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kettle insulating tips?


Sorghumrunner

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Hey y'all,

My still is built off of a 100 gallon steam kettle, and it needs insulation. I'm considering doing it myself, but I want it to look good. I'm assuming fibreglass insulation and an aluminum wrap, but doing it over the egg shaped bottom of the kettle seems tricky. I'm not sure if I'll be able to find a contractor around our area with experience who'll be interested. I thought about just doing a straight sided insulation, and filling in the egg part, so it just looks like a round cylinder. Anyone have any tips for doing a good job insulating, or how I can find a decent contractor?

Chris

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my 150 gallon steam kettle has pretty straight sides so it was fairly easy to wrap in insulation and then wrap that in thin stainless sheet.. I went with a quilted pattern and really like the look.. personally I think the dished kettles look a bit awkward so just building it out straight seems reasonable..

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I just cut holes through the insulation and then used hole-saw bits to drill holes through the stainless.. I actually forgot to plug an old thermometer port in the steam jacket the first time and had to take everything back off when steam started pouring out the first time we fired it up. The stainless is held in place with self-tapping sheet metal screws that go into a ring of wood lattice that wraps/sits on the outside lip of the kettle/still flange connection and then more screw where the sheet overlaps in the back. My steam and condensate lines come off the bottom of the kettle so I did not need to do anything for those.

I think I got my sheet from this place:

https://www.stainlesssupply.com/order-metal-online/index.php

and thanks for the compliments! its far from perfect, but I am happy with how it came out and she seems to be making some tasty whiskey!

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Yeah, I just got my first quote back from an insulator, $1800 for my still kettle, and $1600 for the doubler. These are 100 and 55 gallon tanks! I'm gonna shop around a bit more, as I can't see myself making the final installation look attractive, but wow, that price seems steep.

Chris

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I am not really sure as I had it insulated from the get go. My insulation could probably be thicker as the stainless sheet still gets hot to the touch.. From powering on the boiler to boiling mash in the kettle is under two hours three hours for me running at about 6 PSI. I think the boiler takes about 30 minutes heat up time to build pressure.

Thinking about it some more, I don't think insulating your kettle will actually speed up heat up time unless your boiler is currently running continuously during heat up. Insulating should just help maintain steam/heat/pressure in the jacket so that your boiler does not need to cycle on as frequently. I believe heat up time is going to be almost entirely determined by surface area of the jacket or plate that is able to be in contact with the mash/wash and agitation of the mash/wash. Does that make sense?

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