Hi Folks,
At what size boiler would you deem an agitator necessary?
I look forward to your feedback.
Best,
Nader
When would you deem an agitator necessary?
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NADERHANNA1719
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ShineonCrazyDiamond
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Re: When would you deem an agitator necessary?
It doesn't have anything to do with size. It's what you're putting in it. If you are cooking on the grain, it can be a solution to prevent scorching.
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kpex72
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Re: When would you deem an agitator necessary?
^-----Agreed 100%!ShineonCrazyDiamond wrote: ↑Sat Aug 03, 2019 2:23 pm It doesn't have anything to do with size. It's what you're putting in it. If you are cooking on the grain, it can be a solution to prevent scorching.
However, you don't realize how much you need (or want) an agitator, until you get one.
Your heat up times drop dramatically regardless of what you're running. They aren't cheap, but if you got the coin, I'd call it a luxury item for any size still and a requirement for AG on the grain runs. It keeps you from getting hot spots in your mash, so your mash temp rises more uniformly. Personally, I noticed smearing was reduced dramatically when making cuts when using an agitator.
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SpiritOf76
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Re: When would you deem an agitator necessary?
There's a great channel on YouTube (i know just hang in there).
It's by a fellow whose family owns a business specializing in Colonial American reenactment supplies (everything from uniforms to cooking equipment).
They do a popular series on 17th and 18th Century cooking.
In this video they visit a historic distillery in Louisville KY Locust Grove and they're making apple brandy the traditional way.
Here, they mention that in the days before agitators, the distillers lined the bottom of the still with hay to prevent scorching.
I've cued the video to just before the statement about hay
They didn't press the apples to extract juice (they boiled them). They didn't strain or squeeze the fermented wash.
Of course, this is only with external flame as a heat source.
I don't know if this works for grain, as well, but it makes sense to me that it would. Thinking about the history of whiskey/wiskey production they would have used various manual/mechanical processes to separate the wort from the solids. But in the end they wouldn't have had fine cloth filters or other fine filtering mechanisms. So what did they do?
I've also wondered if a layer of sand would work when there's an external flame for heat source. Haven't yet come across any other mentions of traditional boiler liner materials.
It's by a fellow whose family owns a business specializing in Colonial American reenactment supplies (everything from uniforms to cooking equipment).
They do a popular series on 17th and 18th Century cooking.
In this video they visit a historic distillery in Louisville KY Locust Grove and they're making apple brandy the traditional way.
Here, they mention that in the days before agitators, the distillers lined the bottom of the still with hay to prevent scorching.
I've cued the video to just before the statement about hay
They didn't press the apples to extract juice (they boiled them). They didn't strain or squeeze the fermented wash.
Of course, this is only with external flame as a heat source.
I don't know if this works for grain, as well, but it makes sense to me that it would. Thinking about the history of whiskey/wiskey production they would have used various manual/mechanical processes to separate the wort from the solids. But in the end they wouldn't have had fine cloth filters or other fine filtering mechanisms. So what did they do?
I've also wondered if a layer of sand would work when there's an external flame for heat source. Haven't yet come across any other mentions of traditional boiler liner materials.
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