TheWulf

Recipes 

I am looking forward to my first AG brew next week and had a question about batch sparging.

My setup is basically a 9gal brew kettle and a cooler mash tun. My question is: what is your hardware and process for batch sparging?

My initial thoughts was that I would be fine with a single kettle and MLT, but it seems I will need an extra vessel for either boiling water OR collecting the wort between batches.

I was thinking of using a plastic pail to collect the wort, but I would be worried about aerating the wort when putting it back in the BK. Now I am thinking of just getting another large kettle for boiling water, I was just hoping to avoid that expense.

Thoughts? What do you do?

TyTanium

Recipes 

Food-grade plastic bucket is fine for collecting runoff. Don't worry about aeration.

forstmeister

Recipes 

A cheap 4-5 gallon stock pot is all you need for heating up mash and sparge water. That way your boil kettle is unencumbered for collecting run off.

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b_d

Recipes 

I only do 5 gallon batches, but I use a second kettle for the sparge water.

duboman

Recipes 

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eyebrau

Recipes 

Would like to hear more responses on this. My setup is identical. I've done two batches with my cooler mash tun. My kettle does not have a spigot, so I've struggled with moving hot liquor to the mash tun as well as moving preheated sparge water. What I've been doing is using a bottling bucket, hose, and aerator nozzle to manually sparge, and then collecting the wort in my kettle. Pouring the hot water into both the cooler and bucket sucks.

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Denny

Recipes 

Thank you! Here's a pic of all the equipment I use....

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jayy42

Recipes 

I am apartment AG brewing on an electric stove. Here's my process.

1. Heat strike water in 10 gal BK
2. Start mash in Igloo MLT and start heating mash out water in BK
3. Simultaneously start heating sparge water in a cheap lobster pot
4. Add mash out water and collect first runnings in BK
5. Start boiling first running in BK
6. Add sparge water from lobster pot, collect second runnings, and dump into BK on the stove.

EDIT: Although my BK does have a ball valve, I only use it for transferring the wort to the fermenter. I just dump the water into the MLT.

Clonefan94

Recipes 

I use a 48qt. Rubbermaid marine cooler, with stainless braid. I have an aluminum 7gal. turkey fryer pot that I use to heat my water up with, and then my 10 gallon brew pot. I've been lucky with my set up so far. Using my kitchen stove, it takes just under 45 minutes to heat my sparge water to 170. So, by the time I mash in and get the amount of sparge water I need, I throw it on and it's ready just about the time I need it to sparge. My stove is only about 20 feet away from where I'm brewing in the garage, so it's not a big deal to me to be moving it around. I used to work for a water company, so lugging 5 gallons here and there is old hat to me.

Anyways, I'd love to get a brew rig together, but I just don't have the space. I just posted in another thread about how I'm storing different parts al over the place.

BBL_Brewer

Recipes 

If you collect wort in a bucket, use a bottling bucket. This way you can slap some tubing on the spigot and gravity drain the wort into your kettle to avoid excessive aeration.

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