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Wort Boiling
Wort Boiling Systems
Traditionally, wort was boiled in direct-fired kettles, often made of copper. Since the heat source is localized at the bottom of the kettle, these vessels are not efficient in transferring heat into the wort, can scorch the wort, and are restricted by the volume of wort that can be boiled at any one time.
The advent of steam coils and internal heating systems allowed for more efficient heat transfer and larger kettles for boiling larger volumes of wort. The disadvantages with steam coils is that they are difficult to clean, prone to corrosion, and limited the circulation of wort.
However, internal cookers offer several advantages (17). A circulation pump (and its additional energy consumption) is not necessary since natural convection of the wort takes place in the kettle. The degree of efficiency of an internal cooker is significantly higher than that of an external cooker even without considering the forced circulation of the latter. This is because the internal cooker is always completely surrounded by the wort. Wort is subject to less thermal stress. The boiling temperature of wort using an internal boiler is approximately 101ºC. Using an external boiler, outlet temperature of the wort is approximately 106 to 107ºC. Such high wort temperatures in external boilers are tantamount to a pseudopressure cooking effect, which many brewmasters would rather avoid. The number of circulations during the boiling phase due to natural convection is approximately four times the number of forced circulations of wort in an external boiler. The investment costs for an internal boiler are significantly below those for an external boiler, not to mention that an internal boiler will not require extra space nor any circulation pump and pipes. Operation costs are lower because of less energy consumption and lower energy losses. Furthermore, this process and technology lends itself ideally to modernization of existing brewhouses. With suitable revolving spray cleaning devices, cleaning-in-place is no longer a problem.
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