Jacketed Mash Tun - Liquid not Steam

[Kbar]

Before I venture into my next build, has anyone seen breweries or home breweries use Liquid Heated Mash Tuns vs. Steam jackets? I assume the big boys use steam to control mash temps and rest steps.

That is, using hot water, at some temperature above your mash step, to control and even step up the mash temps? I was thinking of a jacketed rectangular stainless double wall mash tun, in which the HLT would be heated to some temperature above the mash needs and circulated from HLT to mash tun and then back to the electrically heated and controlled HLT.

Anyone have any experience with this or seen this done? I would like some feedback. Thanks!

[Ozwald]

It's basically a HERMS system just done a little differently. I'd imagine it'd be less efficient than an immersed coil though, unless the jacket was designed with some sort of baffles to direct flow ie making the jacket into a large coil with helical baffles. Even then it would have less contact area than an immersed coil.