Keggles vs Coolers question

<= 1 qt per min

 

copy... yea that's slow!

 

Here's my version of a two-tiered, single pump brewery. I pump up from HLT and let gravity drain from MLT to boil kettle. Easy and cheap. (Well cheap is really relative around here)

 

Remember it's only at the beginning though. It also can be faster depending on if how good your false bottom is. Typically, when I gravity drain for batch sparging, I'll open up the valve and run it slowly about 30 seconds. Then I'll go full open without issues. But, I've yet to do it with a pump so I can't comment to that.

 

When batch sparging, you can calculate all water volumes(strike, sparge, etc.) with a sight glass on your HLT, except for post-boil finish volume in the BK. You'll need another sight glass or the graduated dipstick for that. And you can pump from a keggle or a cooler if that makes a difference. The 72 qt coleman Xtreme cooler is hard to beat for versatility. They can also be had sometimes for pretty cheap. If you sold one of those keggles for $150 or so, your pump would be about paid for. But once you weld them all up nice you may just want to keep all that shiny for yourself...

 

Oh yea I could never sell my babies!

Have a long piece of pipe that I'll be calibrating shortly for volumes.... no sight glass on the bk.

 

Sooooo true. You should have to sign a waiver before reading these forums that lets you know from this point forward all your disposable income will be spent on ingenious brewing ideas.

 

I highly recommend a site glass on your BK. You can get them for a good price from Brew Hardware. It's the best way I've used to monitor and confirm pre-boil volumes. This makes it the easiest way to measure mash efficiency and make sure you end up with the correct amount of boiled wort for chilling....and drinking

 

I started batch sparging a few month ago and will never look back. And I do it with a cooler setup with a pump. I throttle back the flow a bit and recirc until the wort is clear. I slowly jack up the flow and when it is clear I pump it to the kettle.

I then pump water into the mash tun, stir it up good, then repeat the recirc process then pump to the kettle. I get the same efficiency as fly sparging and I save an hour. And I have ZERO concern for a stuck sparge because even if it did happen you just get some liquid in there then stir and recirc and you are back in business. In my opinion the pump is the key to batch sparging but there are a thousand ways to do it. Either way after fly sparging for 10 years I can tell you I wasted a ton of time and got no benefit from it.

I also am still in the camp that for what sight glasses cost they are a waste of money. Out some tick marks on your paddle or whatever you use to stir and call it good. It works great and costs nothing.

 

Having my buddy weld in two couplers to act as fluid returns up high inline with the current ball valves on the mash tun and boil kettle.