thedude123
Well-Known Member
What is the easiest way to make a fly sparge system for a rectangle cooler?
Fly Sparge for rectangle cooler
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wildwest450
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Open up lid, pour in hot water. It's called batch sparging, can't get any simpler.
WBC
Well-Known Member
Use copper and solder with lead free solder. Drill holes on the top side evenly along the tubes. Make sure it is level when used so you get even distribution. Keep the water 1 to 2 inches above the grain at all times when sparging to prevent channeling.
The bottom manifold should be slotted copper (slots on the bottom side) soldered the same way. Some brewers like to not solder the bottom manifold for easy cleaning. It is your choice but design it so it will not come apart during use.
The bottom manifold should be slotted copper (slots on the bottom side) soldered the same way. Some brewers like to not solder the bottom manifold for easy cleaning. It is your choice but design it so it will not come apart during use.
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thedude123
Well-Known Member
So you don't have a cover on the cooler when fly sparging? How do you keep the temp at the right level?
I put the lid on the top but the sparge water itself keeps the temperature up, I've never had a problem.
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thedude123
Well-Known Member
So do you have a whole in the top of your cooler so that you can have the lid on and still feed to sparge water into the copper manifold?
No it just sort of sits on top, it's at a weird angle because of the ball valve. It's really just to keep anything from falling into the tun.
If you need to be able to put the lid on, I'd probably want to make the manifold small enough to attach to the underside of the lid. Then you could have a single hole out the top for the supply line. I've actually been thinking about doing that so I could close the lid but this works well so I haven't seen the point so far.
If you need to be able to put the lid on, I'd probably want to make the manifold small enough to attach to the underside of the lid. Then you could have a single hole out the top for the supply line. I've actually been thinking about doing that so I could close the lid but this works well so I haven't seen the point so far.
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thedude123
Well-Known Member
Have you gotten a better efficiency doing the fly sparge versus the batch sparge? I have heard that you do that is why I am interested in making a fly sparge set up. Also on your cooler do you have a false bottom?
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thedude123
Well-Known Member
after looking at it I can tell that you don't have a false bottom so just disregard that part of the question.
I do both batch and fly sparging. Batch sparging in the winter (indoors) I seem to peak at 86% efficiency. In the summer (outdoors) when I fly sparge I get 89-91%.
I've actually been thinking about making a false bottom for my cooler, but the manifold is working extremely well.
I've actually been thinking about making a false bottom for my cooler, but the manifold is working extremely well.
If you're concerned about efficiency, converting from batch sparging to fly would be one of the last areas I would focus on. I've been hitting 85% - 90% on smaller beers using simple batch sparges, which is plenty good enough for me. Before making a manifold, make sure you're getting a good crush and that your pH is OK; just adding the 5.2 pH Buffer seems to be good for 5-10 efficiency points, and crush seems to have taken me from 60-ish% to north of 80%.
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thedude123
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the info I am going to try batch sparging first but I just wanted to see what the advantages are to fly sparging.
I am going to do my first all-grain brew in 2 weeks so I just wanted to know what the best method was to get the highest efficiency.
If you have any other pointers, I would really appreciate it.
I am going to do my first all-grain brew in 2 weeks so I just wanted to know what the best method was to get the highest efficiency.
If you have any other pointers, I would really appreciate it.
