Vat - Extra Large Stockpots

[wharris]

More pictures.
Time for a new curd knife!
My wife is holding my older 20qt vat.

[wharris]

This thing is ridiculously big.  Not sure what i was thinking.

[DeejayDebi]

25 gallon pot! WOW! Now that's gonna be one heck of a HUGE cheese wheel! I can't wait to see this one!

BTW probably to late but Glengarry will order you a 1.5 to 2 kg mold if you want one. $115 I think it was. I just ordered a few. Looks like you'll need a 11 kg mold now.

[wharris]

One step closer to making larger wheels.  I got the heating vessel today today for my 100qt stockpot.

[MrsKK]

Cute kid!  Looks like a nice place for her to take a milk bath...

[wharris]

I plan on using a variation of my current heating solution for heating this much larger water bath.  Currently I use a homemade immersion heater to heat my water bath.  I intend to use an expanded version of this:

I plan on using 5 2000watt 15amp heating elements.  These will either poke into the water from above, or i will screw it into holes in the side.  I have not yet decided.

The way I determined how much heat to apply was by following this formula

[(Gallons of Water * Temperature Change)/(372 * Time in Hours)]*1000=Watts needed.

So for me, it was:
Calculating a 24deg rise in 40 min. (my parm recipe) in my 90 gallon bath, the math works out as follows.
(While the water bath is 90gal, the cheese will only be 23 gallon of that, and so the 90gallons is only a theoretical upper limit, as I will prolly not fill the tub to capacity)

[(90gal*24deg)/(372*.66)]*1000=watts needed.
(2160/247)*1000
~8750watts

[FRANCOIS]

Wow, that's dedication.  For all that effort and time did you consider just buying a used steam jacket kettle and hooking up some hot water to it?  You could tap right off your house boiler if you have one, or get a tankless gas unit.

[wharris]

I've thought about it.
Ebay has them for sale.
$695

Then the cost and safety issues associated with steam heat.
 
While that may be in my future.  I need this intermediate step (300 bucks) step first to see how it goes.

[FRANCOIS]

You don't have to use steam in the jacket.  I know of at least a dozen artisan producers that did their initial setup with boiler water (180F) and jacketed kettles for raw milk cheeses.

[wharris]

Well, I have started construction on the heaters for my water bath.

Here are some pictures as I progress.  I have started with some 2" PVC Pipe (10") and drilled some holes. 
The heating elements are screwed into 1" female adapters.
The 1" PVC female adapter is then slid inside a 1.25" PVC coupler.
The 1.25" PVC coupler is then slid inside the 2" pipe.


 

[Cartierusm]

Wayne, you know what I'm going to say, but I have to my friend as I don't want you to kill yourself.

1. Why not drill a hole in the tub and use the nut that comes with the heating element and some high temp silicon to put them on, that way the electricity is not in the water.

2. If you don't want to do that please replace the standard recepticles you bought with GFCI, PLEASE.

[wharris]

Carter, you old softie.

But, you bring up very Solid Advice. 

I cannot drill holes and mount the heaters as they are bound to be broken if the pot is not perfectly seated in the middle.

I plan on hanging the heating elements down the sides such that the electrical contacts are not submerged. (As they are now with my current rig)

Each circuit (there are now 5), has its own GFCI outlet.  (This is in my basement)

[Cartierusm]

OK good to know.

[Cheese Head]

Wayne, wow is all I can say! I go on holiday and look what you go and do!

Looks like you are having a great adventure with it, looking forward to pictures of it in service!

[wharris]

Progress on the control panel for the heaters.