SoCal-Doug
Well-Known Member
If space and cash allows, and you desire more flexibility, control, and efficiency, go 3V HERMS.
Drain it? Well it depends. During a flush cycle, new water comes in and flushes the old stuff out... so it drains out of the system completely. During a rinse or clean cycle, the liquid is recirculated.
I do it in a spare bedroom for much of my setup using a hose from the bathroom sink and 5 gallon pails to drain into. not ideal but it does work. for recirculating theres no issues, its just when rinsing that I have to pull out the buckets. I suppose I could run another hose to the bathroom as well but..I meant where do you drain it to? Floor drain? Pump to sink? Clean in place sounds great, I'm just not sure of the logistics for many people.
real holy grail is a conical bottom (slight taper, not like fermenter angles) so the liquid feeds into the drain... but now I am just getting greedy!
I'm kind of surprised more people dont go with the upside down keggle with bobbies keg port adapter for center port draining.. I may have stuck with my keggle had I know about it before cutting the top off instead of the bottom.
I do it in a spare bedroom for much of my setup using a hose from the bathroom sink and 5 gallon pails to drain into. not ideal but it does work. for recirculating theres no issues, its just when rinsing that I have to pull out the buckets. I suppose I could run another hose to the bathroom as well but..
I also (as mentioned) just wait for my MT to drain and carry it outside and dump it.. CIP on that would be a real PITA.
I used to be 3 vessel, but eliminated the HLT so now I'm 2 vessel. 10 gallon Igloo cooler Mash Tun, RIMS, and electric boil kettle. I do a modified fly/batch sparge - I heat my sparge water in the boil kettle, then transfer the entire sparge volume over to the mash tun (gently), so the upper layer of the mash tun is all water - kind of like a black and tan! Sparge as normal to the boil kettle. Mash efficiency is still the same as when I would do a traditional fly sparge.
Oooh, yeah. I bookmarked that. It will be on my shortlist for the electric build next spring.
Thanks!!!
This comparison video between Chapman's Thermobarrel and SS Brewtech's Infusion showed up on my Youtube recommendations today. It's a little over 2 years old and done on the 10 gallon size, but a good comparison between the two types.