Mash transferring via shopvac

[Oystercracker123]

The topic of suitable mash pumps (and their prohibitive expense) comes up from time to time. After bucketing the remnants of a yellow label ferment, I recalled something I used to do at work and wondered if anyone has done similar.

In the past I have had a number of occasions where I had to pump out mud, gravel and water out of pits typically 10-12 feet deep. This was a pain in the butt as we weren’t allowed to enter the pit and all the pumps we tried would foul and plug in short order. What wound up working is rigging up a shop-vac to a “containment vessel” ie a steel 55gal barrel, then running the hose into the pit working from the top to the bottom to empty it out. It worked great. But the vacuum will collapse hdpe drums. Something with the rigidity of a steel drum was required. Basically a vacuum slobber box. I have used hard pipe at times in the same application. The key is working from the top down so as to not plug the hose which drives up the vacuum occurring in the containment vessel. I haven’t don’t it yet, but I’m pretty sure it would work with a keg style thumper/stripper and would be using either hard pipe like a reverse steam injection rig or the wire reinforced suction hose of a suitable material.

Not sure if anyone has considered this as a possibility so am throwing it out there.

[greggn]

But the vacuum will collapse hdpe drums. Something with the rigidity of a steel drum was required.

That the receiver has to be steel limits its usefulness. That said, if a handy person could build an interface between the shop vac and their still boiler then I could see value in that.

[Salt Must Flow]

You can buy heavy duty plastic liners for drums. They seal well with the lid so that would solve any issue with contact with steel.

shopping.jpg (12 KiB) Viewed 2029 times

You can build a frame with a screen on the bottom. Place the wet grain on top and suck the mash through the screen.

Here you can see that the screen was first stapled to the frame, sealed/adhered with silicone and reinforced with light steel angle.

If there's any concern that the porous wood could support contamination, the wood could be coated/sealed.

[Oystercracker123]

I think you’re missing the point. What I’m proposing is using a keg boiler/thumper as the receiving vessel. The mash never touches the shop vac. It is just there to supply abundant vacuum. You can ferment in whatever you like, and many people already use kegs as boilers. If you rig a hose (suction rated) or hard pipe from the ferment vessel to the keg boiler (assuming you have two top ports) and follow the mash level down as it is sucked out, the whole mash winds up in the keg thumper.

There used to be a guy on either this site or another by the name of Aaron Schnell (I think). He was some kind of industrial chemist in real life and wrote about vacuum distillation using kegs as receptacle vessels. They worked for him. At least until he died in a car crash.

[Salt Must Flow]

I think you’re missing the point. What I’m proposing is using a keg boiler/thumper as the receiving vessel. The mash never touches the shop vac. It is just there to supply abundant vacuum. You can ferment in whatever you like, and many people already use kegs as boilers. If you rig a hose (suction rated) or hard pipe from the ferment vessel to the keg boiler (assuming you have two top ports) and follow the mash level down as it is sucked out, the whole mash winds up in the keg thumper.

There used to be a guy on either this site or another by the name of Aaron Schnell (I think). He was some kind of industrial chemist in real life and wrote about vacuum distillation using kegs as receptacle vessels. They worked for him. At least until he died in a car crash.

I should have been more clear and quoted greggn directly. greggn mentioned steel being a limiting factor that's why I listed the liner. I know you weren't talking about using a drum as the receiver.

Got it! "The whole mash" is transfered over. Ok. I assumed you were trying to draw out ONLY the mash from the grain. That's why I listed that screen. My mistake.

[Oystercracker123]

No worries salt, I should have been more specific. I was responding to Greg as well.

[Salt Must Flow]

I've had to make fittings that are compatible with ShopVacs before. I used PVC pipe and PVC fittings. You can heat the end of PVC pipe with a heat gun, carefully insert the ShopVac end and the pipe will thermoform to make a tight connection. It works perfectly!

A lot of people in the car detailing industry say that the RIDGID Portable Vac Model 40701 is the very best bang for your buck. A guy I know uses two for car detailing. They're very powerful yet compact.

[Yummyrum]

Sounds like a cunning idea Oyster .

I’ve no idea of the vacuum required , but I wonder if there would be any alcohol sucked out …IE vacuum distillation.
But probably insignificant transferring slop.

[shadylane]

Haven't tried a shopvac to suck a mash into the pot but it sounds workable to me.

[NZChris]

If you can lift the fermenter high enough, you can siphon the contents without the worry of blocking a pump or collapsing the receiver. I do it often. A fermenter too heavy to lift gets lighter as the level drops and can then be lifted onto higher and higher blocks of wood/whatever as the weight drops.

[quadra]

An added bonus is the process will help break out CO2 during the transfer.

[kennstminet]

I have built a setup using a shop vacuumcleaner und a HDPE barrel to suck out hot stillage from my boiler.
This allows me refilling the boiler with fresh mash with short power reduction and continuing a stripping run shortly after that.
It works fine without collapsing the barrel. It is a high quality and sturdy type.

Vacuumcleaners typically do not exceed a differentialpressure of 0.3 bar which corresponds to a max. height difference of 3 m (approx. 10 feet).
My setup has only 1 m (approx. 3,25 feet) height difference and is not completely airtight.
The differential pressure is most likely not exceeding 0.1 bar and most HDPE barrels will survive that.

It is easy to find out. Just put the vacuumcleaner to the barrel and see if it deforms. I will happen slowly and you can react before any permanent damadge.

[AlZilla]

This very expensive kit is the same concept you're talking about:


A guy on youtube had a mash/wash transfer with a shop vac some years back. Cheap, easy and effective.

[Gulper]

I must be missing something. How does the fluid not ever touch the shop vac?

[Salt Must Flow]

I must be missing something. How does the fluid not ever touch the shop vac?

Shop Vac Fluid Transfer.png (5.55 KiB) Viewed 1060 times

[Tammuz]

I just found this on AliExpress while looking for something else.
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mq4z4AM

[Salt Must Flow]

I just found this on AliExpress while looking for something else.
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mq4z4AM

That's a cyclone dust separator, but yeah it pretty much does the same job. A lot of people like those cyclone dust separators because the vast majority of the dust gets collected in that container and does not even touch the ShopVac's filter. It prolongs the use of the filter and increases the collection capacity of overall setup.