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Mash Tun not Heating


Georgeous

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1 minute ago, Roger said:

Thanks Paul . I can't imagine a 1" low pressure flow heating up 1000# of thick mash. Chinese engineering ?

Most likely Chinese engineering.  For the most part they just don't know what the hell they are doing when it comes to things like that.  I've seen them put a 10,000 watt heating system on 300 gallon stills and all kinds of crazy things like that.  i have also seen them plumbed so that steam goes into outer insulation jackets etc etc.  A lot of people with those kinds of issues come to me to fix their nightmares.

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39 minutes ago, Roger said:

There is a definite difference between heating up a still full of non-viscous fermented beer, vs the same amount of corn mash. A grain mash is almost an insulator, and absorbs an incredible amount of heat from the mash tun wall.  Of course the thinner the mash, the less of an insulating barrier, but you will have to get high enough to activate your A & B enzymes (at least the A) to start thinning it out.

 

 

in there lies the problem, how to get this heated up. i got 840lbs right now sitting in 125° water

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1 minute ago, Silk City Distillers said:

Ball trap, dang.  Ok well I was really hoping for an easy fix.

you and me both. Did you see the pics i posted of the heat map around it. it is not consistent as if the jacket is clogged in some spots or purposely built this way. 

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2 minutes ago, Roger said:

When you pump your hot water from the still back into the mash tun full of goop, pump it into the bottom drain and it will aerate the mash and put it all back into solution. 

So we had the idea of the other night and we tried to Pump It Out From The Bottom drain of the mash tun and it gooped up my hoses and pumps so how to pump it out from what you're saying through the manhole?

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11 minutes ago, Roger said:

just curious, what is that little fitting in the bottom of your mash tun that has what appear to be a small steam line running to it ? That's not the steam inlet is it, right beside the outlet ? ?

yes it is 

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My honest suggestion: remove the TC clamps from both the outlet and the inlet and let it drain. Pour some water into the inlet, and see if it immediately drains out the outlet. If so, you have a real problem because it would mean you have no baffles or channels. If not, you have less of a problem. Regardless you are going to need to plumb both of your inlets for steam. 

As for your cooling jacket needs (and I am not necessarily in support of this) you could just as easily configure some T's and valves to run cold through thought inlets and outlets when it's time to cool, but you would be better off buying a mash chiller.

But I support your not being an MGP clone !

 

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Roger and I seem to have the same thought. Baffles give the steam a path to follow from the inlet to outlet that ideally maximizes heat transfer. If there are no baffles (my honest suspicion), with your inlet and outlet right next to each other, there us not a ton you can do because the heat transfer just isn’t going to happen. Maybe putting a new steam inlet at top opposite end will get you going, I am not sure, but cheapest bet.

Corn being cheap, losing this mash shouldn’t be the biggest concern, but you could pump water into your still and back and use your still like a RIMS, or just pump it all over and mash in the still. If your outlet on the mash tun is plugged, trying pumping in reverse to push the plug out of the way and get things moving.

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On 1/15/2019 at 6:49 PM, Georgeous said:

 The mash tun has an upper jacket for chilling and a lower jacket for steam. I thought about plumbing both with steam but how would i cool it down after gelatanizing the corn? But still even with just the lower jacket the temperature should have risen slowly. 

I dont think you ever mentioned how large of a batch you have in the still at the moment.  Is it possible you have a partial batch in, and that you have plumbed the upper jacket for steam, meaning that most of your mash is not in contact with the heated surfaces?  This might also explain the heat patterns you are showing on the exterior of the still...

Other options along this line is that you mixed up the the inlets and outlets for the two jackets?  (although I think that was ruled out earlier as you mentioned your getting steam out the outlet when removing the trap...)

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3 hours ago, HedgeBird said:

I dont think you ever mentioned how large of a batch you have in the still at the moment.  Is it possible you have a partial batch in, and that you have plumbed the upper jacket for steam, meaning that most of your mash is not in contact with the heated surfaces?  This might also explain the heat patterns you are showing on the exterior of the still...

Other options along this line is that you mixed up the the inlets and outlets for the two jackets?  (although I think that was ruled out earlier as you mentioned your getting steam out the outlet when removing the trap...)

We are doing a full 600 gallon batch and no, it is plumbed to the lower jacket

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3 hours ago, Southernhighlander said:

Georgeous,

We have Tube in Tube heat exchangers in stock that will crash cool 600 gallons of mash in about 1 hr. 417-778-6100 paul@distillery-equipment.com

way things are going dont know if i can afford it right now

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