Using only a single burner

**balto charlie** · 12-12-2008, 05:06 PM

I am only using a single burner for AG brewing. I usually heat up the mash and sparge water on stove inside, after MLT I transfer each of the runnings to the outside single burner. Is this the norm?? Do some of you do everything on a single outside burner. If so what do you do with the mash and first sparge when the burner is heating the sparge waters? I don't want to expand my equipment right now. Thanks, Charlie

**EdWort** · 12-12-2008, 05:10 PM

That's how I used to do everything till I got a second burner. I would heat up the mash water on the outside burner, but the sparge water would be done inside as I put the kettle on the burner before I did any transfers from the MLT.

evandam · 12-12-2008, 05:10 PM

Well I'm doing my first All Grain tomorrow on a single burner. What I plan on doing is draining the runnings into 5 gal buckets while the kettle is still holding needed sparge water. Then when I'm done spargeing pouring everything back into the kettle for the boil.

I have found no one that can tell me this is a bad idea.

**uwjester** · 12-12-2008, 05:11 PM

I have a 10 gal boil pot and a 7.5 gal HLT (just another pot really). I batch sparge and keep the lid on the boil pot until I am done. Then I move the boil pot to the burner and get on with it. I don't think you really have to get the boil going right away. The wort can sit while you finish the sparge.

That said, I am hoping to get another burner so I can get the boil started while the later sparge batches are finishing.

**uwjester** · 12-12-2008, 05:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evandam

Well I'm doing my first All Grain tomorrow on a single burner. What I plan on doing is draining the runnings into 5 gal buckets while the kettle is still holding needed sparge water. Then when I'm done spargeing pouring everything back into the kettle for the boil.

I have found no one that can tell me this is a bad idea.

Not a bad idea at all. You are boiling the wort, so there isn't really much of a contamination concern. The only thing I don't like about your plan is that there are probably 2 more pieces of equipment to clean afterwords. But then, I'm kind of lazy that way.

**ajf** · 12-12-2008, 05:18 PM

Well, I don't know about "the norm", but that's exactly what I do. Heating the strike water gives me enough time to unpack equipment, and mill the grain, and I can get the sparge water up to temp while mashing. The only downside is having to carry to kettle to the burner for the boil, and back to the kitchen after the boil, but that's not too difficult with 5g batches.

-a.

**WheeledGoat** · 12-12-2008, 05:22 PM

I, too, have a single burner (propane) for my boil. I just did my first AG a few weeks ago, and I'm pretty happy with my setup (despite my 50% eff first time around). My procedure went pretty smooth with good temp control, though;

I did all my mashing & sparging in the kitchen. I've got a 10gal MLT (round Igloo-type, Home Depot brand) and I cut a "false top" out of styrofoam to float on my wort. This did 2 things; got rid of the heat loss from the deadspace over a 5 gallon batch, and gave me something to stick my temp probe through to ensure it's never submerged (duh - didn't realize I couldn't submerge the probe until i got the digital thermometer home & read the instructions).

After preheating the MLT, I lost only like 10 deg F when I mashed in. I was expecting to lose more, so my temps were 158F at first - had to stir it around a bit at first to get my temp down to 150F. From there, it held the temp like a champ, the thermometer bouncing back and forth between 150 & 151 for the entire hour.

I used my 9gal enamel pot (that I usually use for boils) on the stovetop to heat up my strike & sparge water. It took a while on the stovetop, so I wound up using another 3gal pot on the stove so I could have my 2 batches of sparge water ready at roughly the same time without having to wait for the 2nd. Thankfully I've got a gas stove. I don't think an electric would work so well.

I drained my mash & sparge water into my boil pot in the kitchen, and then hauled that puppy out to the garage for the boil. I was pleasantly surprised; AG is the way to go in the wintertime! Freezing my nadz off in the garage, all I had to worry about was hops & Irish Moss - no DME additions or sweating boilovers from hot breaks. NICE! (It also helped that I used a 15gal stainless pot for my 5gal batch instead of my regular 9 gallon - it afforded me plenty of room to relax and keep my hands in my pockets).

Denny · 12-12-2008, 06:51 PM

I've used only a single burner for over 325 batches. Here's how I do it...

dennybrew

**Saccharomyces** · 12-12-2008, 07:55 PM

I've gone to Denny's method because I'm tired of carrying hot liquid from the kitchen and I usually overshoot my sparge temp (come in to find the pot about to boil over!). Doing it on one burner while I'm draining my runnings works well for 5 gallon batches.

When I fly sparge I heat the whole sparge volume to a boil, skip the mashout step, and start sparging with boiling hot water; by the time I get close to the end, the sparge water has cooled to 170*F so the grainbed stays perfectly in the optimum range of 160-170...

I'm planning to buy a second burner before attempting 10 gallons though!

Jonnio · 12-12-2008, 07:57 PM

I think it is Beermuncher's guide that talks about using 5 gal buckets to hold water for a single pot single burner setup. I am going to be doing 2 pot single burner for mine now that I am moving outside, one pot for the mash water/boil, a smaller pot for sparge water. Once I drain the mash water out that pot will be ready to collect runnings. It will sit and "relax" for the 20 or so minutes it takes to sparge.