Beer Forum

1.) Ok, I've got another idea that I'm working on that probably won't work (I'm good for about 1 a week), but I'm pretty serious about getting this trick into my brewday. Someone posted a link somewhere else in the forum that was an article for using a cheap steam generator to raise temps vs. infusion/ decoction.

http://www.brewingtechniques.com/librar ... jones.html

I am building this but I want to use hose instead of copper tubing between the valve and the copper manifold. Does anyone know what I should use (hi-temp- hose, etc.) and where I could find it? I know b-3 carries some reinforced hi-temp hose, but I’m not sure if it would work in a steam application.

2.) I live in Hawaii and am finding a need for using a separate immersion chiller in an ice bath to get my chill water down enough to be efficient. But, being the difficult person that I am, I want to go to the extreme. Instead of using an ice-bath, what about using a dry ice-bath? I imagine I would probably have to use salt to bring the freezing point of the water down below 32 degrees for max efficiency. Anyone know if this will work or if it's even worth it? I figure that I should get a decent boost in cooling efficiency either way.

Thanx for any constructive input,

Chooch

Sometime last year there was quite a discussion on the forums at www.hbd.org on steam injection. You might want to check out their archives. Dan Listermann had done a bunch of testing of the idea and had come up with mixed results. Before investing a bunch of time and money on the project, you should probably see what others had to say as well as look at some of the alternative designs. As far as the hose idea goes, check with your local restaurant supply house for jacketed hoses for steam line. These are used all the time with steam jacketed tilt kettles. I have been playing with the idea that these would also be good on sculptures for moving hot water and wort around without the worry of them melting or having to mess with hard piping.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

BugeaterBrewing wrote:Sometime last year there was quite a discussion on the forums at www.hbd.org on steam injection. You might want to check out their archives. Dan Listermann had done a bunch of testing of the idea and had come up with mixed results. Before investing a bunch of time and money on the project, you should probably see what others had to say as well as look at some of the alternative designs.

Thanks Wayne! That link was a great source of info about my project. I did notice the opponent to the idea even concedes that if he had used a larger diameter delivery line the steam generator may have worked out better for him. I'm very happy that many safety issues with the steam generator were addressed. Even with all of my engineering experience with the Navy, I was happy to get a refresher on those safety concerns. Steam is an often underestimated danger.

Thanks for your input! Anyone else have any thoughts, ideas, or experience with this or with my dry-ice pre-chiller idea?

Chooch

I'm not a physicist but I'm pretty sure you will get better heat transfer from a liquid on the cold side... Dry ice will give you a gas which has very bad heat transfer abilities... If you have that much access to dry ice why not just drop some in the kettle. I would think it is sterile as nothing could possibly grow on that shit, plus it would keep a CO2 blanket on the kettle to help prevent HSA. Would be a freaking fun experiment either way.
BUB

bub wrote:I'm not a physicist but I'm pretty sure you will get better heat transfer from a liquid on the cold side... Dry ice will give you a gas which has very bad heat transfer abilities... If you have that much access to dry ice why not just drop some in the kettle. I would think it is sterile as nothing could possibly grow on that shit, plus it would keep a CO2 blanket on the kettle to help prevent HSA. Would be a freaking fun experiment either way.
BUB

Hadn't thought of that. It would be cool, especially visualy!

Dry ice is often pretty dirty and full of sawdust or lubricants. I wouldn't throw the dry ice directly into the boil if it were me. I like the ice water and salt method. You can easily get into the low 20's using that.

As for steam, I considered this as well until I read that hbd thread. If you were in the Navy, you're probably not that impressed by the danger. It's not like we're talking about 1800 lbs here. The problem that I see is that steam isn't really a source of heat; it's just a medium of exchange. You'd still need some kind of electric or fire heat source.

For that my BBQ has a propane side burner that should get the water in my pressure cooker going. Almost done getting the system together, I'll test it and let you all know what happens.

I'll probably be going with the salt and ice water bath. If I need more efficiency than that I shoud just fork over the bucks for a counter-flow chiller. Does anyone know if salt water will corrode copper?

Chooch