Strike Water Siphon question

[ezzieyguywuf]

So I'm trying to get my AG setup complete for as cheap as possible, for starters. I gota 10 gallon aluminum pot on the way, and I plan on purchasing a 10 gallon cooler to use as a mash tun. Some people recommend spending the mash tun money on a wort chiller and doing BIAB, but I'm not so sure if I want to go that route. Anywho, my question concerns the transfer of the strike water to the mash tun: the water will be hot, and my pot doesn't have a drain on it, so whats the best way to do this? Am I going to have to spend money on a heavy-duty siphon, or are there other tricks? FYI I will be using my 10 gallon pot to heat the strike water, and then boiling in it afterwards. I see on here that a lot of people have a separate pot for heating up the strike water: what is the reason for this? I don't see the convenience, as you still have a 1 hour mash to wait for before you're ready to boil.
ezziey

 

[rustbucket]

you need a third (IMO) to have the strike/sparge water ready to go, because depending on what way you sparge (fly or batch) you will need to drain wort into some type of pot that you will boil in... remember this is all my opinion, there are prob other ways around this

 

[ezzieyguywuf]

A third...pot? I see what you mean about draining the wort and putting it somewhere while I sparge. hm... I was planning to patch sparge, btw, as my impression of fly sparging is that I would need even more equipment. I do have plenty of small (one 20qt and then a few even smaller than that) pots that I could use for sparge, i.e. use my 10 gal pot for the strike, empty it, use two (or three) smaller pots to heat up a decent amount of water for a sparge, then drain the wort directly into the 10 gal pot. It would take some doing if I was going to do 2 or 3 (?) sparges, but I figure I can let it grains soak while I heat up more water? heh? no?

 

[stinkynathan]

I just dump it in there. For a 10# grain bill you're adding somewhere around 4 gallons of water (roughly 32 pounds). Put some gloves on and dump it over the edge.

A second pot is handy for heating water while you're sparging. I drain my first runnings into the boil kettle as my sparge water is heating. You could drain your first runnings into a bucket instead and not need the second kettle, though. Most people have their "starter kettle" laying around and use it for heating water...at least, that's what I do.

 

[ChoochNW]

Interested to hear other opinions as well. Just got into brewing with my roommate a few weeks ago, already have a NW Red and Black IPA carbonating in the bottels. Both batches were done with LME/partial grain, really want to move on to the AG process and we are trying to figure out what is the bare minimum for extra equipemt we will need to buy.

 

[ezzieyguywuf]

This IS my starter kettle I too thought about the bucket idea for storing wort, and I have no problem with that. But if I'm brewing a 5 gallon batch, won't I me strike/sparging > 5 gallons of hot water?
ezziey

 

[Kirbster]

No, normally with a single batch sparge you will strike in anywhere from 3.5 to 5 gallons and sparge with 4-6 gallons. Your first runnings should only be roughly 3 gallons or so, the rest will be made up with sparge water that will collect into your empty brew kettle after the sparge.

 

[stinkynathan]

So if you wanted to do one kettle your process would be:

Heat strike water in brew kettle.
Dump it into mash tun.
Mash
Towards end of mash, heat sparge water to desired temp.
Vorlaugh and lauter into a bucket.
Dump sparge water from brew kettle into mash tun.
Dump first runnings into kettle.
Drain second runnings into (already heating) brew kettle.
Boil

Otherwise, you could get a 5-gallon stainless steel pot at Walmart for about $20, or get an even cheaper aluminum one.

 

[ezzieyguywuf]

Awesome, that procedure def sounds like it will work. And I can get two buckets in case I want to do two sparges. Would the 4-6 gallons of hot sparge water be too unweildy to dump? It sounds it...

Sent from my HTC Vision using Home Brew Talk

 

[Horseshoot]

Would dumping hot wort from the bucket to the kettle expose it to too much oxygen? I worry about hot wort being vulnerable to oxygenation.

