Siphon lautering/sparging

Call me crazy, but I could have sworn I saw something somewhere about a method of sparging/lautering that involved SS braided hose and a siphon tube, which is the method I used on my brew today. The problem is, my efficiency wasn 't much better than my last brew (c. 50%), so I went to look up info on how to improve my efficiency with this method only to be unable to find the info I was looking for. Every article I have found so far about sparging/lautering methods makes no mention at all of the method I described. I was wondering if anyone can help point me in the right direction. Thanks.

-AJ

I'm not sure, but I think you're talking about reducing the dead space in the MLT. Sometimes the bulkhead drains on coolers are up to an inch above the floor of the cooler. In that case, you'll leave a lot of wort behind which destroys your efficiency especially with batch sparging. I combated the problem by installing a short piece of copper tubing, bent down to the floor of the cooler, to which the stainless braid was clamped.

You can test for deadspace by filling with some water and draining the tun to measure water left behind. In order to get every last drop, you need a length of tubing on the output to create the siphon effect also.

Well the setup I used looks like this:



The steel braid rests on the bottom of the cooler, so there is very little dead space. I still got pretty crappy efficiency, though, so I'm looking for ways to improve the efficiency or errors in the design. Thanks.

-AJ

Yes, I have seen photos of this type of MLT using a piece of copper tubing to go up and out of the cooler. If you are batch sparging, and you can keep the braid on the bottom of the tun, your efficiency should not suffer. If I were to try it, I would think a short stubby braid would be less likely to rise up and break the siphon.

How was your crush?

I agree that a short piece of braid would be better for keeping it from rising to the surface, but I am also thinking of
securing it to the bottom with some brackets. The crush looked pretty good . I don't know what the setting is on the mill at the LHBS, but it looked OK. I am thinking my next step will be to take a look at my mash pH and hopefully securing the braid to the bottom of the MLT will help minimize dead space. Thanks for the reply.

-AJ

I think there's an inherent problem with an over the top siphon in that it will siphon until it sucks air. At that point, any wort that was clinging to the grain bits will trickle down to the braid and just sit there. It's not really dead space, but it has the same effect. With a thru-wall drain, you can just leave the valve open a while and let it trickle out without worrying about losing a siphon. It is true that if the braid moves up away from the bottom at any point, you'll break siphon even sooner. You could benefit from putting an inline valve at the end of your drain tubing so you can slow the flow down towards the end.