HLT & MT sight glass for herms system

I was taking a look at the stout kettles over at http://conical-fermenter.com and was wondering why one would want a sight glass on their HLT but not on the MT. I would assume that it would be nice to have a sight glass on both. That way you can tell how much strike water is in your MT. This whole HERMS thing is fairly new to me and I am still trying to wrap my mind around exactly how it all works.

I have one on my HLT and not on my MLT. I knnow how much I'm putting into the MLT by how much the sight glass goes down on the HLT. Not point in having one on both.

I also have one on my BK.

DubBrew said:

I have one on my HLT and not on my MLT. I knnow how much I'm putting into the MLT by how much the sight glass goes down on the HLT. Not point in having one on both.

I also have one on my BK.

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That's why the proper term is 'sight gauge'. A sight glass is used to determine if there is liquid or not.
I agree with DubBrew, you use the gauge from the HLT to measure transher to the MT. I'm not sure that a sight gauge on an MT would be accurate once grist is added due to absorption.

OneHoppyGuy said:

That's why the proper term is 'sight gauge'. A sight glass is used to determine if there is liquid or not.
I agree with DubBrew, you use the gauge from the HLT to measure transher to the MT. I'm not sure that a sight gauge on an MT would be accurate once grist is added due to absorption.

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Ah ok it is making more sense now. you heat the strike water in the HLT then transfer that to the MT and dough in

chemman14 said:

Ah ok it is making more sense now. you heat the strike water in the HLT then transfer that to the MT and dough in

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Yep!

I had a sight gauge on my old MLT, but once I added the grain it was different (of course). The only reason I miss it on this MLT is when I sparge. It's handy to see at a glance if the level is staying the same (since you match your flow rate from the HLT to the MLT and the MLT to the boil kettle) without opening the MLT. But that's the only thing I can think of that would make a sight gauge on the MLT useful at all.