25 replies to this topic

[pods8]

Its be sweet to have a steam jacketed kettle!For the OP, if you need to do some step mashes occasionally you could do a decoction.

[Lagerdemain]

https://www.asciimation.co.nz/beer/

[Jimmy James]

You're right pods - I did a triple decoction recently. Lots of work, can't wait to try the beer. A couple folks mentioned steam which would be interesting. Generating the steam I guess would be the hard part, unless you had some sort of steam generator from a sauna or something that you could control and pipe into the mash tun. At any rate, I will probably do some sort of decoction for now when brewing calls for a step mash, which isn't often fortunately.

[pods8]

A couple folks mentioned steam which would be interesting. Generating the steam I guess would be the hard part, unless you had some sort of steam generator from a sauna or something that you could control and pipe into the mash tun.

Off the top of my head (warning, more thought should go into this before truly attempting) if you could find a steam jacketed kettle (maybe some old dairy equipment) you could just fill it with water let that water boil on the outside under pressure. You'd need to know the pressure rating on the device and then have a needle valve/pressure gauge to bleed off pressure like a pressure cooker and have a relief valve for back up protection (maybe a hot water heater relief valve would be appropriate).

[Jimmy James]

Off the top of my head (warning, more thought should go into this before truly attempting) if you could find a steam jacketed kettle (maybe some old dairy equipment) you could just fill it with water let that water boil on the outside under pressure. You'd need to know the pressure rating on the device and then have a needle valve/pressure gauge to bleed off pressure like a pressure cooker and have a relief valve for back up protection (maybe a hot water heater relief valve would be appropriate).

Yeah - I get scared just thinking about trying to DIY my own steam system - I wonder what pressures you'd need to be able to effectively heat a mash for a 10-gallon batch? No idea myself. If the pressure requirements weren't too high then maybe I'd put some more thought into how to fashion something. I need to get my old thermo textbooks out and figure it out someday.

[Jeff]

https://www.asciimation.co.nz/beer/

Yep, that's the one. :)That was about the same time as some guy with the initials of GLG was experimenting with liquid oxygen and charcoal grills.The days before you tube! Back then, you had to have internet skills to make your own web based entertainment.