Cheap sparging tool

I assembled this to sparge my mash with.

6 feet 3/8 copper tube $5
1 3/8 compression T $8
holes 3/32

I shaped it to lay right on top of the cooler. I marked it before drilling so water won't run out down the sides. (SWMBO wouldn't like that in her kitchen).

I plan to use my bottling bucket and gravity to feed it 180 degree water. I'm hoping the water will still be 170 when it hits the grain.

That looks nice, and I bet it does a great job for you. I am looking to do something similar on mine.

Aren't you batch sparging?

I've thought about doing this, but that would involve swapping out my braid for a manifold.

I'm not very mechanically inclined, and I've been trying to think of ways to rig up a homemade sparge arm that works well, and is cheap. I have the cooler with the bulkhead fitting, I just need to come up with the sparge arm. Let me know how this works out for you!

I still don't use a sparge arm. I just use a vinyl hose coming out of the HLT to the top of the Mash Tun. As long as I keep the grain covered I'm fine.

I use a very similar setup on my cooler mashtun, and it works great. Just make sure you have a valve so you can regulate the flow. Nice job.

flyangler18 said:

Aren't you batch sparging?

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I am not to up on terms, but, based on what I have learned I think I did my first AG as a continuous sparge.

I mashed in with 14 quarts on 10lbs of Vienna targeting 158. At this point I stirred very well to remove any dry spots. Then, I sealed it up and let it sit for 60 minutes.

Next I took 14 quarts heated to 175 degrees and put it in my bottling bucket w/spiggot. I took the lid off of the mash tun and stirred the top of the grains about 3 inches deap very slowly. I then opened the valve to start a trickle recirclulating 2 quarts of wort. I was recirculating the cloudy run-off and also getting a feel for the time.

Now that the wort was running clear, I threw a grain bag folded in half on top of the grain bed and placed my 4 gallon boil pot to collect the runnings. I stood there and used the hose connected to the bottling bucket to trickle the 175 degree water onto the grain bed moving it around.

Once the 4 gallon pot had about 3.5 gallons in, I switch it out and put a bucket in its place and continued until my water was gone.

Two things sucked here.

Standing there sprinkling the water (hopefully I have solved that here)
and
Doing two boils because I don't have a big enough pot for a full boil.

So, I'm not to up on terms. Maybe you can define what I did. It worked. I got 83.5% efficiency and I lost about 1/2 gallon below the false bottom. I will work that out next time.

flyangler18 said:

I've thought about doing this, but that would involve swapping out my braid for a manifold.

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I got that false bottom for $29.99 at the LHBS. The bazooka braid was more.

An inverted brass or stainless sprinkler head works great. Just keep the sparge water 1 to 2 inches above the grain bed and it does not disturb the grain bed at all.

I just drain onto Tinfoil w/holes punched into it works for me.
Nice design with the copper tubing , i would add that to my setup if i could get it built into the inside of my mashtun lid. (keep that heat in)

hopsoda said:

I just drain onto Tinfoil w/holes punched into it works for me.
Nice design with the copper tubing , i would add that to my setup if i could get it built into the inside of my mashtun lid. (keep that heat in)

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There are builds of just that on here if you really are wanting something like that. It would be hard to monitor your levels though to make sure the water level is staying above the grain bed with the lid on.

flyangler18 said:

Aren't you batch sparging?

I've thought about doing this, but that would involve swapping out my braid for a manifold.

Click to expand...

So does this mean that if you are fly sparging you need a manifold setup but batch sparging can get by with a braided line? Sorry for the noob question.

MilwaukeeBrewGuy said:

So does this mean that if you are fly sparging you need a manifold setup but batch sparging can get by with a braided line? Sorry for the noob question.

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Yes sir! The singular collection point of a braid would encourage channeling of the grain bed- which you don't want when fly sparging.