I figured out a couple by myself today when doing an AG batch for the first time:
1) glass thermometers suck.
2) start heating your sparge water while mashing is in progress, so it's ready to go as soon as mashing is done. I have a 65,000 BTU (i think) burner called 'little kahuna' and it takes it some time to bring 5 gal to 170 degrees for sparging.
3) hose clamps on store-bought immersion chiller suck. They couldn't take the water pressure from my yard faucet without leaking, even when tightened all the way. So I turned down the pressure. I am going to flare the ends or solder on flare fittings and make up a set of hoses that can easily be attached/detached. The thing is downright ungainly (for use, cleaning, and storage) with hoses hanging off of it and always getting tangled.
4) clean-up is a pain in the ass. I'm looking for any tips on making this easier.
question: does anyone start heating the wort while sparging is still going on? Of course you wouldn't want a full boil until sparging is done, I'm just thinking of ways to do things in parallel, and starting to heat the wort to sub-boiling while sparging is in progress seems like a potential time saver. Otherwise you sparge, then wait a while while the full kettle of wort comes up to temp.
any other time savers? pumps for example. I'm sure they're convenient but do they save time as well?
1) glass thermometers suck.
2) start heating your sparge water while mashing is in progress, so it's ready to go as soon as mashing is done. I have a 65,000 BTU (i think) burner called 'little kahuna' and it takes it some time to bring 5 gal to 170 degrees for sparging.
3) hose clamps on store-bought immersion chiller suck. They couldn't take the water pressure from my yard faucet without leaking, even when tightened all the way. So I turned down the pressure. I am going to flare the ends or solder on flare fittings and make up a set of hoses that can easily be attached/detached. The thing is downright ungainly (for use, cleaning, and storage) with hoses hanging off of it and always getting tangled.
4) clean-up is a pain in the ass. I'm looking for any tips on making this easier.
question: does anyone start heating the wort while sparging is still going on? Of course you wouldn't want a full boil until sparging is done, I'm just thinking of ways to do things in parallel, and starting to heat the wort to sub-boiling while sparging is in progress seems like a potential time saver. Otherwise you sparge, then wait a while while the full kettle of wort comes up to temp.
any other time savers? pumps for example. I'm sure they're convenient but do they save time as well?