Manifold for Keggle?

[Kazi the Younger]

Hey Lars, thanks for the heads up! You're basically on target of what I'm looking to do. Great to hear you're firing the kettle a little bit with grain touching the bottom while recirculating and not getting any scorching/malliard reactions. So it works fine eh?

My thoughts are, I can have the MLT be direct fired with the correct amount of water, dough in around 122--rest for a bit, then start recirculating--get my electric heat exchanger going and fire the mash tun a bit in order to speed up the time it takes to raise the temp of the mash. I've read about people going from say, a 152 degree Sach rest to 167 mashout with recirculation alone--but it is SLOW--about 1/2 a degree per minute. I'm sure it would be faster if I fire and heat-exchange at the same time.

do you have an pics of your setup? I can imagine what the pretzel looks like--but it's always cool to see pics

[Lars]

No worries, yeah it works great. I don't have any pix with me (at work) but can take a few and post them tonight. I'm usually pretty gentle on the flame when raising the temp of my mash. I have not yet done a step mash. So far no scortching, and I don't stir beyond dough in.

I just brewed a kolsch and had the mash tun direct fired for 30+ minutes the beer is perfect on color, no darkening of the grains at all. It is also a kick ass beer! Three of us went through 3 gallons on Sat night. Used Jamil's recipe from BCS.

[Mylo]

Hey Lars, thanks for the heads up! You're basically on target of what I'm looking to do. Great to hear you're firing the kettle a little bit with grain touching the bottom while recirculating and not getting any scorching/malliard reactions. So it works fine eh?

My thoughts are, I can have the MLT be direct fired with the correct amount of water, dough in around 122--rest for a bit, then start recirculating--get my electric heat exchanger going and fire the mash tun a bit in order to speed up the time it takes to raise the temp of the mash. I've read about people going from say, a 152 degree Sach rest to 167 mashout with recirculation alone--but it is SLOW--about 1/2 a degree per minute. I'm sure it would be faster if I fire and heat-exchange at the same time.

do you have an pics of your setup? I can imagine what the pretzel looks like--but it's always cool to see pics

If you made your RIMS more efficient (bigger element, larger water bath), then you could get away with just it. I have a feeling that your direct fire will be plenty fast enough for you.


Mylo

Mylo

[BayouBrew]

I'm with Lars. I also use the large stainless braid (water heater supply line) in a converted keggle, but I don't reinforce with copper wire. I haven't had any problems with the braid collapsing even with 28 lbs of grain on top of it. I also direct fire and don't see a noticeable scorching problem. On top of that, the SS braid is super cheap.