DIY Rotating Sparge Arm??

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Cape Brewing

DOH!!! Stupid brewing...
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Anyone ever built one? I'm going crazy trying to find a swivel fitting that will allow for the arm to rotate.

Am I overthinking this or something?
 
What about pumping the wort through a cheap lawn sprinkler?

4armsprinkler.jpg
 
You might be over thinking it as most swivel fittings are designed to hold pressure and you dont really care if it drips a little.
I've played around with a rotating sparge arm made of copper pipe with a very loose sealing connection of one copper pipe inside another and its more that adequate. The issue I had was my lack of a pump, gravity feed is inadequate to make the thing rotate even with a very loose fitting.
 
You might be over thinking it as most swivel fittings are designed to hold pressure and you dont really care if it drips a little.
I've played around with a rotating sparge arm made of copper pipe with a very loose sealing connection of one copper pipe inside another and its more that adequate. The issue I had was my lack of a pump, gravity feed is inadequate to make the thing rotate even with a very loose fitting.

Not sure I know what you mean about a loose sealing connection.

I will be under slight pressure as I'm using March 809's for my system. I pump water in to sparge and then recirc that same water for a bit before transfer into the boil kettle.

The cheap sprinkler is an idea... more in the sense of i could cannabalize the thing and use that fitting.... just extend the four arms out straight so that fit my pot.

that might work.
 
by loose I just meant it wont hold pressure, my design used a piece of 1/2 inch copper pipe sealing/rotating inside a 1/2 to 1/2 copper coupling.
 
The rotating arms are more trouble than they are worth IMO. You can make a cpvc manifold like this one for about $6 and twenty minutes of your time. I felt that I was losing too much heat sprinkling the hot water down through the air and over the grain bed. The new cpvc manifold is vertically adjustable allowing you to operate it partially or fully submerged. Less heat loss. When the end elbows are rotated slightly, the sparge water swirls gently over the gain bed. This manifold can be used for recirculation when mashing, as a sparge arm and as a return manifold when doing the whirlpool chill maneuver. I have a rotating sparge arm for sale. Make me an offer!

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The pic shows it running just plain water, but you get the idea.
 
it's an option... i'm not totally sold on anything at this point. i just need to get someTHING set up. as of right now, i just take a freakin' tin serving tray, pop a ton of holes in it and let it sit on top of my grain bed. i have a HERMS system and circ my MT continuously so the wort comes through the lid on my MT, hits the pan and is dispursed. it's the ONE freakin' piece on my rig i haven't built yet.

I'm not too worried about losing heat since it is all contained. The sparge arm would be just under the lid of my MT and the lines are insulated so... again... not too worried about losing heat.

an offer? I'll.... give... you... FOUR, BRAND NEW... CRISP... One dollar bills. ehhh?? nice huh?
 
it's an option... i'm not totally sold on anything at this point. i just need to get someTHING set up. as of right now, i just take a freakin' tin serving tray, pop a ton of holes in it and let it sit on top of my grain bed. i have a HERMS system and circ my MT continuously so the wort comes through the lid on my MT, hits the pan and is dispursed. it's the ONE freakin' piece on my rig i haven't built yet.

I'm not too worried about losing heat since it is all contained. The sparge arm would be just under the lid of my MT and the lines are insulated so... again... not too worried about losing heat.

an offer? I'll.... give... you... FOUR, BRAND NEW... CRISP... One dollar bills. ehhh?? nice huh?

OK, it's a deal! The shipping & handling is an additional $8.00, so send me a check for $12.00 and it's done! Wrinkled old bill would also be acceptable.
 
Funny what you say about a tin serving tray with at ton of holes! I needed something quick and dirty so did exactly that - it's not gonna last much longer but I've got 5 good brews out of it....

Really useful for a rectangular mash tun where a sparging arm cant reach all of the grain.

