I'm starting to dive in and look at future equipment and parts list for a steam injected mash tun/fermenter setup and am wondering if anyone's running a steam injection setup from their still boiler for mashing corn.
Mashing question -
I'm planning on using a 24 gallon milk can electric boiler for my flute and am trying to figure if it would serve double duty to boil water for the mash and also power a steam injection wand for mashing. Do most folks have a separate boilers for distilling and steaming or is a single boiler okay? Less equipment seems like a good idea to me.
I'm thinking of a similar setup to Pinto's keg/plastic bbl seen below but using a milk can electric boiler instead of the keg and a cone inductor tank for mashing and fermenting on the grain. The cone inductor would serve as the mash tun and fermenter. I'm thinking with the induction fermentor I can use a BIAB setup to strain the solids, leaving the wash in the cone inductor for secondary, then drop the remaining trub and yeast out of the bottom. once everything has settled, rack to my boiler for the run.
Do some searches. A few people here have devised ways of doing steam injection for the purpose you're talking about. Some have even discussed using the boiler charged with water to distill an on-the-grain charge in a thumper. That said, you could theoretically mash, ferment, and distill in the same vessel.
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S-Cackalacky wrote:Do some searches. A few people here have devised ways of doing steam injection for the purpose you're talking about. Some have even discussed using the boiler charged with water to distill an on-the-grain charge in a thumper. That said, you could theoretically mash, ferment, and distill in the same vessel.
I'm thinking an electric heatsource with proper phase angle controller would be simpler for managing temps. Using steam injection for mashing corn then using the same 5500 watt element for distilling. I've not found anyone using direct steam injection using the same vessel for mashing/fermenting/distilling in my searches but it's probably more trouble and money than its worth for small batch tiny joy types of distilling.
I've built a steam injection system for mashing and distilling on the grain. I have a three keg system. One keg that serves as a steam generator, one that acts a mash run, and one that is the still boiler.
The keg in the middle has an internal 5500 W electric element hooked to a power controller. I fill the middle keg with water and bring it to a boil to create steam. The power controller controls the amount of steam produced. The steam is then either piped over to either the mash cooker or still boiler.
There is a pipe with a series of holes in the bottom of both the mash cooker and still boilers. I used 1/2" pipe with about sixteen 1/8" holes for the steam to escape. The holes are angled downward so the steam has to go down before rising upward into the liquid it is heating. This gives the steam bubbles more time to collapse and impart their energy.
What plumbing is involved on the back of each keg for the steam injection?
Are you fermenting on the grain in the mash tun on the right or are you using a fermenter?
Do you transfer from the mash tun on the left to your still on the right?
Do you have a build thread?
The plumbing in the back is a single 1/2" pipe that runs vertically downward to bottom of the kegs. This hits a 1/2" elbow and then into another 1/2" pipe for the steam to escape. I used my step bit to drill a hole just the right size for the 1/2" copper elbow to fit snugly into. I used the Harris stay clean flux and solder kit to solder the copper to the stainless. I added the drain valves the same way.
My main thing I like to make is bourbon. I fill the mash cooker with about 8.5-9 gallons of water, and then start injecting steam to bring that to a boil. The amount of steam that it takes to bring it to a boil brings the final volume to about 10 gallons. Once you are boiling though, no more volume is added to the mash water. I pour in 13.3# of corn meal and stir in with my drill mixer. I let it boil for a few minutes and then cut off the steam. I let it cool on its own until it hits 190F, then add 5mL of sebstar enzyme. I mix again with the drill and it thins immediately. I'll bring the temp down to about 155F then I add 3.33# of 6 row, and either 3.33# of rye or wheat. I make a rye bourbon and a wheat bourbon. After mashing I drop in my wort chiller to get down to about 85-90F and then I pitch my yeast. I open ferment in the mash cooker and then transfer to the still boiler on the right. I have a flexible impeller pump that is able to pump the mash with the grains still in it.
Thanks for the response. Very slick setup. Can you snap a few close up pics or even a short video on your phone of the steam fittings for the boiler and the plumbing on the back of the kegs? So you are managing the temp of the distilling pot with the controller on the middle steam vessel? I'd like to do something similar but using the steam boiler as the distilling boiler - basically running mash in the steam pot on the electric element. This would require removing the solids from the mash which shouldnt be too hard - just dumping solids out of the bottom of my cone inductor fermentor vessel before I transfer the wash so I dont burn up the heating element.
DeepSouth - When you transfer, are you pumping straight into the 2 inch ferrule that your flute is mounted on or do you have something cut around the back of the distilling vessel?
I don't "manage the temps" on the distilling pot. I control the strength of the boil in the middle pot, and thus control the amount of steam produced. The amount of steam that is produced then controls the strength of the boil in the still pot and controls the amount of alcohol vapor produced. I'll try to take a close up picture of the plumbing as it enters the mash cooker. It is really simple. To fill the still pot, I remove the column and fill through the 2" ferrule. I'd like to add a fill port, but that's another job for another day. I still have the option of using the middle pot as the still boiler, with the electric element in direct contact with the wash, like you want to do. The main reason I built this setup this way is that I got really tired of squeezing out grain, and waiting for the wash to clear before running. For bourbon, running with the grain in carries over so much more flavor too.
S-Cackalacky wrote:Do some searches. A few people here have devised ways of doing steam injection for the purpose you're talking about. Some have even discussed using the boiler charged with water to distill an on-the-grain charge in a thumper. That said, you could theoretically mash, ferment, and distill in the same vessel.
Has anyone ever run a flute or column on a conical SS fermentor as their "boiler" for distilling with steam injection? Could something like this serve as a vessel for mashing/fermenting/distilling? What would the pitfalls of using one vessel be?
S-Cackalacky wrote:Do some searches. A few people here have devised ways of doing steam injection for the purpose you're talking about. Some have even discussed using the boiler charged with water to distill an on-the-grain charge in a thumper. That said, you could theoretically mash, ferment, and distill in the same vessel.
Has anyone ever run a flute or column on a conical SS fermentor as their "boiler" for distilling with steam injection? Could something like this serve as a vessel for mashing/fermenting/distilling? What would the pitfalls of using one vessel be?
It has a 3 inch tri clamp on the domed lid and also seals tight and I could run steam piping thru the racking tri clamp on the side.
I guess the downside would be that you would only be able to do one 3 phase process at a time - mash, wait for the ferment, do the distilling run. That is, you would have to go through all three processes before starting another generation. Just because something is theoretically possible, doesn't mean you should do it. I think DeepSouth's process/rig is a little more flexible and manageable. With two or three of his BOPs (on the left), it would be possible to keep more than one ferment going - or, better yet, move the wort from the BOP into a separate fermenter and then start another mash. His setup has much more flexibility than using a single vessel for everything.
That ss conical fermenter would probably work for all three processes, albeit an expensive solution. However, being a Mod here, I need to point out that it's above the 25 gallon limit we set here for a still boiler.
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