Instantaneous Gas Hot Water

[bugwan]

There you go andreic! That's the reason why a lot of hot water tastes a bit funny and is a bit of a no no for brewing though it's good to hear that bugwan's vision is still ok :blink: Good on you MHB (and thanks for the mains explanation too.)

Ha ha! Just taking the pee Pat.. I actually wasn't aware that hot water systems were in any way dangerous, I always thought that was an out-dated notion from when hot water piping corroded more easily in the past. As always, I've learnt something on AHB! The sacrifice anode makes sense, let's hope it doesn't affect my beer (or my vision)....!

As my brewing is going to start earlier this year, I'll be heating cold water, so it won't be an issue.

I wonder if you've started something Pat - maybe every brewrig in the future will have an inline water heater installed...food for thought (at the right price )

 

[andreic]

There you go andreic! That's the reason why a lot of hot water tastes a bit funny and is a bit of a no no for brewing though it's good to hear that bugwan's vision is still ok :blink: Good on you MHB (and thanks for the mains explanation too.)

My vision's still ok too! However, I might stop using the hot water just the same since it doesn't seem to be considered "best practice".

cheers, Andrei

 

[MHB]

Before anyone gets too enthusiastic
Not all instantaneous HWS are the same; domestic models are limited to 40-50 C by law. You need a dedicated commercial system to get hotter water.

Re the sacrifice nodes
On a full sized domestic unit 250L +, the anode might weigh 2-3 Kg, after 10 years a fair proportion of this will still be in place; so you are probably adding 100g a year of metal ions to your hot water - hardly enough to measure and defiantly not enough to change the water significantly, "I would forget it".

More for commercial applications
In a modern brewery design energy usage is one of the most important variables that is under the control of the designer.
Good design can achieve 80% or better savings, when you think that energy is one of the top 5 costs when making beer, its worth saving all you can.

The obvious economic and environmental savings are worth giving thought to. Further in this direction is the possibility of using the reverse cycle refrigeration type hot water systems.
They have the big advantage of being able to take heat from relatively cool process water (20-50C) and making hot water while providing storable cold water for cooling.

Warm water is the bane of brewery engineering; it costs money to heat it up, it costs to cool it down - the water board charges like a wounded bull to let you put it down the drain.

For anyone interested in energy efficiency this will be I believe a very interesting area for further research.

MHB

 

[ausdb]

Now I just got to plum a tap to the garage or put a hose through kitchen window.

What kind of hosing do I need to handle 80 degree water?

I bought one of those security taps that has a removable key instead of a handle so it cant get turned on and scald someone that I have been meaning to get plumbed into the hot water pipe that runs past my kitchen for use on brewdays, but my pet plumber has gone missing

Matti, I use the blue drinking water hose that you can get from a hardware - preferably not Bunnings I have used this on the outlet of my chiller and it has handled the hot water for, I think, about 12 months perfectly - no sign of wear. To feed into my kettle (or HLT for the traditional brewers) I use a double outlet on my cold water washing machine tap. Looks like I'll need another one now for my hot water!

The blue drinking water hose that is a shiny blue and opaque on the exterior from Bunnings does not hold up to hot water all that well, the translucent stuff that you can see the reinforcing in seems better with hot liquids. But if you are going to subject it to pressure as in connecting a tap on the outlet end you would be better off with washing machine supply hose as it is at least rated to handle hot water temps

Before anyone gets too enthusiastic
Not all instantaneous HWS are the same; domestic models are limited to 40-50 C by law. You need a dedicated commercial system to get hotter water.

The old school Bosch ones get well above 50C mine gets into the 60's at least

 

[RobB]

I have a fairly new one and it's limited to 55 degrees. The 30 degree head start on heating to strike temp is a big time saver.

Maybe some of the no-chillers could dust off their immersion coils and lay them on top of their burners . You never know.......

 

[matti]

Cheers,
my heats up to around 65 degrees but is currently adjusted to 55 degrees.
Though it will still save time for heating i wont need that hose hehehe

 

[homebrewworld.com]

At our little brewery " Red Light Brewery ' we use a comercial Gas 'Rinnai Instant Hot Water 'for our mash water to produce our product EzyBrew.

It came to me one night (lying in bed ) when in the planning stage and i must say its one of the best parts of the set-up.
We filter the water prior to the Rinnai.
As mentioned, this keeps our time, space and energy use down.

When i spoke to the guys at Rinnai, they said it has become very popular for brewerys to use this set-up.

Way to go i recon !

Garry
http://www.homebrewworld.com/

 

[KoNG]

Ever since i started AG, i have used an instantaneous HWS for my brew liquor. saved me much time and also many trips to Cunnings to swap the gas bottle.
Only takes 5-10 minutes to heat my strike water, 10-15 for mash out and i usually just use "tap temp" for the sparge, which is around 60-65*C