 

[ezzieyguywuf]

doesn't the boil boil off the oxygen anyways?

 

[Horseshoot]

Well, yes. But if you believe in "hot side aeration", supposedly the damage is done prior to it being boiled off. It is said that it causes off flavor issues, down the road. I read this in the Palmer book. But, others have said it is a myth.

 

[kanzimonson]

Here's what most people think about HSA: it is a real thing, but if you don't worry about it too much, do what you can to minimize oxygen pickup, and pitch enough healthy yeast, it's a non-concern.

For example, I mash in my kettle, then pour the entire mash into a Zapap bucket system for lautering, then run back into the kettle. I'm sure there's a bit of oxygen pickup in the dumping procedure, but I've never tasted oxidation in my final beers, and never gotten judging comments on it.

 

[Horseshoot]

It would be nice if some real studies were done. I worry about so many different things, while brewing (tho getting a little less worried with each batch!) that it would be nice to have some facts.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Rather than picking up a hot heavy kettle to dump sparge water, I simply use a one gallon rubbermaid plastic pitcher to "bail" transfer sparge / strike water b/w vessels. It is easy, safe and simple to do. Beats the hell out of putting on gloves and dumping a hot kettle.

 

[ezzieyguywuf]

wilserbrewer: this thought just occurred to me last night as I was falling asleep. Makes real good sense. I don't have any one gallon pitchers, but I got one gallon pots with handles that I could use. huzzah!

 

[Walker]

Regarding HSA:

Think about it... for a looooong time people just fly sparged. That was the only method being used, and it is a slow and steady shower of water on top of the grains. Many people still do it this way.

Fly sparging would result in HIGHLY aerated water all over the mash, yet those people have no issues with HSA.

Don't worry about it. It's a boogeyman.

Now, back to your original question about how to do batch sparging without a third vessel. It really can't be done. But that doesn't mean that your third vessel has to be a nice pot.

As was mentioned:

Heat strike water in brew kettle.
Dump it into mash tun.
Mash
Towards end of mash, heat sparge water to desired temp.
Vorlaugh and lauter into a bucket.
Dump sparge water from brew kettle into mash tun.
Dump first runnings into kettle.
Drain second runnings into (already heating) brew kettle.
Boil

This is pretty much what I used to do with a minor tweak. I put the sparge water, temporarily, into a bucket rather than putting the wort into the bucket.

Heat strike water in brew kettle.
Dump it into mash tun.
Mash
Towards end of mash, heat sparge water to desired temp.
Put sparge water it into a bucket.
Vorlaugh and lauter into the kettle.
Dump sparge water from bucket into mash tun.
Drain second runnings into (already heating) brew kettle.
Boil

 

[jds]

My methods are about the same as Walker's. My gear is a cooler MLT, a half-barrel keggle, and some plastic buckets.

After sparging, I pour the wort from a bucket into the keggle. Plenty of splashing, no HSA.

 

[ezzieyguywuf]

Walker, I was planning on doing your method. I will heat the sparge water to slightly too hot, then let it cool down to proper temp in the bucket. I'll do the same with the strike water in the mash tun (assuming I decide to go with grain-into-water instead of water-onto-grain...I haven't decided yet).

 

[ezzieyguywuf]

I'm stoked then. I got the pot for $37, I'll get my cooler for about $39, hardware to convert the cooler should be, what, ~$15? A graduated bucket should run me, what, $9? I'll probably get two of those. Oh, and I still need to get a siphon too. So for ~$100 I got my AG setup! Woot!

 

[Northcalais40]

Hey while your at it: you can by a weldless fitting for your boil kettle so that you won't have to deal with siphoning or dumping. They cost like 20 bucks. You can drill aluminum with almost any drill and a proper bit. My fryer kettle was so thin, I drilled it with a speedbore ( canoe paddle shaped wood drill bit). About as difficult as poking a pencil through a newspaper.