How to measure water if drain added to pot

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Kayos

Kayos

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I just scored a 40 qt pot and am going to add a weldless spigot to it. This is going to be my top tier (HLT) in my brew stand. So my question is:

If the water called for is, say, 3.5 gallons for the initial infusion and I measure that out and put it into the pot, when I drain it into the MLT, do you all tip the rest into the MLT, not worry about it, or account for it. With the 9g pot, there may be quite a bit left.
 
If you put a dip tube on it you should be able to pretty much suck the kettle dry. Regardless you will want to figure out how much dead space is in your kettle and just account for that when you add your water amounts to be heated.

Which is to say if you need 3.5 gallons but you have a 0.5 gallon dead space, you need to heat up 4 gallons. All of which assumes you don't want to pick up the pot when it's almost empty to just dump the rest.
 
Yup, with the dip tube in my HLT going to the pickup well (it's a converted keg), I might leave behind as much as a quarter-cup. Even in a flat-bottomed pot, a dip tube within 1/4" of the bottom should leave behind very little.
 
If you want to measure the dead space, add a measured amount of water to the kettle. Then drain it. When it no longer drains, measure the amount left in the kettle and record it. In the future, add that amount to the amount you need to use i to get the amount you should put in your HLT.

example:

Put 1 gallon in your kettle. Drain. There is 1 quart left. In the future if you need 3.5 gallons put 3.75 gallons in the kettle. 3.5 gallons will drain into your MLT.

For safety, and I'm a wuss, I don't recommend tilting a kettle with hot liquor in it. bad things can happen and do.

Barry
 
Castawayales said:
If you want to measure the dead space, add a measured amount of water to the kettle. Then drain it. When it no longer drains, measure the amount left in the kettle and record it. In the future, add that amount to the amount you need to use i to get the amount you should put in your HLT.

example:

Put 1 gallon in your kettle. Drain. There is 1 quart left. In the future if you need 3.5 gallons put 3.75 gallons in the kettle. 3.5 gallons will drain into your MLT.

For safety, and I'm a wuss, I don't recommend tilting a kettle with hot liquor in it. bad things can happen and do.

Barry
Click to expand...

Ummm...why would I need to measure before I drain? Couldn't I just drain any amount and see what is left over?


Good point on not tilting HLT. Thanks.
 
The assumption is that you'd only put in the HLT what you need for the next step plus whatever can't drain due to deadspace. You'll heat the water and open the valve and let it go without having to climb up to the 3rd tier to peek in and/or regulate the valve. The only easy way to do that would be to install a sight glass.
 
Kayos said:
Ummm...why would I need to measure before I drain? Couldn't I just drain any amount and see what is left over?


Good point on not tilting HLT. Thanks.
Click to expand...

it can be done several ways I would just add a gallon and measure what comes out then you know how much is left behind.
 
Ummm...why would I need to measure before I drain? Couldn't I just drain any amount and see what is left over?
Click to expand...

I'm just a little anal about things.

You could also open the valve and pour water into the empty kettle until it starts draining and measure what is in the kettle.

Barry
 

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