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Possible mash tun?


Shindig

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I was thinking of taking the Letina M730 mixing tank and adding an immersion element. Plan was to add hot water form a tankless water heater then raising the temp to 180dg for the corn (bourbon mash bill). Would the motor hold up ? Would the element be remotely efficient? Trying to create something for around $4,000 and all electric.

http://www.stpats.com/2014Letina/145813_StPATRICKS_M7300A10_ver1.pdf

http://www.bubbasbarrels.com/6-kw-immersion-heater-w-thermostat

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Your motor holding up depends on the thickness of your mash and therefore your desired yield. It's a single phase .75kW motor so I wouldn't plan on going too thick with it. Did you have any batch sizes planned yet? A three phase wouldn't have you drawing so many amps, and I assume if you have an instantaneous water heater that would be three phase already.

An electric element would be problematic too since your mash would burn itself on. You linked to a 2" TC element and it looks like the only TC port you have is a standard 1 1/2" on the very bottom. You could buy a 2" ferrule and weld it on in place, but it's sitting in a drainage channel and even though all the liquid would convect up, even with constant mixing I imagine you would get a lot of solid corn particles collecting down there and therefore a lot of burning.

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Seems like a high price to pay for what is essentially a big unheated stainless pot, and only 193 gallons, 1.5" TC output Seems the potential negatives outweigh the potential positives (pretty stainless tooling). And to consider that you might need to modify the tank too? I would say the agitator might be OK for even stiffer mashes, you have a full horsepower geared down to under 100 rpm, and that shaft size looks sizable as well (hollow?). But there seem to be plenty of other options.

I'd first start looking in the surplus market, process tanks from the food industry, under 200 gallons, are readily available and easy to ship. You might also find one with an larger sized agitator as well, and potentially even some other benefits like a steam or water jacket, or insulation.

Open top dairy tanks are also easily modified, and many can be found insulated. If you don't think you'll ever install a steam boiler, and if you live anywhere near dairy country, it's the cheapest way to get a nice sanitary stainless insulated tank

Another option would be a new Stainless IBC tote. While they aren't as pretty, they'll last forever, with a wall thickness of more than double that Letina tank (you can ding the Letina, you'd never ding a tote). A brand new Custom Metalcraft 350 gallon open top tote is only $2000, with jackets about $750 a side. Would require a little bit of fab, but adding a bridge and agitator shouldn't cost you more than $1500. I bet you custom metal craft would probably build the bridge for you too, heck they might be interested in talking, since they appear to be making significant inroads into distillery and brewery hardware. Adding the jacket now would give you a mechanism to cool down in the tank, and if you ever went steam later, you'd have the ability to run the jacket to heat.

Don't get me wrong, the Letina tanks are nice, but you aren't getting a whole lot of bang for your buck.

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"Another option would be a new Stainless IBC tote. While they aren't as pretty, they'll last forever, with a wall thickness of more than double that Letina tank (you can ding the Letina, you'd never ding a tote)."

I have four totes in my operation. On a side note, I went to visit a distillery in Seattle and they had some Steampunk, Armageddon, Apocalyptic still running with all sort dials and such. On closer inspection it was a 500 gallon tote in a copper and metal box. It looked cool and got the job done, but I still chuckle at the smoke and mirrors effect.

Secondly, if you are patient, you can find a jacketed tank, attach water heaters, a circulation pump and some safety's and you'll be good to go. My cooker can double as a still as well. It has a tri-clamp fitting at the top.

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1 6K element will not do it. You would need 8 6K elements if you want to get to operating temp within 2 hrs, Also, you cannot run that element in a mash with solids in it without scorching your mash and burning out the element on the first cook. Email me paul@distillery-equipment.com I can give you a viable low cost solution for mashing on the grain with indirect heat.

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That's a good calculator, I have the formula programed into my TI81 graphing calculator. My calculations were based on well water or city water in winter with a temp of 55° F heated for corn mash to a temp of 212° F in an uninsulated vessel with a thermal loss of 1.15. Also we must account for the slower heat penetration due to the viscosity of a heavy grain laden mash which increases the time factor by around 1.3 and we must also account for agitation which decreases the heat up time. Using these inputs you would need 8 6KW elements to heat the vessel to operating temp in less than 2hrs. Plus, I usually oversize my heating systems by 10% or more to insure that I get my stated heat up time or less. If I say less than 2 hrs then my target is usually around 1hr and 50 minutes.

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^ Consider that OP is looking at using an instant hot water heater. Hard to say what his output temp of the heater is going to be as it depends on the unit, input water temp and his desired discharge rate.

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