Re-directing steam from kettle to HLT

[droid]

Anyone doing this?

Thinking of the next brew-house build and was wondering about having the option to direct the steam from the boil across to the Hot Liqour Tank. It would mean altering the kettle lid and having some cool-arsed plumbing. One concern is how do you guarantee that everything is exiting the kettle and not dropping back?

I could even hook up a line that allowed me to steam kill some weeds while waiting for the boil to finish lol not to mention the possibility of dis-infecting gear like the chiller.

Husky, do you copy? hehe

Would it be best to have the steam coming in under the water line in the HLT? Would that mean have a u-bend out of the bottom of the HLT, a bit like toilet plumbing so the water only comes out of the HLT so far and then the steam comes along and pushes it back into the HLT?



cheers have a great Sunday

 

[Brewno Marz]

Great idea...but....the only way to get any useful energy in the steam would be to seal the system and run at a higher pressure.

Create a big pressure cooker...wort foams everywhere clogs up your steam pipe...pressure builds... Best outcome is everything is pressure rated and you blow hot foam out the pressure relief valve.

Great idea, but probably not worth it and not safe. Condensate running back into the kettle is the least of your concerns!

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

If you want to recover heat from the stack, the easiest way is to spray cold water through the steam which causes it to condense. I've seen a couple of arrangements where this is done in a separate vessel to prevent returning unwanted volatiles (think DMS and its precursors).

The problem with this is that you can't use the condensate in the HLT and breweries always have an excess of hot water recovered from the wort Hx, so it's generally felt to be not worth the hassle.

 

[droid]

Right, well that doesn't sound good.

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

You could fit a coil to outside of boil kettle and circulate the water from HLT through that, or even an immersion chiller (heater)? Energy is energy though you will always have some losses but if you have a gas fired boil then you may be able to recover a decent amount by of energy heating HLT or cleanup water during the boil