So you've come upon this page and you're scratching your head saying "What is this SIMM thing?". Well, a little explanation is due then:
I am an amatuer brewer of beer. A craftbrewer, a homebrewer, a hobbyist aleman. This Steam Injected Mash Mixer is a device which I designed and built to assist in making beer. I have been subscribing to and reading the Homebrew Digest (an internet based forum for exchanging information about brewing) for many years. These pictures and related items were initially put together to show my fellow brewers from the HBD how I do it.
As background info, here are some of the letters which I posted to the HBD about my SIMM system:
Greetings all,
I've been receiving the HBD for years, and finally there is a question that I can answer! A few days ago Charles Boyer asked about using steam in the mash tun. I may, in fact, be an "expert" on this one arcane area of homebrewing.
You've heard of RIMS and HERMS, well I use a mashing system which I call a SIMM. This is my Steam Injected Mash Mixer. That pretty much describes the thing, its a fairly elegant contraption which goes into the mash tun and mixes the mash while injecting steam as needed. And it works GREAT! Its so simple to operate, there is no chance of scorching, and because it works in conjunction with the mixer, the temperature is consistent throughout the mash. I can raise the temperature as quickly as one or two degrees a minute, or with the adjustment of a needle valve, as slowly as I want.
Whenever the subject of using steam has been brought up, naturally safety has been the primary concern. And rightly so. I am a furnituremaker, and I have been using steam in my shop to soften wood for bending for several years now. It was my initial research in steam bending that led me to the safe system which I now use for both steam bending wood and brewing beer. Most small woodworking shops doing steam bending use some sort of tea kettle with a piece of radiator hose going to the steam box (which contains the wood to be softened). That just sounded too messy and imprecise for me. So I looked at what the large operations did. Well the big boys use a fully enclosed system with pressurized steam, which is much more efficient.
"A fully enclosed system using pressurized steam", that was exactly what I wanted. And I knew where to get one. Lucky for me a local tool rental company was going out of business and I was able to get a great deal on a...have you figured it out yet? A wallpaper steamer! It's perfect, I just fill it with water, plug it in, wait about half an hour, and I have steam delivered safely at 12 psi. via a rubber hose with standard air hose quick connect fittings.
So there it is, in simplified form, my ultimate home brewery. Or I guess I should say shop brewery, since my setup is at my workshop. I plug the hose from the wallpaper steamer into my SIMM, switch on the mixer, and I'm up and running. I use a thermometer which is installed through the side of the mash tun to read the temperature, and control things manually. I guess if I was really interested I could automate the thing, but so far it's been easy enough to use the thermometer, a timer, and the needle valve to run whatever mash regimen I need.
If anyone is interested I could give more detailed info.
Since my post last week (HBD #4586) I have had several people email me asking for more information about my SIMM (Steam Injected Mash Mixer). If you missed it, I was responding to a question about using steam as the heat source for mashing. Specifically, injecting steam directly into the wort.
Well, this is something I've been doing for a few years now. The advantages to steam-injection over other methods are very straight forward. There is no chance of scorching the mash as there is with either direct bottom firing or a RIMS system using an electric heating element. A HERMS system is safe from scorching, but is very slow at raising the temperature in step mashing. Direct steam injection can ramp up temperatures incredibly fast, or if adjusted carefully can be used to simply maintain the mash temperature without the need for an insulated mash tun.
Another problem with almost any system or method is the difficulty maintaining consistent temperature throughout the mash. Stirring the mash while applying the heat is an obvious cure for that. The idea of automating the stirring by using a "mash mixer" is something that has been discussed here on the HBD several times.
With my Steam Injected Mash Mixer, what I have done is design and build a device which addresses all these difficulties at once: It heats the mash as quickly or as slowly as desired with no chance of scorching and ensures a consistent mash temperature throughout. So let me describe my SIMM. There is a gear-motor on top, mounted to an aluminum disc which serves as a cover for the mash tun. A mash mixing paddle attaches to the motor shaft below the disc. Passing through the disc are four sections of 1/2" copper pipe. These connect together making a kind of cage which supports the mixer paddle at the bottom. These four copper pipes each have a row of tiny holes drilled in them. Above the disc, the four sections of copper pipe connect together to form a single inlet controlled by a valve. The SIMM goes into the mash tun, a steam line connects to the valve, and away you go.
