Cheap sparge arm without raised HLT or pump

I have a dilemma. I'm buying my 10 gal beverage cooler to convert to a mash tun tomorrow, and I have me entire design for the false bottom and that, but I'm wondering if I can make a sparge arm that will have a small reservoir that I can refill instead of using a raised HLT (because I have very few resources in my current environment...a year ago would have been a different story), and I don't want to hook up a pump. So far, I'm thinking a piece of wood across the top of the cooler with a flower pot sitting on top...a tube coming down from the hole in the bottom to a sparge arm inside the cooler. I just don't know the best way to regulate how quickly it will empty, I don't want it to drain straight out and splash all around too much...would using 1/4 inch pipe down to a 1/2 inch arm slow down the release enough so it won't disturb things? Or should I use tubing that I can clamp down on? Thanks in advance...if I can't figure it out I'll stick to tin foil with holes in it.

Two words... Batch Sparge.

Another alternative would be to get a piece of heavy duty aluminum foil pierce it full of holes and just pour your sparge water on top of the aluminum foil works great! It beats the heck out of the sparge arm I built.

I use a combination of batch sparge and fly sparge. I feel that combining the 2 works better than either of the methods used separately.

abracadabra said:

Another alternative would be to get a piece of heavy duty aluminum foil pierce it full of holes and just pour your sparge water on top of the aluminum foil works great! It beats the heck out of the sparge arm I built.

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Cheapest sparge arm:


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