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joule for home brewing

MHud_288593

I wasn't able to find if anyone had posted on this already, so apologies if it's a repeat.

Anyone have thoughts on whether the Joule can be used for the mash step of home brewing? According to the Joule specs, it should be able to handle a mash temperature of 150-170F and a relative large water volume. My only concern is whether running any sort of liquid through the Joule besides water would damage the pump mechanism or any of the other internals. Maybe this could be mitigated by using the Brew in A Bag Method or something similar?

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Comments

AngelArs_240456

Joule is designed to be used with water. I would be concerned about voiding the warranty if it was used in a manner not intended by design.

Sean_323442

To add to this, if you're using a BIAB (or any other container) within a waterbath for temperature control, you should be fine since Joule is only in contact with water. Just make sure you seal in the water so you don't have too much evaporate and lose contact with the mash.

fisher23

You could do this with a second container in your sous vide bath, same as Grant did making cheese curds. I make yogurt in a gallon vacuum bag in the SV bath. +1 with AngelArs. I would hate to see you damage your Joule.

Corey_Smith_168073

I've used a circulator to heat the sparge water. It worked well and the circulator is only ever in contact with water. I've also used a circulator to keep the wort warm when kettle souring a beer.

Act_Out_257882

John, do you have the link to the Joule version Of cheese curds? I can only find the sous vide supreme version.

FrankM_3301

I'll start by saying that I have no intention of using Joule for this purpose, but I have always wanted to use my PS circulator for beer making. Never could figure out a way to keep the grain out of the circulator. If anyone has any ideas that would be great. I hadn't thought of bagging the mash, but it would have to be a pretty large bag. I am typically making Belgian style ales...stiff mash and lots of grain. So, maybe that's possible. I always wind up returning to the pot, gas burner, and thermometer. If you come up with something please post a follow up!

brian_martin2001

https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/how-to-make-squeaky-cheese-curds-just-like-beecher-s

Act_Out_257882

Thank you Brian. I had seen this video but completely missed the written instructions below

Patrick_135359

New here but recently did a small 1 gallon batch of beer with another Sous Vide device (Anova). I placed the grains and water for mashing inside large 1 gallon glass jars (heated them w/ mash water while SV bath was heating to avoid shock). When mash temperature was reached I added grains and let mash.

Also heated up to 170 for a mash out. Then strained over pot and completed brew as usual.

Worked well for me (my batches are usually 1-2 gallon BIAB - no sparge, or full volume) so other experiences may vary.

Cannot wait to use Joule to try this and other methods for making the homebrew process easier and simpler and more foolproof!

Hope that helps!

Edit: wanted to give a little more info on my process, as well as a photo...

My first attempt is of the photo - I mashed all grains and half the water called for in a 1 gallon wide mouth jar (heated it with the SV bath water from the start to avoid glass/temp shock). Mashed for 70 mins and heated up to 170 for mash out. Then my thought was I already have the water within the SV bath heated to sparge/rinsing temp, so I used that! The beer is fermenting beautifully now and will know how it turned out in another few weeks.

I just tried a new method yesterday where I placed 2 gallons water in a larger pot, heated it to mash temp, removed SV device and added grains, and used a water bath to hold the larger pot within a larger container heated with the SV device - hoping that makes sense...

I do see a place for SV in brewing, especially on small batches and for doing interesting projects (like the kettle souring mentioned before).

It's not a perfect process but I'm able to brew better beer, more quickly and with less running around stressing over temperatures.

ps2rocksout

Sous Vide circulators have been used professionally with any kind of liquid. Alot of chefs have poached lobsters in a burre monte. I myself have poached whole fish in a fume stock. The idea is to not have any small objects small enough to enter the the propeller of the motor that might get jammed or clog the ports. An easy solution for this, if you are using grains, is either cheese cloth or muslin cloth. There are these more expensive superbags that are used for cooking stocks that you can buy. I know the joule is not a professional sous vide machine and it isn't built the same, but i feel that chefsteps built it well enough to be just as versatile as any professional circulator. I'll have to wait and see but from the diagrams that chefsteps shown of the machine i think it can do just that.

brian_martin2001

I would recommend caution. If I read the warranty right, use of a joule in any liquid other than water voids the warranty. Do what you like, but just something to keep in mind.

MHud_288593

This might be the type of bag you're looking for http://www.bagbrewer.com/order-a-bag.html

FrankM_3301

Cool! Thanks! My concern is getting circulation. As I said, I typically do a fairly stiff mash. But this gives me something to think about.

Chris_Young_80640

Joule should only be used with water. It is built unlike any other circulator, and it's design relies on relatively pure water flowing through the heater to efficiently remove the heat from the surface of the insanely powerful heater and to cool the electronics—yes, the electronics in Joule are water-cooled by the water you're trying to heat. That's one reason that Joule heats faster, we don't waste any of the power that normally is vented into the surrounding air, all but about 1 watt goes into the water being heated.

TL;DR don't try heating something other than water with Joule.

matthewmicahhall

Last week I was coincidentally looking into using my Anova One for mashing based on a March 2015 article that was officially posted on Anova's web site. The user's manual states that it should only be used in contact with water, and so it was somewhat surprising to see this article from an internal source. I contacted Anova's customer support to determine if this is in fact an approved use of the device. Here is the response (kindly provided in less than 24 hours):

- BEGIN RESPONSE -

Thank you for reaching out.

We have certainly had customers brew their own beer with Anova. From what I understand from the recipe, you need to put the device in a mesh bag so that no grains will come in the system.

Please check out the steps at the bottom of the blog to know the exact way on how to brew a beer using the Anova One model that is applicable to Precision Cooker as well: http://anovaculinary.com/brewing-beer-with-the-anova-one/

- END RESPONSE -

So, should I really trust this statement and try to use my Anova? I like Patrick's suggestion below about using mason jars instead -- I will likely go that route. Another suggestion I found elsewhere is to use the circulator as a secondary boost and fine tune the heat input from a stovetop. The implication was that the heating element in the circulator was less prone to building up a scorched layer from sugars in the mash if it was not the primary heating source.

BTW, I am not suggesting that it's okay to do the same thing with Joule (thanks to Chris Young for the reply!).

Mike_346159

Other than cooking, I intend to use my Joule to heat and hold my strike and mash water without having to worry about over heating. Also I can have my water ready at exact temp for after work brewing via wifi. As far as mashing goes, I do that in a converted cooler. I wouldn't run the wort through Joule.

ps2rocksout

You're right brian it does void the warranty, and they advise against using it as such. It probably could but maybe the material they used to make the heating element with may react differently to things they haven't tested and could contaminate the food. Who knows.

FrankM_3301

See my post called "Time to Brew". My process was along the same lines as @Patrick_145556.