Georgeous

fired it up today full of water and got to a rolling boil from 60°F in around an hour. Crazy what a difference this makes. i appreciate everyone's advice and help thanks a million

Boiler guys left, they plumbed the upper jacket we get even heat all the way around it now. Each jacket has separate steam trap. We are going to fill it with water tomorrow and see how long to a boil. He created us a bypass so we can run cooling water or steam through upper jacket. Lower jacket is just for steam.

both are 600 gallons

Paul, are you talking about the valves on the boiler or on the mash tun? and which valves. Also boiler guys are there today to plumb the 2nd jacket

Here is what i dont understand, color me ignorant if you must My steam boiler is low pressure 15hp/15psi. Its operational pressure is set at 13.5psi. According to the chinese the reason they give a 1.5 bar is that is the upper limit of the jackets structural integrity. Now my boiler does not put out above 15psi, with that 1.5 bar release it will never produce enough pressure to set that off. As a matter of fact, while it was fully under pressure i removed it wearing a welders gloves. without the triclamp i held it in place when i pulled it off steam shot straight up bout 10 ft till jacket was empty. Now i know that was ignorant to do, but i was not hurt. i just don't understand how 15psi boiler can possibly set off this relief valve. BTW the boiler has all kinds of safety features itself, that dont let it go over 15psi either. Also when all this was connected i had to get boiler inspector out here and i got my cert which has to hang on wall next to boiler. Only thing inspector gave me grief about was my vent hood but turned out it was up to code. he was use to higher pressure systems and what hey required. i will look in to replacing these i want to be safe. Hey if you are reading paul i got two on my still and two on my mash tun let me know what i need and give me a quote.

So the Chinese factory responded to me. Just like what they said to me in past many customers run both through their jacket cold and steam. Dear George , Pls kindly check my answers below: 1.Making the jacket of the straight side be swappable for steam and cooling,use two way valve to control. When heating is required, the bottom and straight sides are heated by steam to reach the required temperature for mash. Next, if you need to cool down, you can close the steam valve on the straight side, empty the interlayer of steam, and pay attention to the temperature in the tank. If the temperature drop is not low enough, You can then switch valves,so that the straight jacket can cooled by cooling water. 2.The jacket can withstand cold and steam. It is important to note that if the cooling water is switched on when there still has steam in the interlayer, the cooling water cannot be connected until the steam in the interlayer is exhausted first.And vice versa. 3.Elbow like this: three;Match the clamp and sealing ring;4*1.5 inch butterfly valves,is that all? If so, please pay for the cost of the valve, and we will provide the pipe and quick-install clamp for free.(Not including freight charge). Note that the bottom, like in the picture, can be connected like this: 4.As to the mash tun is not heated up: 1.The heating area of the bottom steam interlayer is relatively small. As we mentioned above,can make the straight side through steam to solve this problem. 2.What is your inlet steam pressure?Can appropriately increase the steam pressure (less than or equal to 0.3MPA)

also they assured me both jackets could be used for heating and cooling

Roger, you are making assumptions. When i sought out Zhenjiu Manufacturing i asked for a list of 10 distilleries or breweries in the USA that have bought their equipment. They sent me a list of 20 most in the USA but others across north and south america. Being fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish i called every single one of them. I asked what they liked and did not like about the equipment and would they buy again. The things echoed by every one of them was price, quality and great customer service. i am not a still designer, we started with a 50 gallon copper moonshine still, very simple very straight forward. I originally was looking at Corson Distilling, i really liked their designs. I would have bought from corson however i would have been one of those waiting for equipment to arrive as they seem to have issues with promised delivery dates. I did not ask Zhenjiu to make any special modifications i just merely pointed them to what i was looking for and they presented me the corson like system. I asked about cooling and heating and this is what they gave me.

This is what I have for all jackets glycol and steam are you saying this is incorrect

So, the chinese came back to me and are saying this was my request. Assholes, this was their design. See below email i got from them Dear George , 1.As to the problem of the heating jacket,pls kindly check our answers below: At the beginning,you ask to make the bottom of the mash tun steam jacket,and the straight side of the tank is made into a cooling jacket. Now there is not enough heated area in this steam jacket,It is related to your initial request. I think now the only solution is,making the cooling jacket on the straight side of the tank,also through steam heating. This will ensure the heating effect,and this is what we made for other customers.(The bottom and sides all used for heating,instead of having straight edges to cool down). At this point, you'd better replace the straight edge mezzanine used for cooling with a bucket of steam to heat it up, which will solves the problem. So i got boiler guy coming out this week to plumb both jackets and we are going to see if possible to do what Paul mentioned up a few posts to pass cooling water and steam through the jackets. or i will have to come with another method of chilling the mash for different temperature additions. How do you guys handle this?

Can you show me photo of yours so i understand what is wrong?

Looks like Trump just struck a deal with them, stock market soaring upwards today

yes i bought from China and not just for price, i spoke to many breweries and distilleries who bought from this company and all were overly pleased with their customer service. Yes i have had a lot of minor issues with the stuff but damn they throw everything on a plane and dhl it to me at no cost. They so far have sent me thousands of dollars of extra parts. For instance my pump motors were not rated for my 3 phase so they sent me 4 new ones that were no questions asked. Now i need them to step up to the plate with this. Other reason i bought from them there were things i wanted like agitators on the fermenters, and closed top fermenting. i did get a lot more bang for the buck but need to deal with the MT, everything else seems ok thus far

We have the boiler guy coming out this monday to do just that. Problem we dont have a wort chiller so need to figure that one out. We were thinking of doing what davis valley does and have a bypass where both jackets get steam and both jackets get cooling water when time to chill.

yes we agitate while heating and we disconnected line after trap. only steam flowed out no water and still did not heat

please explain

ok so i heard back from Chinese manufacturer. See what they wrote me, it is as clear as mud. i also attaches full schematic of mash tun in pdf format. i really appreciate everyone's help and advice. We are a great community here. Dear George , Pls kindly check my answers as below: When order confirmed drawings,there only had steam heating jacket under the head of the mash tun. The pictures you draw of C and H, (H is to increase the jacket safety exhaust location from the bottom to straight edge. The aim is for the convenience of installation exhaust valve and the pressure gauge. So straight edge has a position (H) for which is hot), heating layer is at the bottom of the head, please see the Enclosed drawing.(See image below). Any question ,pls tell me 600Gals 糖化锅图纸.pdf

as this is a brand new mash tun first time use it is not likely to have any scaling.

Do you use this same procedure when making bourbons with corn, rye, and barley as well?

are you asking about inside or outside of the tank. i am not sure and dont know what to look for. but i dont see any obvious vents. These are steam jacketed so i wouldnt think they have baffles or insulation not really sure. i use them i dont build them. now one this we did try was we pumped water in the triclover where the steam pressure valve connects and watched it drain down with no resistance to the bottom of the tank where we had the return steam port disconnetct and plugged to a hose. i am guessing i will have to plumb both jackets to steam and buy a chiller. Any recommendations on what kind? i saw paul mention a tube in tube, i hear lots of guys using plate chillers whats the difference and costs. i saw on the peer to peer sales someone got a monster for sale vendome made. i dont know i am a hurt unit right now

working our asses off alll day using still to heat the water and transfer back and forth. this is a nightmare setup

i dont know, how do i tell it is all welded shut

not yet, need to figure out the problem still. waiting on chinese manufacturere to call back.

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