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Gen II 60 gallon Electric Bain Mairie Still


ViolentBlue

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SH, looks like a pretty good deal for mash tuns in that size.

you can mash right in the boiler of this still, but it is nice to have a dedicated tun so you're not tying up the still.

we have a 120 gallon mash tun that uses the same electric bain marie setup as the 60, but with a paddle style agitator for super thick mashes,

Steve

Right, Steve. We do the same in our bain marie still, but as we get busier, we will be in the market for a mash tun to take the load off the still. We were thinking about something on the order of 180 gallons. We find we run 3 mashes per final spirit run for our twice-distilled whiskeys, so running the mash once for that makes sense to us. We might be interested in an electric heated version of such a mash tun, so would like to see the particulars. We have also considered using the still bain marie as the hot water source for heating a separate mash tun.

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  • 5 weeks later...

there are many options for heat transfer fluid

food grade canola oil, biodeisel, silicon oil, propyleneglycol.

basically any non toxic or food grade oil will suffice.

you never reach scorch point with the fluids, but some last longer than others.

you see a 10-20% expansion in the temperature range these systems run at, depending of course on transfer fluid of choice and how much heat you are driving he system with.

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You'll need a 60amp 240v 1phase supply. 3phase are also available.

You might want to calculate your heating times, since in the end that may be important for production. Some thermal fluids have the advantage that they are quicker to heat up than water, if you are starting from cold. Others are longer. I would make a rough estimate that starting from bath and pot cold, a 60amp 240v single phase would take about 4 hours to come to temperature for distillation, assuming 40g of water in bain marie? Our 90amp 240v three phase takes 1-2 hours, depending on agitation and contents of the pot.

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bain marie has a maximum volume of 18 gallons, fill with 14 gallons of fluid, leaving expansion room.

heatup from cold to ready to draw product is about 80 minutes

heatup of new wash while bain marie is still warm, is about 45 minutes

these numbers are based on our break in and testing of our 60 gallon prototype. it heats much faster than my math said it would.

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Of course it depends on the proof of the wash, I was assuming 40 gallon bain marie instead of 14, and assuming water in both. But even going down from 90 gallons total to, say 75 gallons, and assuming you need to get to about 200F instead of 212F, the physics says it should take more than 80 minutes. On the other hand, if you are running concentrated low wines or GNS diluted to say 80 proof, then yes, you are down now to 170F and you could be running in that amount of time. It's all simple physics: energy in, energy out. And by far, more important is the agitation. You could have plenty of heating power, but if you aren't agitating well, you will simply cook the outside of your mash before bringing the whole pot up to temperature, and bake on a good insulating layer ;-)

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