Mash tun / stripping still

[Bolverk]

Not sure if it would be of any help or applicable, but I recall a thread by Teluride a while ago when he was creating a continuous. Unfortunately he passed away, but I believe the thread still exists for informational purposes. I can't recall if it was here or at artisan or SD. Seem to recall he also went with a 4" spool. It may be helpful, at least the steam generator part.

I'm very familiar with the thread. I'm pretty sure he is directly responsible for early adoption of using a tube for a steam boiler. Funny enough, that's when I started looking into building one, it just took a few years to feel like I had the practical knowledge to do it safely. My idea is directly taken from his old design, just modified a bit to fit my needs a bit better.

[Bolverk]

Ok, so I had a few mins

I filled the tun with 5 gal of 125f water and turned on the steam. Once the steam started going, I started adding grain. I end up adding 2 additional gallons of water as it was getting too hard to stir.

Grain bill was:
30% flaked rye
30% malted rye
32% Wheat
8% oats.

Cooked the grain up to 150f, killed power, and let mash for 1 hour. At this point, my total volume was about 9.5 gals. I drained the grain out of the bottom of the tun and transferred it to a 15 gal fermentor. Uncorrected SG was 1.070. Added 3 gals of room temp water, and it dropped the temp down to 110f, SG was 1.045. I'll let the temp come down overnight... I'm hoping for a little more conversion

Yeah, I got some dilution from steam condensing, and I added a little too much water to cool it down... I still need to play with how much water to add and also account for the water from steam.

I'll pitch yeast in the morning.

No issues with pressure or over filling the reservoir. The generator worked flawlessly. Mashing on steam is so easy it should be illegal

[Bolverk]

Update: the overnight rest aided in conversion, when I pitched my yeast this morning the SG was 1.058... 7.48% potential abv... I'll take that all day on a 2.2 lbs per gallon 100% natural mash.

[Bolverk]

Another observation worth noting

The educator worked very well up to about 1.5 lbs per gallon. After that, the mash just got too thick, and it needed manual stirring. I think the educator might work with all the grain if I had a finer grind, so the next purchase will be a good grain mill. Then I can do a rough flour... this will also help its efficiency, and I may only need 2lbs per gallon.

[NorthWoodsAb]

Man you have put a lot of thought and effort into this project with video on both success and "not quite there yet". This thread will be a gem for many for some time to come.
Thank you for all this and congratulations.

Cheers
Oms

[Bolverk]

Thanks!

I hope to start seeing more and more people getting interested in steam. Its really not that hard... you have to respect how dangerous steam can be if you're not being safe.

All that said, I can't emphasize enough how much easier it is to mash and run on steam than directly with an element... it is an absolute game changer.

The one thing to remember is that if you're stripping at too high of a power you will get a lot of water (steam) carrying over in your low wines, so you need to remember to turn the power down so that all the steam is condensing in your beer. This part was pretty simple, my 7% beer should be about 45% off the spout, if you pulling it off lower than you're running too much steam.

If you don't already have this it's is a handy thing to save.

[Bolverk]

New addition to the setup

I added a wand to mash in an external barrel

[Bolverk]

I did 2 7 gal stripping runs with the steam stripping still, everything worked well, no issues... I'm happy.

I'll update again when I'm ready to mash with the new external steam wand.

[Born_Free]

everything worked well, no issues...

Winter is here, time to start distilling again!

This is a great thread, thanks for posting those videos, I was all set to make many of the same attempts. You saved me many hours. Thank you!

Trying to decide between the float valve you used and a float switch with external solenoid. Are you still happy with that float valve?

Sure can't beat the price.

[Bolverk]

everything worked well, no issues...

Winter is here, time to start distilling again!

This is a great thread, thanks for posting those videos, I was all set to make many of the same attempts. You saved me many hours. Thank you!

Trying to decide between the float valve you used and a float switch with external solenoid. Are you still happy with that float valve?

Sure can't beat the price.

Haha thanks, yeah glad I was of help.

The float has been great. I've got about 25 hours on it with no issues so far, and I would continue to recommend it.

