Home
Scotsman
Updates!!!
Brewery
BYO Article
Hop Plantation
Malt Mill
My RIMS
PID Control Case
HLT
HLT Stirrer
Mash Tun
Boil Kettle
RIMS Unit
Conical
Electric Mash Stirrer
Brewing Videos
Recipes Used To Date
Kegging
Are You Being Served
Links

The Hot Liquor Tank (HLT) is a converted Sankey keg.  I thought about buying Polarware etc, but the price, eeks forget it!  So I called around a few scrap metal merchants asking if they had any stainless scrap.  I thought I might be able to buy some stainless and get it welded into a pot cheaper than buying one. 

I called Joyce Metals in Columbus Ohio (I used to live in Columbus), they told me "Oh yeah, we have a stack of stainless scrap, come on down and rummage through it".  So I did.  Well, a stack was a bit of an understatement, they had two mountains, 45 feet high of stainless scrap.  I was freaked!  They had cornys, sankeys, barrels, carts, pipes, flanges the lot!  So for $0.50/lb, I bought a sankey for the HLT, total cost around $15.  Sure beats some of the prices you see quoted around the place.

Next, I had to figure what I wanted done to the sankey.  I figured I needed :

• top cut off
• 1" straight threaded fitting attached for the electric heater element
• 1/2" NPT fitting for inserting my DS1820 thermometer probe
• 1/2" NPT fitting with pickup for draining the hot liquor out

Once I had it designed, I ran the keg out to Stainless Design, on Walnut Street in New Albany, Ohio.  They charged me $240 to do the custom work for the Mash Tun, more than I expected, but, when I look at the quality of the work, its worth it.  All welds are food grade and were done under an inert gas blanket, so there are no pockets or pits for nasties to build up.

Click on the thumb nails to launch to a large version of the picture.

Picture	Description
	The HLT showing the coupling welded to the keg, the nipple and the stainless ball valve, these are on the left.  To the right is shown the 1" coupling with the 240V, 5500W water heater element screwed in place.
	Another shot of the HLT showing the outlet and stainless ball valve in a bit better detail.
	Inside of the Hot Liquor Tank, showing the 240V hot water heater element and the liquor pickup tube.  On the left at the bottom you can just see where the 1/2" NPT half coupling has been welded to allow insertion of the temperature probe.
	The 1/2" NPT Half Coupling for insertion of the HLT Temperature probe.
	Showing the DS1820 Probe inserted into the HLT via a copper 1/2" Fitting and a #2 drilled stopper.  The probe is inserted into a 1/4" stainless tube with one end welded closed.  The wire used for transmitting data from the probe is standard four strand telephone wire, this is suitable for data transmission via the DS1820 upto 40 feet!
	Same as above, just a different angle!

McKenzie Brewing is operated by John Fraser, this site should be used as a reference only!  Electricity and water do not mix well and may take your life.  Use at your own risk!

Visitors as of July 11th 2008

HTML Hit Counter