The wort lautering process is the longest step in the brewing process for beer production. Our goal is to deliver high-quality wort while efficiently extracting sugars from the malt within a reasonable time. Various factors, such as the lauter tun's capacity, uniform distribution of the mash, rake bed design, and wort collection system, all impact filtration efficiency and effectiveness. Today, we are happy to reveal the design of the Tiantai lauter tun!
The exterior of Tiantai lauter tun:
Tiantai beer lauter tuns are entirely made of food-grade 304 stainless steel, featuring an insulation layer. The front side is equipped with a large-sized side spent grain outlet door, reinforced with a sanitary EPDM rubber ring to ensure air tightness. A glass sight glass is installed, allowing observation of the grain bed condition in the tank.
Bottom of the Tank:
The mash inlet is located at the bottom of the lauter tun, passing through the false bottom. Mash is pumped from the mash tun into the lauter tun via 2-6 adjustable mash inlet valves. This pumping process can be completed within 10 minutes.
Wort outlet pipes are evenly distributed on the bottom of the lauter tun, along with a cone-shaped outlet and wort collection circle in the center. This design facilitates smooth and slow wort flow, preventing stagnation and minimizing oxygen absorption during wort filtration.
There are also evenly distributed cleaning nozzles at the bottom. Once filtration is complete, the false bottom can be rinsed and thoroughly cleaned with high-pressure water.
Depending on the volume of lauter tun and customer requirements, a bottom spent grain outlet connected to the raking and cutting unit can be installed. It is controlled by a pneumatic valve for an automatic grain outlet.
Inside the Tank:
Within the lauter tun, a CIP cleaning ball and sparging ring are installed on the top. The sparging ring, is made of one-piece food-grade stainless steel pipe without welding and features multiple angled holes for comprehensive coverage of the grain bed during wort vorlauf. This achieves finer grain washing.
The core design inside the lauter tun is the raking and cutting unit. After the initial wort filtration, spent grains become tightly compressed, increasing resistance, and reducing wort flow. The raking and cutting unit aids in loosening the grains. By adjusting the height of the raking and cutting unit and rotating it at different heights, the grain bed is loosened, allowing for more thorough grain washing.
The number of raking arms needed corresponds to the lauter tun's capacity, with 2-6 arms available. Each raking arm can be equipped with a raking knife. Most of Tiantai's lauter tuns use single-leg raking knives, designed to ensure uniformity and avoid blind spots. The trajectories of each raking knife do not overlap, and blades on opposite sides are asymmetrically and sparsely distributed to complement motion trajectories.
The false bottom, along with spent grains, forms the filter medium within the tank. Tiantai's lauter tun utilizes inclined wedge sieve plates with a 13% opening rate. This design minimizes grain blockages and improves filtration speed and effectiveness.
After reviewing these details, you now have a better understanding of the filtration equipment used in a brewhouse. If you are interested in our products or have any questions, feel free to leave a message or call us directly for a consultation.
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