Batch Sparging: what's your setup like?

Puddlethumper said:

How much beer is in a barrel? Do you sell the beer to a local brewery or other outlet?

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A barrel is (2) full size kegs or 31 gallons. The only way to start is to self distribute weather in kegs or bottles but bottling is a pain on this small of a level, so kegging is the only way to go. It will be a while before i have to worry about that tho finding a place and licensing and yadda yadda yadda its all very overwhelming at times. But I am doing a water test on the system tomorrow, I finished the wiring last night and all is in order.

48 Qt cooler mash tun with stainless braided tube
2 fermenting buckets
1 racking bucket converted to a HLT for sparging with PVC connections
PVC used as sparge arm that sits on top of MLT cooler
7 gallon kettle / turkey fryer
25ft copper Immersion wort chiller

Cant wait to upgrade to a grown up system with pumps and at least 20 gallon kettles for all 3 Mash, HLT and Brew Kettle along with brew stands or a brew sculpture. Still putting out some nice pale ales and just finished up a wheat that is going into the secondary this weekend.

Happy brewing...

10 gal MT, 10 gal kettle with natural gas, 2 chillers-one in bucket for ice connected to one that goes in kettle, brewdog, paddle with volume measurements, conical

trapae said:

10 gal MT, 10 gal kettle with natural gas, 2 chillers-one in bucket for ice connected to one that goes in kettle, brewdog, paddle with volume measurements, conical

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Nice! Can you explain your chilling setup? I'm wanting to do something similar. Thanks!

Scubasteve1782 said:

48 Qt cooler mash tun with stainless braided tube
2 fermenting buckets
1 racking bucket converted to a HLT for sparging with PVC connections
PVC used as sparge arm that sits on top of MLT cooler
7 gallon kettle / turkey fryer
25ft copper Immersion wort chiller

Cant wait to upgrade to a grown up system with pumps and at least 20 gallon kettles for all 3 Mash, HLT and Brew Kettle along with brew stands or a brew sculpture. Still putting out some nice pale ales and just finished up a wheat that is going into the secondary this weekend.

Happy brewing...

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I will immerse chillier 5-10 mins of boil to sanitize. I hook up the immersion chiller to a basement utility sink. Drops temp from boil to 70 in roughly 15-20 mins

trapae said:

10 gal MT, 10 gal kettle with natural gas, 2 chillers-one in bucket for ice connected to one that goes in kettle, brewdog, paddle with volume measurements, conical

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Sick fermenter. Is that for lagering?

BassBeer said:

Nice! Can you explain your chilling setup? I'm wanting to do something similar. Thanks!

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Brewdog a must

i have been hooking 2 chillers together. the first chiller ( attached to city water) goes in a bucket with 20 pounds of ice (have to keep adding). the second chiller goes in my wort so ice cold water is running through. i can get the temperature from 214 down to about 68 in about 15 to 20 minutes on a hot day using this method. hope that helps.

The fermenter is the morebeer conical with temp control. It can only get about 25deg below ambient so not good for lagering but great for ales cause I don't have space for a freezer.

T


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Denny said:

Thank you! Here's a pic of all the equipment I use....

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hi there. Is this how the setup sits when you are brewing? How do you get the liquid from the lower level tank to the eskimo cooler, do you use an aquarium pump? are these pumps safe at mash-in temperatures?

Daggers, he uses a 1 gallon plastic water pitcher.

http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/

Also, no those aquarium pumps are not safe at mash in temps.

Scubasteve,
Even with my set-up below, I find it easier to have 3 "stock pots" heating water on the stove for the sparge while I mash. Saves on trips to the propane dealer.
My real reason to post was because of your comment about wanting a "grown up" system. My advice is (1) know what you want (2) set aside some cash and (3) watch Craigslist relentlessly (check out list-alert.com for "help").