I suppose the only real change I would make is giving the boiler a few more inches of head space, solely to keep any boiling water out of the reservoir. Not that ive experienced any problems, it's more just piece of mind.

[shadylane]

Steam will feed into a 2" to 1" reducer that will feed down into the bottom of the keg and heat/agitate the mash/beer as it blows through the educator nozzle (venturi).

Maybe it would have been better to take the steam off from the top of the Tee where the PRV is.
That way any liquid that boiled over would return to the heater instead of getting out and into the keg.

[Bolverk]

Maybe but that would have messed up the balance and it would not have hung on the side of the keg as easily.

Its a moot point now, the build has evolved way beyond this early version.

[shadylane]

4" test 6 Success!

What I don't understand is why the 1/4 educator would work fine with the 2" set up but not the 4"?

I'm thinking.
The 2" setup was blowing wet steam and the steam from the 4" doesn't contain water.
Water isn't compressible and was partially blocking the educator causing it to blow harder.

[Bolverk]

4" test 6 Success!

What I don't understand is why the 1/4 educator would work fine with the 2" set up but not the 4"?

I'm thinking.
The 2" setup was blowing wet steam and the steam from the 4" doesn't contain water.
Water isn't compressible and was partially blocking the educator causing it to blow harder.

Keep reading man, lol. the small educator ends up working just fine the issue was the orifice plate.

[Born_Free]

Big thanks to Bolverk, couldn't have done it without him.

With my parts held up in the Canadian postal strike I robbed parts off of every system I own, I just couldn't wait anymore..... It needs to be small and portable as I'm running out of room, so will swap smaller stuff as I get it.

Some info that could be handy for the next guy:

- at 5500W my boiler water splashes about 8-9", probably the limit for a 4" pipe. I would be curious to see a 6" pipe.
- Bolverk's auto fill valve works really well, throttles so I can't even tell when it is filling, no surging.
- The p-clamps that hold the pipes are rated for several hundred pounds.
- I have ~1 gallon of water in the boiler, heat up time ~5 minutes.
- I was concerned what the "oh shit" valve would do when opened under full power, so I minimized the steam volume as much as practical to minimize the release size. Safety squints, high temp gloves and long sleeves for the first few runs, although a good idea I think my fear was unfounded at these pressures (~14in H20).
- I have hard water, but someone mentioned a backwash and this does work on the stainless parts, it isn't caked on. The element has a coating but will also be used in the still and I found a spirit run cleans them up, we'll see.

Born Free

[Bolverk]

Nice! So glad it's worked out for you too!

[NormandieStill]

I'm so going to be building one of these when I've got the space sorted out.

To Born_Free: Those two flexible tubes look like braided stainless over rubber. Watch that they can take the heat and that they don't carry a rubber taste into your wash. I'd try and replace them with a direct stainless / copper connection, or eventually a CSST.

[Born_Free]

Those two flexible tubes look like braided stainless over rubber. Watch that they can take the heat and that they don't carry a rubber taste into your wash. I'd try and replace them with a direct stainless / copper connection, or eventually a CSST.

Hey Norm,

The larger one on the right and the small equalization line in the middle are corrugated stainless steel only, no other material.

The cold water fill line (on the left) is for a dish washer and it has a "Non-toxic PVC Inner Core". Do you think this is an issue on cold water? Or did you just mean the two on the steam side?

Always good to have someone look at things for sure. Thanks.

[NormandieStill]

The larger one on the right and the small equalization line in the middle are corrugated stainless steel only, no other material.

The cold water fill line (on the left) is for a dish washer and it has a "Non-toxic PVC Inner Core". Do you think this is an issue on cold water? Or did you just mean the two on the steam side?

Always good to have someone look at things for sure. Thanks.

My bad. In the photo the larger line looked like a braided line. The kinks in the smaller equalization line show that it's a CSST. In which case, ignore last and congrats on the build.

I have very hard water and my steam boiler ends up with a lot of limescale but I can strip 3 30l charges back-to-back and clean up is mostly just a case of rinsing. Direct firing a cleared wash with the same element will obviously clean it up straight away.

[fzbwfk9r]

When you say 'educator', you mean 'eductor', right?

you're not boiling teachers? (college professors... another story)