Home Distiller

As a lot of folks know, distilling on the grain using an internal electric element isn't really feasible due to scorching. One way that commercial whiskey distilleries heat their still tanks is using steam jackets. The steam jackets provide large surface area to distribute the heat so as to minimize hot spots and prevent scorching. I have been thinking for a while of a way to mimic this using electric heat and I think I may have come up with an idea. I've used silicone rubber coated electric heating blankets a good bit in the course of my job. These heaters are electric resistance heaters that are essentially really long wires that run back and forth and back and forth and are sandwiched between two layers of silicone rubber. They can be adhered to metal surfaces either with a self adhesive backing or with RTV. The outside diameter of a 15.5 gallon keg is about 16 inches. The circumference of the keg is about 50 inches. A 12" wide x 48" long heater pad with a watt density of 10 W/in^2 would be 5760 W. This heating pad could be adhered around the side of a standard keg and controlled in the exact same fashion as an internal heating element. For reference, the watt density of a standard 240 V 5500 W internal electric heating element is about 50 W/in^2. Currently the heating pads are available off the shelf from McMaster Carr and Omega Engineering and a few other places but are not currently offered in this size and wattage. When I have used these types of heaters for my job we usually had them custom made to our specifications and the prices were actually pretty reasonable. There were a few companies that we used to custom build these. I would guess from my prior dealings that a heater of these specifications could be had for around $100, but that is just a guess. For reference, the type of heater I am referring to can be seen at the following links:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#silicone-heaters/=qzozqy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
http://www.omega.com/pptst/SRFR_SRFG.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
http://www.michaelsenterprises.com/elec ... to-gallery" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
http://www.wattco.com/silicone-heaters.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Sort of a brew belt on steroids, eh?

Seems like it should work fine with appropriate insulation. Might be pretty slow on heatup, stainless being such a poor conductor of heat.

I hope you will try it and let us know how it works out.

"The resistance heating element is high temperature Copper-Nickel and Nickel-Chrome alloy wire, wound around a fiberglass cord to provide added strength and flexibility."

These things look simple enough...why hasn't someone made one?

Edit...no, I mean why hasn't some one made an external heating pad from scratch?

I don't see why it wouldn't work with the right external insulation. Try it out, sounds like you have the appropriate resources to get what ever size you need. I read they are good up to 450F which would be more than hot enough. Could be a great alternative to electric elements. No modifing your boiler, no chance of leaks, no chance of scorching, posibly cheaper than internal elements, could be revolutionary to the hobby. Keep us posted.

Brew belt on steroids is a pretty accurate way to describe it. Definitely would need a layer of insulation around them. Even though ambient still hair is much less thermally conductive than the stainless keg, you'd be wasting energy heating the surrounding air. One unknown to me still is the life cycle of one of these things. All resistance heaters eventually burn up and die, but I don't know how long I could reasonably expect one of these to last.

I'm curious where you can get one of enough power for $100.

Me either, currently off the shelf. I was thinking of a custom made heater. I got quoted on some heaters for work a little while back that were 240 V and were 6" x 96" and the company would make them for $172.

This seller on AliExpress might have/make one the right size:
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/709519/ ... hText=drum" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Their 55 gallon drum heaters are around $100 USD.