I knew I wanted to jump to triple batches (15+ gallons to fermenters). Which means larger than keggle systems. My system below showed up about 125 miles from my home but after a few emails and a call I knew it was exactly (almost) what I wanted.
21 gallon HLT, MT and BK. 1 March pump. Quick disconnects and cheap (subsequently replaced) silicon hoses. Brew station on wheels with three 155k propane burners. All for $500! I have probably spent another $3-400 getting the other stuff I needed (more fermenters, more bottles (I don't keg), a BIG immersion chiller at stainlessbrewing.com, good hoses, a 2nd propane tank etc). But I have 15 gallons of wort from a 10 hour (start to finish) brew day. I figure I can make a bottled bottle of beer in about 6 minutes @. (I know, odd stat but I used to invest 15 minutes@ with my 5 gallon system).

Anyhow, I have scored big twice on craigslist but you have to be ready.

BTW, at this point I do a 1 big fairly soupy mash that fills the MT with 40# of grain. Then fill it to the rim again for a batch sparge. Pump about 17.5 gallons total over to BK which yields 15 gallons to fermenters. (and sometimes a couple gallons extra wort which I freeze and make kitchen sink beer from when I've accumulated 7 or 8 gallons and need freezer space back.)

Good luck and I hope you find this a little inspirational!

Brewsday...Thanks for the feedback. I can completely agree with everything you listed there. All things considered, the overall cost to run the system increases significantly with ingredients, propane, equipment upgrades and time to produce. But with the great trade off of having significantly more brew from (hopefully) a more efficient brew set up. I am saving and looking constantly on craigslist, and pro-brewers pilot and nano section. I'll be sure to swing by list-alert.com soon.

Very inspirational indeed and the hunt continues. One kettle at a time...

Forgot to mention...dannnnng that's a steal for the set up. Considering new single pots are nearly the price you paid for the entire thing.

Well done and great find.

Yambor44 said:

Daggers, he uses a 1 gallon plastic water pitcher.

http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/

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thanks for that link. I have done about 3 brews with my new tun (got rid of BIAB) and my efficiency is still around 65%. I think I will try that batch sparge method described on the website

how high off the ground do you have the mash tun? Seems like it would be hard to stir. does the mash tun have a thermometer?

directed to POLBOY

Polboy said:

this is my setup (of course barrel and boxes are not there when in use), it is very convenient to use, add water to the top keg (through hose with carbon filter), heat water, drain into the mash tun, drain mash tun into bottom keg, repeat whole process for sparging

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how high is the mash tun?

sorry...cant figure out how to delete a post..duh

daggers_nz said:

thanks for that link. I have done about 3 brews with my new tun (got rid of BIAB) and my efficiency is still around 65%. I think I will try that batch sparge method described on the website

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Crush is the #1 factor in efficiency. Batch sparging can improve your efficiency of your lauter system isn't well enough designed for fly sparging.

cool. one more thing, I was told not to stir the grain bed when batch or fly sparging?

daggers_nz said:

cool. one more thing, I was told not to stir the grain bed when batch or fly sparging?

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For batch sparging, you need to stir thoroughly after adding the water for either the mash or the sparge. No stirring during the mash or sparge, though.

I got my second kettle packaged with a turkey fryer at the HD. I definitely recommend a turkey fryer if you don't have one. 6-7 gallons of water don't boil for a while on most stoves.
Anyways, I use the Denny method. It works great for me. I just send my second running right out of the mash tun into the first that is already heating on the burner too.
The two chillers, one in the ice bath, works great too. Use some rock salt in the ice and you will get colder water returned. You can find salt that's for ice cream machines. Its meant for that sort of thing. I tried salt today for the first time and got better results. Also, I got the cheapest smallest copper chillers out there and they take twice as long to chill wort than what trapae mentioned using the same ice method. Just a thought.

Its around 6ft from the ground, it was gravity feed system so i needed to have BK high as possible but now with one pump i could lower everything by ft+. I use step stool to mix the mash

Scubasteve1782 said:

how high off the ground do you have the mash tun? Seems like it would be hard to stir. does the mash tun have a thermometer?

directed to POLBOY

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