'd go straight to the tun so you aren't losing heat along the way. Yet another idea is a pickup tube going down from the therm port. If you can get it started, even if by tipping, it will siphon all the way down.

Also, I've never tried it but have read people have trouble with corn and false bottoms, it may just clog instantly. Might want a plan for dealing with that.

[jonnys_spirit]

Ha ha! Yeah the false bottom clogged up real quick with the corn meal. Igloo cooler held temp for a good long while. Picked up a mop wringer and squeezed about 20# of the mashed cornmeal and grains into two paint strainer bags which are now in the fermenter too. That worked pretty well so am planning to pick up more supplies for Brute #2 and will continue to fine tune my corn mash protocol.

Cheers!
-j

[Oldvine Zin]

On my to do list is to add a drain to my keg, might wait until I build a new one with both a fill and drain. In the meantime I built this to drain, and it works well as a siphon for my boiling water

OVZ