Steam thru Mash?

[tolona]

Anyone ever hear of a method of distilling whereby steam is run thru the wash rather than being heated from below by flame? I may have read about this in the book Foxfire I...... tolona from IL

[Husker]

I believe when talking about 'steam through the mash', they are referring to a downward sloping coil of steam pipe that would spiral through a mashing pot or the boiler of the still, for heat up, or for boiling (boiling in the still of course).

I think steam is probably the method of choice for a still boiler, once the size of the boiler grows. I would think the lower efficiency of gas would be frowned upon by companies, if they are driving a 20000 gallon boiler. Also, I bet elect element heat on that scale would be a maintenance nightmare. But a couple old school boilers could easily heat that still, and one would never have to worry about things like scorching.

I believe even UJ's 1500 gallon still in his commercial micro distillery is steam run.

H.

[bronzdragon]

Yeah, once you get a pot over a certain size (possibly in the 100-150 quart range), steam is much more economical to run. That is, if you can set one up where you want it. In the case of a steam jacketed pot, the steam actually heats the outside of the pot. The pots that large are also usually on a lifting and tilting mechanism because they're so heavy. A lot of them also have drains at the bottom.

I haven't really heard about a boiling pot being heated from a coil inside that had steam running through it. Although I guess it is entirely possible, but you'd have to have a larger pot and the coil inputs would have to come out in a different direction then your column or whatever you're using as the top part of your still. Also, then you'd have to have another heating mechanism to make the steam in the first place, and it would take a pretty large coil in the pot.

~r~

[Husker]

BD,

I have not been around steam before, so a 'coil' heat exchanger was all I could 'think' about making work. Since the steam would likely condense, it would have to be something sloping down (I think), but like I said, I have no experience at all with steam or closed boiler systems.

What setup would be used for a steam driven boiler?

H.

[bronzdragon]

Well, like I said, the only thing I could think of close to this was a recirculating, infusion system like they use in homebrewing where a coil is put through the mash and boiling water was sent through the coil to keep the mash at a certain temp. I know this is water we're talking about and not steam, but that was all I could think of.

I've never seen a steam driven kettle that had a coil in it for boiling purposes, but I don't think it's out of the realm of comprehension. I think that it would take a very large coil though. And unless you already have a big steam boiler that you're using extra "free" steam, I don't see it being worth the trouble of developing. Kind of like a "reverse" counterflow wort chiller, if you know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, 5 gal and under go with gas or electric. More then 5 gal and gas is your best bet. More then 50 gal and I'd have to defer to those that have run a bigger still like that, but I figured that the steam jacketed boiler would be the way to go.

Cheers

~bd~

[Hawke]

If I'm not mistaken, most are low pressure super heated steam generators. Once you have steam, it is easy to raise the temp well above 100C.

[tolona]

Here's what I was thinking: you get say a three gal. boiler of some type, run say a 3/8 " line to one port of say a five gal. Cornelius soda container. a 3/8" copper tube would run to the bottom. This would carry the steam to the bottom of your say, 4 gal. of mash (wash). Steam comes up thru mash, out the other port, up the column of some sort, then to the condenser. Like Husker said, this even heat would have it's advantages. I think you would want to insulate the Cornelius.. Think this would work?

[Ugly]

In really large units, double boiler styles aren't all that practical. Think instead of so called water tubes or steam tubes like those used in nuclear reactors, large steam engines etc. where the super hot steam moves through tubes in the liquid and exchanges the heat.

Electrical elements of the 600V class and higher are simple to handle (replace and maintain), the problem is cost of the electricity is really high. It's way cheaper to use NG or whatever to fire a steam boiler. On really large heat exchange systems it's also not uncommon to raise the temperature to double the ambient temperature with simple heat pumps before putting the boiling energy to it. Saves a bundle in energy costs as measured over a year and that now cold chiller water is then used to assist in cooling the building etc... Conversely, the heat extracted from chilling a wort can then be moved to assist in boiling up a new one and so on....

Moving heat from point to point is becoming a fine art in the conservation of energy especially as practiced by the super huge brewers and distillers.