Nother Dumb Question- Plastic HLT n MT

For you all that have a tiered system.. and use Igloo type HLT's and MT.. How do you do your measurements? Partly, I'm trying to figure some of these things out for later using in BrewSmith.

By that I mean.. I'm planning a three tiered system.. BK on bottom, HLT on top and MT in middle. My plan is to bring my BK water up to about 170* as my first trial.. pump it into the HLT and let it sit for a few.. then drain into the MT to raise the temps in both.. Finally fill the HLT w/ about 4-5 gallons of 170* water.. ready to go into the MT.

If you have an Igloo/HD cooler, short of dumping the water in a gallon at a time, how do you know how much water you are putting in the MT? Do you pre-mark the insides with a Sharpie knowing you are going to take, say, 1.2+ qts / pound of grain.. and leave it at that?

After dumping your grains in and mashing them in... later vorliffing and draining into the BK.. same question.. how do you know how much sparge water you are dumping if you don't have a sight glass?

Obviously, folks are doing it.. I just need to understand the process a bit better. I know it's not rocket science.. but, if there is an easy/mo betta way to do it than using a 1g measuring cup.. I want to know it.

Measuring stick of some type with gallon/quart/half gallon (whatever increment you want). Go through the cup by cup/ gallon by gallon method once, make your marks and you're good from then on.

Before I went to a keg hlt/mt with sight valve. I used a keg spear with grooves put in with a pipe cutter. Marks every half gallon. I've seen quite a few use a dowel with permanent marker graduation lines.

TXCrash said:

Measuring stick of some type with gallon/quart/half gallon (whatever increment you want). Go through the cup by cup/ gallon by gallon method once, make your marks and you're good from then on.

Before I went to a keg hlt/mt with sight valve. I used a keg spear with grooves put in with a pipe cutter. Marks every half gallon. I've seen quite a few use a dowel with permanent marker graduation lines.

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Crash makes an excellent point, I use a dowel w/ permanent graduation lines and it works great.

If I have a 3 tier.. I'm hoping to find a way to do this without climbing a ladder to see how much water is in the HLT. The MT will be bunch easier as it will be at a good level for peering in and stirring. Maybe I need nothing more than the dowel.. which I have from my extract work. I'm simply trying to do a gravity feed into the MT for both mash and sparge w/o measuring with cups or ??

ThreeGnomes said:

If I have a 3 tier.. I'm hoping to find a way to do this without climbing a ladder to see how much water is in the HLT. The MT will be bunch easier as it will be at a good level for peering in and stirring. Maybe I need nothing more than the dowel.. which I have from my extract work. I'm simply trying to do a gravity feed into the MT for both mash and sparge w/o measuring with cups or ??

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Then you'll need a sight glass. Nothing says you can't drill through the first wall of the cooler, strip out any insulation and install a weldless sight glass. I bet a search would find some people who've done same. Try searching "cooler sight glass" and I bet (I haven't run same search) that you'll find what you're looking for.

Thanks TXC.. good thought.. Guess the REAL question is.. If I'm going to try to brew with the 'power' of BrewSmith.. Do I need to know this type of data?

ThreeGnomes said:

Thanks TXC.. good thought.. Guess the REAL question is.. If I'm going to try to brew with the 'power' of BrewSmith.. Do I need to know this type of data?

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You definitely do. Helps ya hit temps etc.

Bobby m sells a weldless sight glass kit for coolers (did a Google search)http://www.brewhardware.com/wlsightglass
$28


I have his sight glass on my keg and highly recommend it.