Author Topic: heating baton (immersion heater) for warming milk?  (Read 3220 times)

heather s

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heating baton (immersion heater) for warming milk?
« on: September 01, 2016, 12:42:18 AM »
Hi - when I lived in the UK I visited a goat dairy where they heated their milk (that was in small lactic vats, ie. 1-200L I think) with a hand held electrical baton. It wasn't a sous vide and it sat directly in the milk (so could be cleaned/disinfected). It was gentle and got them where they needed to go, it could be set upright and was pretty effective. I'm in Canada now and have not heard of these here. Does anyone know of them? I'm investigating options for heating milk in a small commercial setting that doesn't involve a double jacketed vat. Cheers!
« Last Edit: September 01, 2016, 02:09:59 AM by curdgirl »

Duntov

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Re: heating baton for warming milk?
« Reply #1 on: September 01, 2016, 01:26:11 AM »
I think you may be referring to an immersion heater like this one?  >>  http://www.bbhoneyfarms.com/store/p-153-portable-immersion-heater-

My concern with such a contraption is that it has very little surface area and may heat too much thus scalding the milk.  You would definitely need constant and maybe fast circulation to be safe.

heather s

  • Guest
Re: heating baton (immersion heater) for warming milk?
« Reply #2 on: September 01, 2016, 02:15:09 AM »
Hi - yes, I guess that's the terminology. thanks! The one I saw had a wider bottom and sat directly on the base of a plastic curved lactic cheese vat. They didn't seem to have any concern about it melting or damaging in any way the vat or the milk (I spent the day there and I recall they moving it occasionally to the other side of the vat) and it was an operation where everything to do with the milk was done with extreme care (gravity fed for milk moving from the milking barn to the cheese house, for e.g.). It was long enough to sit in a large (small) vat of milk without submerging anything non-sterile - it's hard to tell but this one doesn't look very big. With the design of this one, I'd wonder about maintaining it in a sterile manner after each use.. milk stone build up etc.

heather s

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Re: heating baton (immersion heater) for warming milk?
« Reply #3 on: September 01, 2016, 06:04:58 PM »
I found what I was looking for Duntov!

It's on page 34 of the Coquard Cheese making supply catalogue out of France. 
http://www.coquard.fr/uk/cat.htm?34

They have two types, one coated with PTFE one not. The descriptions are:

ALUMINIUM ECLECTRIC HEATER
2000 W under 220 Volts. Thermostat : 20 to 100°C. Maxi temperature 70°C/80°C.
Bottom diameter 150 mm
Minimum height of immersion : 25 cm ; maximum: 65 cm. Total height : 90 cm.
Permits to heat 20 to 100 litres of milk. Doesn't burn milk. Accuracy : +/– 5°C on 100 L.
On 30 litres, temperature raises of 1°C in 1 min.
Ref : 037HCA

ALUMINIUM ELECTRIC HEATER WITH PTFE COVERING
PTFE covering (teflon) of the heating base
Power : 1700 W single phase 220 Volts. Electronic thermostat : 10 to 90°C.
Maximal temperature 70°C/80°C.
Bottom diameter 165 mm.
Minimum height of immersion : 10 cm ; maximum: 69 cm. Total height : 79 cm.
Permits to heat from 20 to 100 litres of milk. Accuracy : +/– 5°C on 100 L
On 50 litres, temperature raises of 5°C in 10 min.

I saw these used on some pretty beautiful raw milk cheeses. I'm going to check out pricing.

Duntov

  • Guest
Re: heating baton (immersion heater) for warming milk?
« Reply #4 on: September 01, 2016, 09:18:04 PM »
Before you purchase make sure they are available for Canadian power specs.  Those are 220 volt units.  Good luck!

Offline awakephd

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Re: heating baton (immersion heater) for warming milk?
« Reply #5 on: September 02, 2016, 08:32:32 AM »
Curdgirl,

Double-check the specifications: +/- 5°C seems like a huge variance to me, far too much for reliable cheesemaking. Any chance it is +/- 0.5° instead?
-- Andy