Fly sparge with rectangular cooler

Does anyone have a link to plans or directions on building a proper fly sparging system with a rectangular cooler? I'm very satisfied with my steel braid mash tun, but would like to switch to fly sparging.

Thanks!!

The only problem with rectangular coolers as mash tuns and fly sparging is to get the water to drain evenly in the tun. Water takes the least path of resistance when fly sparging and so if your water is traveling to the drain at one end then the sugars are not being rinsed evenly. This is why a round cooler and a false bottom are better for fly sparging. The next best thing you can do is to have a slotted manifold in your rectangular cooler and keep the sparge water above the grains during the sparge so it filters evenly over all the grains.

heres an easy one dude.
http://www.homebrew.com/articles/article09130301.shtml

Grainbed depth is a consideration here. If you use something like a 48qt or larger and make low-mid gravity wort for 5 gallon batches, that bed is going to be too thin for good efficiency.

I use a 48QT rectangular system and I routinely make <4% ABV beers so they will definitely work well. I get 89% efficiency when I fly sparge. Now I do larger batch sizes than your US 5 gallon batches (25L batches to account for kettle and trub loss). My fly sparge manifold is way overdone but the manifold I built works amazingly well for both batch and fly sparging.

My manifold (it has rows of drilled holes on the bottom).


The fly sparge manifold on top, it drips water over the entire surface of the grain bed.


And the whole system at work.

Nice piece of gear there. I can see why it would work in your case but anything less than that arrangement would suffer due to channeling IMHO. Maybe not. If I were going to fly, I'd def go with a 10 gal cylidrical with false bottom (or keggle).

I agree, if I were purchasing or building new I wouldn't use the rectangular. In my case I had the 2 coolers already and those round coolers cost a fortune up here.

bradsul said:

I agree, if I were purchasing or building new I wouldn't use the rectangular. In my case I had the 2 coolers already and those round coolers cost a fortune up here.

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For me I could never see a need to go with a round cooler. They are just to small. If I'm going to spend 5+ hours I may as well make more then 5 gallons.

I think the rectanglar coolers would work just fine unless you are using a ss braid for the filter. that would be to far from some of the grains (I feel) and would cause problems. But if you have a manifold it would be no different then a round one. Also why not make a false bottom for the rectangular cooler?

I have the Ice-cube cooler and built my manifold around John palmer&#8217;s book and I get 85&#37; efficiency when I fly sparge. I like sparging with the cooler lid closed on my design and I don&#8217;t see any reason to use a round cooler.

FSR402 said:

...Also why not make a false bottom for the rectangular cooler?

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That's a good question, I wonder what it would cost for a stainless steel mesh of some sort to make it. I wonder also how to seal it to the sides and corners, that would be a bit of a trick.

I like my manifold setup and it works extremely well (the numbers don't lie) but a false bottom would be much nicer I think.

And for the record I have no intention of switching, I like my mash tun.

FSR402 said:

For me I could never see a need to go with a round cooler. They are just to small. If I'm going to spend 5+ hours I may as well make more then 5 gallons.

I think the rectanglar coolers would work just fine unless you are using a ss braid for the filter. that would be to far from some of the grains (I feel) and would cause problems. But if you have a manifold it would be no different then a round one. Also why not make a false bottom for the rectangular cooler?

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I use a 10gal round and I've made many 10gal batches. My 10gal round can support ~22-24lbs of grain at a mash thickness of 1.25qt/lb. Obviously you can add more grain if you thicken the mash.

enohcs said:

I use a 10gal round and I've made many 10gal batches. My 10gal round can support ~22-24lbs of grain at a mash thickness of 1.25qt/lb. Obviously you can add more grain if you thicken the mash.

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24 pounds is the smallest I have done. Most of my brews are up over 30#. I'm also going to bump to 20-30 gal batches once I talk myself into buying the new kettle.

I like my round Rubbermaid cooler with a (MoreBeer) false bottom. I can brew 5 to 12 gallons with good efficiency but for those times when I need more space I use 2 of the same.

busmanray said:

heres an easy one dude.
http://www.homebrew.com/articles/article09130301.shtml

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Nice link. I may just give that one a try. Looks like this is one way to evenly fly sparge in a rectangular cooler