$2 sparge head and CIP solution

biertourist · Apr 11, 2013

Here's a video showing my $2 sparge head, dough-in and CIP solution:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151641440856929&l=2500282485359551550

The stainless CIP ball options tend to be between $40-$60 and won't work with normal home brew pumps; sparge arms seem to be in the same price range; I've been looking for a solution that will work both for sparging and CIP and this is working great for me so far.

I simply used a $2.15 pop-up lawn sprinkler that I got from my local Home Depot. It comes with 1/2" NPT threads so all I had to do was screw it in hand tight.

When it turns on it extends into the mashtun another 2 inches (fully extended in the video), but I've since unscrewed the sprinkler and installed an insanely cheap black oring on the inside to prevent the head from extending further; now when I turn it on it just sprays liquid without extending further into the mashtun in case I want to make a high gravity 10 gallon batch.

Adam

biertourist · Apr 11, 2013

It should work great for doughing-in, sparging, and CIP (after spent grain removal of course) but my guess is that it won't work well for recirculating the mash as small grain particle might clog it. (I'll test it out next brew day and report back.)

I'm also testing another solution and I have another video that I'll eventually post -I bought a replacement of the internal spray head for one of these sprinklers -it's VERY tiny and you can just barely stretch 1/2" silicone tubing over it. This would take a lot less physical space within the vessel than the full sprinkler assembly and works great if you have hose barbs on the inside vs. NPT threads. It's about the same price as the whole sprinkler head, though; also around $2.

I believe the spray head itself is 5/8" in diameter and I just held the host on with a releasable zip tie for testing.

If you're leery of PVC this would be a more ideal solution than using the whole sprinkler head assembly above as you would only have a very tiny amount of PVC involved.

Adam

biertourist · Apr 11, 2013

My mashtun is one of the Germany/French "thermopots" that are so popular in the UK brewing scene. It's double walled stainless with 1-1 1/2" of foam insulation in between the two layers. I've modified it by adding a welded-in bottom drain 1 1/2" tri clamp ferrule and drilled through the lid to add the hardware for the sparge setup, which you can see in the video.

After cutting the hole in the lid I coated the interior of the hole with food-grade silicone and let it dry to make it waterproof in the event that any of my weldless fittings have a small leak I won't end up with water or wort inside the lid creating a nasty infection. It was an incredibly easy and simple modification even for someone who's really bad at DIY like myself.

Adam