StillSmart

Hello everyone, after spending some time on the HomeDistiller forums the great Googe recommended this place to help me overcome some issues I had finding UK supplies of some parts.
Whilst hunting around I notice a few people here are running urns, on the HD site I was kind of warned away from it because of the on/off action causing smearing but how have you guys got round it? Do you just use it for stripping or have you modified the electronics? Ripped out the thermostat?
I got a 25 litre one off eBay a few weeks ago for an absolute steal, it's only a cheap & cheerful Chinese one but for a tenner i couldn't say no. I figured worst case I use it to cook mash in, really curious as to what some of you have done though

Benoit

Yup. Rip the stat out and pulled a power controller on it.

How much of the old guts of the machine did u leave in? I haven't had chance to start taking mine apart yet but my new controller came this morning (4kW SSR from Amazon), I can solder & weld ok but electrics bite back so I've avoided them as much as possible...until now!

Benoit

I prefer crimps. New controller goes straight on to the element.

In my case,I simply took the base off the urn (single screw),pulled the spade connectors from the temp. controller,and connected them,bypassing the thermostat.
And I plug it into a home assembled a power controller,fitted with a standard socket.
Copied from here,easy peasy.


viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1001&p=7821&hilit=Power+controller#p7791

It's two minutes effort to wire the thermostat back in to use the urn as a red-neck mash tun.
HTH.

Robert.

I have just edited the above post as somehow the wrong link was posted,and it made no sense.
Hopefully it does now.

Robert.

Thanks for the help, my voltage controller came a couple of days ago so I can have a tinker & hopefully not get curly hair in the process! It's an all inclusive little box with heat sink etc all built & ready to go so I'll attach it straight onto the element & rip everything else out.
I think I understand what some have done a little better now, by bypassing the thermostat the element will go full pelt regardless of what 'number' the dial is set to and you then have separate control that's altering the voltage going in. If I take all the original controls out the new box will do that task directly so I'm ok!
Am I right in thinking you guys have only left the original controls in to save overworking the relay if you decide to mash in it?

Benoit

You don't need heating elements for mashing you need duvets

@ Benoit,yes,I left the original controls in there,so that I could quickly re-connect the urn's built in thermostat to use as a rough mash tun,WITHOUT the power controller.
In my case it meant simply pulling two spade connectors from the urn thermostat controller,and connecting them together.And plugging the urn into my home assembled controller with standard plug socket,for use as a still.
I don't know about magic duvets,but before you hold a wash at mashing temps,you need to heat it there,and a tea urn can do the job.
HTH

Robert.

Easydrinker wrote: I don't know about magic duvets,but before you hold a wash at mashing temps,you need to heat it there,and a tea urn can do the job.
HTH

Robert.

It often looks a lot nicer to leave the existing controls in place. And, just use a project box wired into the power cable.

Mashing needs you to get the correct temperature and then hold it. Power controller or stats will get it there. Duvets hold it Heating during mashing often causes a maillard reaction which leaves a burnt or jammy taste - now here's a thought- would that pass through in distillation? - probably a little in a pot still ?

Mashy wrote:....Heating during mashing often causes a maillard reaction which leaves a burnt or jammy taste......

In conventional mashing this would be true but in my twin tub grain masher and other grain processing setups like it, i.e. the Braumeister, Grainfather, etc., the heating is constant and with no adverse effect on flavour.

If I had to mash to old way I don't think I'd bother with grain....I'm too lazy these days

AidanMac

Absolutely I don't think I would do AG beer now if I didn't have the BM.

Hi Mashy
Its easy to change heating temperatures when making beer if you have either a HERMS (heat exchange recirculated mash system or a RIMS (Recirculating infusion mash system. I personally have the HERMS and it serves me well.
regards
Runningman

I've always fancied making a Herms/Rims for my mash tun, just never got round to it, still might make a rims as I have a few of the needed parts, only thing is I haven't brewed since I built my still, this game is far more interesting

Worth saying both options have the heating element outside the mash tun, I wouldn't have a working one inside, it'll burn the grain.

Anyone not familiar with these systems you basically have a pump connected to the mash tun, pumping the liquid through the system, there's then a temp controller controlling the heating element and thermostat in the mash tun.

The idea being you can keep the mash temp constant without needing loads of insulation or you can step mash at different temperatures just by dailing in the next temperature value.

Indeedy. The topic is tea urn. Changing a stat. This would not be any good for heating during mashing without further mods.