Opinions on 15-gallon MT/HLT

Hello,

I am in the process of building a brew sculpture. My intention is to move into 10-gallon all-grain brewing.

I have a brand new 15-gallon boil kettle already. What I need to get now is a 15-gallon MT and 15-gallon HLT. I also need a sparge arm for the MT. My intention is to use a March pump to transfer from the HLT to the MT for sparging and then gravity feed into the boil kettle.

I'd prefer actual stainless kettles versus something like Gott coolers because of size of the coolers and how it affects the sculpture design.

I've been searching around and have found a couple possibilities, but I thought I'd post up here and see if someone more experienced has a suggestion.

Thanks in advance!

I have to ask the obvious question why not use 1/2 barrel sanke kegs they are 14.5 gallons and dollar for dollar you will not find a cheaper stainless vessel for all grain brewing with hundreds of how to buid them links on the internet. You just need to find a source to buy them. try local brew pubs, craigslist, Ebay, scrap yards.

I don't live in an area that's particularly rich in brew pubs or homebrewing. That said, the biggest challenge I have is space. The brew sculpture is modeled off the morebeer tippy design so the HLT is below the MT. This is because I just don't have a ton of space for a huge sculpture and the big barrels. Pots though I could store on shelves easily.

How about heating your water in your BK and then using your pump to move the water to an cooler HLT. No need for a second burner and you could break it down for storage.

Bull

Bull - that is a good idea no doubt. But I think I'd like to go ahead and just build this the way I want it once and not have to worry about it for a long while. I can see in the long run have a dedicated HLT will be very beneficial and the cost of one additional burner is not prohibitive. It's not to say I'm not concerned about the expense, but I am prepared that it will take some investment.

At this point, I do have some control over the sculpture so I am open to ideas! After some more research, it seems like what I may need to do is pickup two 15-gallon pots, one of which has a false bottom and then just batch sparge. From what I'm reading, the efficiency losses between fly/sparge aren't significant enough for the additional equipment/work.

Am I right here?

I wouldn't say fly sparging is additional work, I actually find it to be less work but more time.

The time during the fly sparge for me is a perfect time to get other things done such as measuring out my hops, clean up and or organize, drink a beer, solve the worlds problems, drink a beer, put my feet up and of course have a beer. Did I say that?

I would suggest brewing multiple times using different techniques to find out what you like the best before you commit to a certain build.

There is more than 1 way to skin a cat!

Bull

I think the good news here is whether or not I decide to fly sparge, the overall equipment doesn't change much. But I still need to figure out which kettles to use!

Thanks!