As I mentioned in my previous post, the real key to the system is a safe and simple steam delivery device. What I use is a wallpaper steamer (I gave a little more background on this last week). You fill it with water and you plug it in, nothing could be simpler. For safety it has both a pressure relief valve and a temperature "safety fuse". For me this system is "it".
Well, enough blathering, what I really wanted to say is that I finally took some pictures and put them up on the web. There are captions with the pictures explaining how it works. The pictures can be found at http://www.gjwspykman.com/simm/simm.html. All comments appreciated.
I've gotten lots of questions about my Steam Injected Mash Mixer (SIMM) (http://www.gjwspykman.com/simm/simm.html), so let me see if I can answer some of them. First of all let me clearly state "I am not an expert on steam". That said, the beauty of my system is that I don't need to be (after all, one needn't be an automotive technician to drive a car, or a computer programmer to send email). My commercial-grade wallpaper steamer provides a safe and simple source of steam which works wonderfully for temperature control of the mash.
Charles Boyer asks:
What's a typical ramp rate for your temperature?
I can raise the mash temperature by one or two degrees (F.) a minute.
...do you have drawings or blueprints of this system?
I hadn't thought of that, I designed the unit "on the fly" so there are no drawings. I do CAD drawings for all my furniture, so I guess could "reverse-engineer" some drawings if there was enough interest.
Alan Davies asks (via email):
Is the steam delivered under pressure, if so any idea of what pressure?
The label on the steamer calls it "the pressure wallpaper steamer", then in the operating instructions label it says "11. When the steam pressure drops a few pounds, the pilot light will turn on. 12. When the pressure rebuilds to 12 psi, the light will turn off." You can actually read these labels in the pictures on the web site referenced above.
I take it the steam is saturated, does it increase the water volume?
I'm not sure what the definition of "saturated steam" is, so I will leave that for someone else. Here is what I know: the temperature of the steam coming out of the hose reads 212 degees F (plus or minus the accuracy of my digital thermometers); the steam is delivered at approximately 12 psi; the label on the steamer says "CAUTION-LIVE STEAM"; over the course of a two hour mash the water volume increases by one or two pints.
Daniel Chisholm asks (via email):
I must admit I hadn't heard of a steam wallpaper remover before, though the idea makes sense. What do they cost?
I bought mine for a hundred bucks from a rental company that was going out of business. I think it would be upwards of $500 new. You could also rent one by the day from a rental business.
When you limit the flowrate with your needle valve, does it compensate its steam production so as to not blow off a relief valve, etc?
It appears to be completely self regulating.
I assume that when it runs out of water, it shuts down (i.e. without burning out its heating elements)?
That's right. Again, read the labels in the pictures.
Michael O'Donnel writes:
Just looking at the steam gun, I'm thinking that it must be quite the hot ticket for blasting crud off the inside of corny's, sanitizing the inside of a CFC, etc.... most anything needing to be clean and sanitary. Does it work for these sort of applications?
At 12 psi I don't think it could "blast" much, but for sanitizing things (or frothing milk for your cappuccino) it would be great.
One more thing, at the top of the web page there is a link to my step-by-step instructions for using the SIMM. I hope this is helpful,
My SIMM system works very well for me. I had the steamer around already, so the last time the idea of steam injection was discussed in the group (a few years ago) I started playing around with it. I didn't have all the technical knowledge that I would have needed to figure this thing out from scratch, but when I stuck the steam into the mash it did what I wanted, it didn't matter to me how big the steam chamber was, or the nature of how the energy was transferred.
There have been several folks who have written long and involved posts to the digest about the use of steam. Most of it was very informative (though some of it went over my head), but the overall message seemed to be that steam, though potentially very useful, was too scary a beast to try to tame. The results of my experiments with my wallpaper steamer told me otherwise. So, I set about to turn the concept into a workable devise. I have been working with and making improvements to the thing for about three years now, and felt it was time to share my "invention" with the group.
© 2004-2007 Gary Spykman - page created 8/30/04 - last updated 2/12/07
Gary Spykman
47 Victoria Street, Keene NH 03431
phone: 603.352.5656
www.spykman.com
email: gary@spykman.com