Hello Everybody,

Has anybody here tried using a hot water urn for mashing? Bassically its a large stainless steal tank with a tap at the bottom, and has a concealed electric heating element inside with a dial to control the temperature. Its the kind of think they have to provide hot water for coffee at large buisness meetings and such, but it seems to be ideal for brewing, especially the brew in a bag method.

I know one fellow who has used this piece of equipment, though I havent tried many of his brews. And I was hoping to get opinions from people who have also used the more traditional equipment.

I'm in a rush right now, but later I'll post a link to a hot water urn so you all know what I'm talking about!

Cheers,

Joseph

http://www.allfoodequipment.com.au/prod ... id=0&t=cat

That is a link to the piece of equipment I'm talking about. Once you see the picture you'll probably recognise it. I'm not planning on buying one from that webpage, it was just handy as it had a photo and description. I'll probably try to get one second hand.

As long as it would get hot enough, that would be a perfect HLT. Let us know if/when you try it!

I think it would be a terrific HLT also. I think I'd have a few reservations about using it as a mash tun, though. Not having inspect the inside of these things, and knowing very little about them, my main concerns would be wort scorching and temperature stratification of the mash.
You say you know a fellow who's tried this route, so I'd talk to him about those concerns first. I am assuming that this fellow modified the urn with a false bottom or some other manifold for use as a mash tun?
For that price, I would personally buy a pump and build a temp controlled heatstick for use in a cooler type mash tun (RIMS). I think overall you'd end up with a better, more controllable mash for about the same price.

Cheers,
Dave

Apparently, I mis-read that post the first time. Yes, using it as a mash-tun raises a few more questions.

Having searched the web a bit there seems to be a lot of discussion on these on Australian based forums but nowhere else - this is possibly explained by the fact that BiAB (the Brew In A Bag method) seems to be more popular here than anywhere.

I don't think there would be a problem with scorched wort if the Urn had a concealed element (the same as the air-stills that StillSpirits make). The fellow I know with one hasn't made any adaptations (though according to some online info you can get a rolling boil more easily if you get an electrician to bypass the boil-dry safety switch).

The method seems to be,
(1) Heat up the water in the urn.
(2) Submerge the grain-bag into the water like a giant tea-bag, leave it in for whatever time/temperatures the mash schedule is.
(3) Hoist the bag out (on a pully system) and dunk it into some other hot water in a bucket (this would be the sparge though the whole thing is a bit unorthodox).
(4) Add the sparge water to the urn and boil.

(5) The guy said he doesn't even bother useing a chiller most of the time, he just puts the lid on and leaves it untill its cool enough to go straight into the fermenter. This allows grain and hop gunk to sink to the bottom, and the tap on the side of the urn is at a height that leaves the bottom two litres with the sediment/gunk behind in the urn.

I think the only thing to do is see if I can watch this guy do a brew from start to finish, taste the final product, and then come to a decision. Hopefully I can get one second hand for not to much,

Joseph.

That sounds like a pretty painless way to get into all grain. How big of a capacity are these things?

Sounds like it works great for BIAB all grain brewing. If you go that route, let us know how it turns out!

It sounds like that system has a lot of potential!

I like the idea of a mega-tea bag for malt.

- Scott

@ curlyfat,

Hot Water Urns vary in size from 8.8 litres (2.3 gal) to 40 litres (10.6 gal). As I tend to do 15-20 litre batches I'd probably want to get a 30 litre one so the rolling boil will have some head space and not boil over. The smaller ones tend to have an exposed element and lack the temp control dial (they're just either "on" or "off") so I don't think they'd be as useful even if doing tiny batches.

The simplicity of the whole thing is the main attraction. I've read a bit more on it now and the only reservation I have is on mash efficiency - people are saying that its fine for beers between 3-6% ABV, but that its not a good method for Russian Imperial Stouts.

Unfortunately I probably won't be getting one all that soon as I've got the ingredients on hand for one last extract/partial mash brew, and then I'm off to Asia to travel for a while, so it might be 6 months before I start brewing again! Anyway, I will let you know as soon as I've tried it out.

Joseph.