5 gallon HLT?

[Qeelin]

I'm wanting to go all grain soon and I have an old 5 gallon brew kettle that I'm not using anymore. Would it be possible to use it as an HLT or would I have to have a larger one? I'm just trying to get into all grain on a budget. I would upgrade it later on but would it get me started?

Ronnie

 

[jaobrien6]

I use a 5 gallon kettle for my HLT and it just barely works for my 5 gallon batches. You obviously have to re-fill it with your sparge water, and heat that while the mash is sitting.

It depends on a lot of numbers whether it'll work for each batch. Mash thickness, grain bill, pre-boil volume target, etc. Obviously if you run into a situation where you need to sparge with more than 5 gallons, it won't work. I'd probably try to thin your mash out a little in that case so you have more strike water and less sparge water.

Short answer: Yes, it works... barely. If you already have one, use it for now.

 

[Bensiff]

+1 to jaobrien6...you will really be pushing it. However, toss another pot of water on your stove to make up the difference, another couple of gallons will make a big difference in what you can do.

 

[jaobrien6]

Oh, and another thing. If you don't have a valve installed in the pot, you're really probably limited to 4 to 4.5 gallons. There's no way you can pick up and pour from a kettle that's filled to the brim... Even scooping water out with a pitcher is dicey on that first pitcher. So if you stick to 4 or 4.5 gallons of sparge water, that limits you even more. Might need to do thinner mashes around 1.5 q/lb to make that work out. I still say you *can* do it, and if your choices are make do with the pot you have or delay trying all grain, I vote for giving it a shot. As long as you plan around the limitation, you can do it.

 

[JuanMoore]

It's not ideal, but it should work fine with proper planning. You can use the BK to heat the mash-out water, or a portion of the strike water, or even some of the sparge water if you have a spare bucket to hold the first runnings for a minute. A little creative thinking and the HLT size shouldn't really limit the beers you brew at all. I've brewed high gravity 10 gal batches with a 5 gal HLT by double batch sparging and using the BK to heat the strike water and the first half of the sparge water. In that case the HLT was only used for the second half of the sparge water.

 

[rico567]

Since I do a thin mash, I don't really need an HLT. I have a smaller 3.5 gallon SS pot that I do the preheat water in, pour 3 gal. preheat water at 170F into the 10-gal Rubbermaid MLT early, let it sit for over an hour while I make my morning run to town, come back and put 5 gal. strike water in my 30 qt. boil pot, raise to my strike temp. for that batch, remove the preheat water from the MLT, then mash in. Toward the end of the mash, I raise the temperature of the 3 gal. of preheat water back to 170F. When I've collected the first runnings, I dump the 3 gal. of sparge in. Depending on the amount of grist in the batch, I may have to adjust the final amount of water a bit, but this can easily be done with a smaller container. For a regular batch of 10-11 pounds of grist, this gives me right around the magic 5.5 gal of wort when boiled off. Works for me with my setup, YMMV.

 

[shortyjacobs]

I used a 5 gal for a while. It works fine, especially if you double batch sparge, as in that case your sparges are typically only a few gallons each.

 

[IrregularPulse]

That's the beauty of AG brewing. Not all batches have to be 5G! Use what you have until you can afford to upgrade and do 3.5-4 gallon batches if that's what you're equipment will allow for.
Another option. I've been brewing AG for 1.5-2 years now. With one keg and a cooler. The keg is my HLT to heat my full strike water amount. The cooler is my mash tun. After my mash I drain my runnings into buckets (usually my fermenter for the day and a Menards bucket or two) and then once I have my last batch sparge done, if there's any water left in the Keg, I empty it and it then becomes my boil kettle.

 

[Qeelin]

How much do used kegs usually cost?

 

[Germelli1]

That's the beauty of AG brewing. Not all batches have to be 5G! Use what you have until you can afford to upgrade and do 3.5-4 gallon batches if that's what you're equipment will allow for.
Another option. I've been brewing AG for 1.5-2 years now. With one keg and a cooler. The keg is my HLT to heat my full strike water amount. The cooler is my mash tun. After my mash I drain my runnings into buckets (usually my fermenter for the day and a Menards bucket or two) and then once I have my last batch sparge done, if there's any water left in the Keg, I empty it and it then becomes my boil kettle.

Hey IP,

I have a 7.75 Sanke keg that I havn't found a great use for. I am thinking about making an electric HLT out of it but have been holding off since drilling it intimidates me, and my slightly illogical fear of using an electric heating element in a metal container. Would this be doable? As of now I am just planning on picking up a used cooler or something.

I brew 5 gallon batches and right now the keg has a carboy cap and 7.5 gallons of fermenting Apfelwein in it.

 

[randomsample]

I used a 5 gal for a while. It works fine, especially if you double batch sparge, as in that case your sparges are typically only a few gallons each.

+1, I still use my 5.5 and generally follow small variants on:

Mash in with ~3.5 Gal @ 160-165
Sparge with ~3.5 Gal @185
Mash out with 5 Qt boiling water.

I can't remember who's advice I based this on, but it's someone big here, and it's been working wonderfully for me.

 

[dedhedjed]

I do it and its not hard at all. heat your strike water in your BK (a keggle in my case) and do a double batch sparge using the small HLT (my sparges are usually around 2 gallons each. I'll upgrade eventually , but for now this works just fine for me and should for you.