Using the Brew your own British Real Ale book - every recipe, so far as been by the book on OGs and FGs
Brew Your Own British Real Ale (Camra): Graham Wheeler: Amazon.co.uk: Books

IMG_3086.jpg
 
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LOL... sweet! It ain't pretty but it works! The ones I keep using don't really fit my pot at all which is the biggest reason I want to replace it but that looks perfect for a rectangular cooler!
 
A lot of folks just use silicone tubing.....it floats and as long as you have ~1/2" fluid on the surface of the mash, you should be good to go....
 
Just use a cheap showerhead and fitting to suspend it above the grainbed. With a little adjustment you can reach all corners of your MLT and maintain a nice uniform flow.
 
Just use a cheap showerhead and fitting to suspend it above the grainbed. With a little adjustment you can reach all corners of your MLT and maintain a nice uniform flow.

It's not worth the effort. See post #13. That's how the Sabco Brew Magic does it. You are flysparging so you need an inch or two above the grainbed, why would a manifold help in that case?
 
It's not worth the effort. See post #13. That's how the Sabco Brew Magic does it. You are flysparging so you need an inch or two above the grainbed, why would a manifold help in that case?

I think you misunderstood me, I meant just use a showerhead to distribute the water INSTEAD of a manifold or other huge honking contraption with lots of tiny sparge hole or slits. The showerhead will easily spray to all corners of the MLT.
 
I think you misunderstood me, I meant just use a showerhead to distribute the water INSTEAD of a manifold or other huge honking contraption with lots of tiny sparge hole or slits. The showerhead will easily spray to all corners of the MLT.

I think you misunderstood SawDustGuy ;)

The current line of thinking is that if you have an inch of water covering the grain, there is no need to distribute the sparge water across the MLT...just add the sparge water to the surface and it will distribute it's self. So a hose is all you need, no sparge head, sprinkler, or whirly thingamabob (I have most of those, but just use a hose now)

:mug:

Ed
 
I think you misunderstood SawDustGuy ;)

The current line of thinking is that if you have an inch of water covering the grain, there is no need to distribute the sparge water across the MLT...just add the sparge water to the surface and it will distribute it's self. So a hose is all you need, no sparge head, sprinkler, or whirly thingamabob (I have most of those, but just use a hose now)

:mug:

Ed

I see. Well I've been just using a 1 gal pitcher with an upside down plate to eliminate channeling. Now that I know it's that easy I may as well buy a march pump and upgrade my MLT to a RIMS system. Here I have been stressing about how best to distribute the RIMS liquid when I can just let it flow right back on top with enough water-level above the grainbed.
 
I see. Well I've been just using a 1 gal pitcher with an upside down plate to eliminate channeling. Now that I know it's that easy I may as well buy a march pump and upgrade my MLT to a RIMS system. Here I have been stressing about how best to distribute the RIMS liquid when I can just let it flow right back on top with enough water-level above the grainbed.

If you are dumping it in from a pitcher, the plate is probably a good idea to avoid disturbing the grain. But other wise, just "gently" add the water to the top.

The hose also eliminates problems of clogging up a sparge device with small grain particles when you recirculate.

Ed
 
i have made two ring type sparge arms that gently let the water drop on top of the water on the grain bed ( i usualy leave 1/2 to 1" of water above the grain bed while sparging). Here is a pic of my copper arm. I also have made one using high temp hosing. The copper one was to0 rigid and got in the way when doughing in my grains.

I origianlly wanted a rotating arm, but i made this pretty cheap.

IMG_06222.JPG
 
I Made one using this link

http://www.bohack.com/2010/10/how-to-make-a-rotating-fly-sparge-arm-for-all-grain-brewing/

It was a pain in the you know I got it spining smooth dry and polished up everthing nice. When I used it on a couple batches of beer it kept sticking and being hard to use. I have since made a spiral arm out of copper and loved it twice. I just bought a 10 ft section of 1/4 in copper and a small tapping drill bit (1.02 mm) and made a coil. Molded by hand and drilled.. drill holes farther apart at begining of the coil than at end.
 
