Sight glass on Mash Tun or no sight glass on Mash Tun?

Im currently using 3 keggles. I only put a sight glass on the Liqour Tank and the Boil Kettle thinking there was no need on on my mash tun, and that grains may get in there. Any thoughts? or reasons why I should pop one on there? Cheers!

:rockin:

I use a Cooner with volume ticks inside, but I imagine you could certainly add one. Dunno about grains lodging in there though. Cheers

I can't see a need for this you can just use the sight glass on your HLT to measure how much you're adding to your MLT. Only exception I can see is if you have a direct fired MLT and want to be able to heat your strike right in your MLT...

I'm a batch sparger and will say it's not needed. I have a sight glass on the BK so i know how much comes out and how much more i'll need. No sense in complicating it and having another thing that can break!

No need for a sight glass on the mash if you have one on the HLT and one on the kettle. All you really need to know is how much water you mash in with and when you kettle is full and ready to start the boil.

Nah don't bother! I mean, you know how much is in there. You put it there.

Cheers
Jay

My dad has more money than sense so he has nice Blichmans for his HLT, MLT, and BK. They have sight glasses built in. Like others have said, they're nice in the HLT and BK but it really serves no purpose on the MLT that we've found.

Ryush806 said:

My dad has more money than sense so he has nice Blichmans for his HLT, MLT, and BK. They have sight glasses built in. Like others have said, they're nice in the HLT and BK but it really serves no purpose on the MLT that we've found.

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I think only reason for sight glass on MLT is of you are heating strike water in it instead of in HLT.

At the risk of getting off topic, do you find the sight glass on your boil kettle useful? I just built a keggle and not sure if I should put a sight glass on or not.

PJM said:

At the risk of getting off topic, do you find the sight glass on your boil kettle useful? I just built a keggle and not sure if I should put a sight glass on or not.

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In all honesty, I used to use an aluminum rod with half gallon increments before I installed sight glass on my BK.
It was reasonably simple with the former and reasonably simpler with the sight glass. One less thing to stick into cooled wort.

I have been brewing with a 10 gallon cooler setup for over 10 years now and have honestly never seen the point in having a sight glass on any of my tanks. They just seemed like another penetration going through any of my vessels that could eventually leak. I'm not saying they wouldn't be handy every now and then but here was my solution and it is tried and true. When I bought this paddle for stirring water in my kettle I very carefully "calibrated" this thing in gallon increments that carefully used a dremel to etch out the lines.

So if I need 4 gallons of water for my mash, I measure it in my kettle, heat it up, and dump/pump it all in the mash tun.

I have never had any hesitation about spending ridiculous amounts of money on brewing gadgets, but I have never been able to bring myself to buying sight glasses because my method is easy and works well. Hope this helps.

I have a sight glass on my MLT that serves dual purpose when I brew. I place an O-ring on the sight glass at the proper mark when starting. I fill the MLT with my strike water and circulate it through the RIMS to achieve mash in temperature. After I dough in I move the O-ring to the current height so that I can track my fly sparge at the end of the mash. The inlet to the sight glass is barely above the false bottom and therefore near the bottom of the grain bed. When I recirculate through the RIMS tube I can see a drop in the level in the sight glass due to suction through the grain bed. This gives me a good indication of how close I might be to a stuck mash. If the level drops very much I try to slow down the flow. If the level goes back to the original height I know that I have either no flow or have channeling through the grain because there is no suction near the sight glass inlet.

PJM said:

At the risk of getting off topic, do you find the sight glass on your boil kettle useful? I just built a keggle and not sure if I should put a sight glass on or not.

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Yes, it is useful, but only when collecting preboil volume. At the end of the boil, my volume on site tube doesn't match what makes it into the fermenter. Probably due to chiller/equipment loss and thermal expansion.

PJM said:

At the risk of getting off topic, do you find the sight glass on your boil kettle useful? I just built a keggle and not sure if I should put a sight glass on or not.

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I don't have one, and I don't have one on my current MLT.

I would find it useful for only one thing, I think. When I fly sparge, it'd be an easy way to keep an eye on the speed of the flow. I could watch the sight gauge on the HLT and the one on the BK, to make sure they are even. Right now, I just lift the top of the MLT once in a while and peak in there. That's not a major inconvenience to me, so I never bothered adding the sight gauge and I'm happy with my system.

I do have a high-tech measuring stick/spoon for the BK.

I have one on my HLT and my BK, not needed in my MT IMO. I see how much water I pump in to my MT from my HLT and I see how much water I put into the BK from the MT.

since the bottom of my site glass is below my false bottom i put a whistle on the top. I use it as a stuck sparge alarm. Just Kidding.