My steam rig

[Shinerfortyniner]

I managed to find a bunch of grape skins this fall and fermented them. The first batch went into the still without skins and didn't give that much flavor. So I threw together a steam rig to process the rest on the skins.

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I built it with my 10 gal mash tun and I drive it with my 7 gal Mile high still. Maybe I can use it to cook corn as well. Here is the steam head

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The first run i did with it took hours to get up to temp, so I added an internal element to the boiler. It's only 2200 watts; I use my hot plate to warm the steamer contents while the boiler comes up to temp. Then I turn off the hot plate.

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Today's run took about 3 hours. I only ran it down to 50% because I don't have a sight glass and am not sure how much liquid evaporates out during the run. On one of my cleaning runs i put the vinegar in and then turned it on. When I returned with water to dilute the vinegar, I could see a beautiful orange glow coming from the boiler opening. Fortunately, the element still works. Another valuable lesson learned without too much pain.

I used Harris staybrite and #8 for both the stainless to copper and cu to cu joins. Two inch cu tee with tri-clamps into a one inch down to 3\4 inch with unions to turn the corners. It has a 5psi poppet valve and a 10psi pressure gauge. No anti siphon valve, I have to remember to open the valve I installed.

Cheers