All Grain Equipment 2 pieces enough?

Well I had some troubles with my HLT and it equaled a fail. So, What I would like to do is this. I want to use my Kettle as the HLT. Heat up the strike water. Then transfer over to mash tun. Now the mash tun had a problem the last test run. IT was loosing way to much heat. I learned that an R value is equal to 1" of wood. Now the top I used was a sheet of plywood. So I must have lost all the heat there. I will get the foam blocks they sell at lowes or home depot to correct. One other thing the size of the equipment is a little different. I am using a 55 gallon ss drum for the kettle. Meaning, I would be using a 55 gallon ss drum for HLT. I am making 40 gallon batches. The mash tun is 100 gallon in size. I do have a march pump. I am using gravity for HLT to mash tun.

Unless you are going for a no-sparge brew, you are going to need a third vessel to either a) hold your first runnings, or b) receive and hold your sparge water pumped from your BK/HLT so you can pump your first runnings into the kettle/hlt.



Edite: D@yyum! 40 gallons? Are you brewing for a frat house?

What the hell does it take to boil 40 gallons? What does a 40 gallon boil over look like, a wortcano?

Steve

Jeebus. Tagged for the rest of the story.

cyberbackpacker said:

Edite: D@yyum! 40 gallons? Are you brewing for a frat house?

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My thoughts exactly! WOW! I'd love to see pics of this setup in action!

So bottom line is I need anther 55 gallon ss drum right?

Not necessarily, but if you have access to them, yes; you just need something large enough to hold your max sparge volume.

Then you need to decide if you want to just use one burner, heat your sparge water in the BK, pump to your HLT for holding, then begin your sparge OR use two burners, one for the bk and one for the hlt so you can maintain more consistent temps of the sparge water and not worry about having to calculate for temp loss when pumping, holding, etc.

Or you could go single-vessel, brew-in-a-bag style. I figure for a 55 gallon batch, you'll just need a 6'x3' fine-mesh sack (made of kevlar to support that grain bill), and even a fairly small construction crane should be fine to lift it.

Cold_Steel said:

So bottom line is I need anther 55 gallon ss drum right?

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i would highly suggest it, or you can drain into a bunch of kegs and do separate boils or get a 55g plastic drum to use as your HLT. There cheap but it would have to be wrapped or it will lose heat. Someone on here mounted an electric element inside one for their HLT...cant seem to find it though. Seems as though a new drum would be easier.

Get 2 inch foam to insulate the top. You could glue it on the underside of your plywood lid.

cyberbackpacker said:

Not necessarily, but if you have access to them, yes; you just need something large enough to hold your max sparge volume.

Then you need to decide if you want to just use one burner, heat your sparge water in the BK, pump to your HLT for holding, then begin your sparge OR use two burners, one for the bk and one for the hlt so you can maintain more consistent temps of the sparge water and not worry about having to calculate for temp loss when pumping, holding, etc.

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then 55 gallons would be fine for max sparge right?

Definitely