HLT Question

[brewpool]

After 5 batches of extract brewing, I'm looking to make the jump to all grain. I plan to brew mostly 5 gallon batches but want flexibility to do 10 gallon lower gravity beers if I desire. Im planning to do a single infusion mash with a batch sparge (could probably use advice here too). I'm starting to get the necessary equipment on order which looks as follows:

• 10 gallon rectangular cooler for mash tun
• 16 SS Kettle with Spigot
• Gas Cooker TBD (Bayou SQ14 maybe)
• Immersion Chiller TBD

My thought was that I'd use the 16 gallon kettle as my HLT to heat my strike and sparge water. After using the strike water, i could transfer the sparge water to my 5 gallon kettle I have, and throw the lid on. I've seen pictures of setups that use 10 gallon coolers as an HLT. I understand a cooler would hold temp better but would think a kettle with that much water would hold temp pretty well too. I'll be brewing in Phoenix from Fall-Spring so I won't have to worry about cold weather. Any insight and recommendations?

 

[Natdavis777]

You can easily get by with just the SS kettle and the MLT cooler. Just leave the kettle on the burner so you can heat up the sparge water if the temp does drop below your desired sparging temp. As for collecting wort, just pick up 3 of the clearish 5gal paint buckets at HD or Lowes. I like these because they have volume markings on the side of the bucket.

You can run off your first runnings, record how much wort you have, batch sparge, and collect and record until you have your desired pre-boil volume. Then, empty whatever water is left in the SS kettle, pour in the wort and boil. I brewed this way for about 2.5 years. Honestly, it was a KISS method.

 

[kh54s10]

So that I am not transferring water from a kettle to a cooler HLT, and have an empty kettle for the first runnings, I went with a 10 gallon kettle on a turkey fryer burner up high. I have a water line plumbed so I can fill it without lifting any pots. It gravity feeds to my mash tun which in turn gravity feeds to my boil kettle, then gravity feeds to a fermenter on the floor.

The stand is turned around now so that the boil kettle is next to the sink for cooling.