What is the difference between steam heating and direct fire?

Today, I would like to introduce the difference between the steam heating and direct fire to you and I hope you can learn more about the different heating methods for the brewhouse.

As we all know, no matter the American or German beer brewing, the temperature control is the key point for the beer brewing, especially for the mashing process. For the heating, we usually use steam, electric elements or direct fire.

Steam heating is to use the steam to heat the wort in the brewhouse. And the steam is usually generated by steam generator (Gas, electric or oil and so on.) As we all know, the temperature of steam is much higher than water, and easier to to be transported.

Steam heating	Advantages
	1. The heating is more effective on both on mash or kettle tun, which is very important for the temperature controlling.
	2. The heating is more even during the heating, which won’t make the wort pasted to make sure you can get high quality wort.
	3.
	Disadvantages
	1. A steam generator is needed, which is another cost. So, it will increase the total cost.
	2. For a steam generator, a separate small house is needed too.
	3. The steam generator is a pressure machine, which is very dangerous, which has be to be operated correctly absolutely.

The direct fire is to heat the wort in the brewhouse at bottom directly like cooking. In order to be safe and improve the efficiency, we usually build a fire room at the bottom of the kettle tank.

Direct fire	Advantages
	1. It’s quite economic and affordable for a direct fire at start, which is acceptable by small breweries or some breweries with a limited budget at start.
	2.
	3.
	Disadvantages
	1.If you can control the fire correctly, it’s quite easy to be pasted in the kettle tank.
	2.The heating is not even in the kettle tank. The bottom temperature should be higher than the top wort.