I Made one using this link

http://www.bohack.com/2010/10/how-to-make-a-rotating-fly-sparge-arm-for-all-grain-brewing/

It was a pain in the you know I got it spining smooth dry and polished up everthing nice. When I used it on a couple batches of beer it kept sticking and being hard to use. I have since made a spiral arm out of copper and loved it twice. I just bought a 10 ft section of 1/4 in copper and a small tapping drill bit (1.02 mm) and made a coil. Molded by hand and drilled.. drill holes farther apart at begining of the coil than at end.

can you elaborate on the spiral i am planning on making an arm for my brew this weekend and this has peaked my interest.

:mug:
 
can you elaborate on the spiral i am planning on making an arm for my brew this weekend and this has peaked my interest.

:mug:

I had a small piece of 3"x20"x1/2 popple that I drilled a hole in and then polyurethaned it for drips. I then bent soft copper tubing 1/4 in 10 ft long into the shape below. (bought at local home improvement store) I then drilled with a 1mm drill bit. I did too many holes the first time so I pluged some with epoxy. ( going to plug a few more than what is in pics) What holds the arm in the wood is rubber o rings tight to the tubing. One on the bottom and two on top. The tubing I had was too big for the copper so I just clamped down with a stainless hose clamp. To stop up the end I just pinched it with pilars and folded over.

DSC00451.jpg


DSC00452.jpg
 
I looked at all these options and finally pulled the trigger on a spray ball from Mcmaster Carr. Two things to note, this is great for a sparge with the march pumps we typically use and it's great for CIP cleaning.

ForumRunner_20121025_082415.jpg
 
I looked at all these options and finally pulled the trigger on a spray ball from Mcmaster Carr. Two things to note, this is great for a sparge with the march pumps we typically use and it's great for CIP cleaning.

View attachment 80916

How much did that spray ball run you? Their website puts them at a whopping $103.61 for the 1/2" 303 Stainless Steel type.
 
I bought the high temp plastic one for 50$ or so... It's temperature rated for 190 I want to say. I can honestly say I don't know when I would ever have liquid that high go through the spray ball. It worked great for a sparge.
 
Kyled93 said:
I bought the high temp plastic one for 50$ or so... It's temperature rated for 190 I want to say. I can honestly say I don't know when I would ever have liquid that high go through the spray ball. It worked great for a sparge.

You don't happen to have the part number for that guy do you?
 
wow I was thinking of making a top manifold out of copper 1/2 inch. with a connector in at one end in middle where my hot water can just flow with a bunch of holes under for the sparge arm. almost like a manifold home built but for the top on a rectangular cooler sit on top.
 
Man, I just hooked up a barbed fitting to the end of a street elbow through the lid. On the end of the barb (pointing down into the MLT), I have either a short piece of tubing hooked up to a siphon sprayer for 10 gal batches, or a long piece of tubing hooked up to a siphon sprayer for 5 gal batches. Total outlay for the siphon sprayer was $2? Including the rest of the hardware, maybe total out of pocket was $12?
 
I almost went down the rotating arm build but decided on simplicity. I figured pointing the holes up would prevent channels from formaing. The only drawback in this design so far is if I open the pump valve too high. The wort splashes off the inside of the cooler lid and leaks down the outside.

2013-04-06 16.17.19.jpg


2013-04-06 16.19.31-2.jpg
 
I had a small piece of 3"x20"x1/2 popple that I drilled a hole in and then polyurethaned it for drips. I then bent soft copper tubing 1/4 in 10 ft long into the shape below. (bought at local home improvement store) I then drilled with a 1mm drill bit. I did too many holes the first time so I pluged some with epoxy. ( going to plug a few more than what is in pics) What holds the arm in the wood is rubber o rings tight to the tubing. One on the bottom and two on top. The tubing I had was too big for the copper so I just clamped down with a stainless hose clamp. To stop up the end I just pinched it with pilars and folded over.

really liking this cheap DIY for fly sparging. You said you thought you drilled too many holes. What do you think the optimal number or distance between holes should be?

*edit* just realized this was over a year old. Hopefully, he's still around :)
 
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