all grain brewing with keggles

[baywater]

So i searched everywhere and I can't find out the answers to my questions on all grain brewing with keggles regarding heating recirculating and sparging.

I thought I could just brew the way I did with the coolers...... Heat water in HLT and soak the grains then add water to the grains and drain at the same time keeping level the same to the boil....

everyone seems to recirculate in the mash tun.. i understand that SS xfers heat very well, so I was just gonna wrap the tank... then add water and drain it at same time for sparging... is there a problem with that? Do i have to have a RIMS or HERMS setup?

Thanks.

 

[RoadKing]

You can certainly use keggles just like coolers, that's how I started.
I think as we amass equipment, pumps etc...it makes it easier to just start automating. Even though my MLT is insulated, it still loses temp., so I boost the heat. I don't want to scorch wort and I have a pump so I recirrculate. Then I figure I might as well put a temp controller in the return line which controls a gas valve so I don't have to worry about manualy maintaining temperatures.
It, for me, just kind of snowballed that way.
Hope this helps.

 

[passedpawn]

I think 90% of keggle mash tuns are just wrapped with reflectix or some other insulator. The other 10% use either HERMS or RIMS to actively control the mash temps.

Just start with an insulated keggle and upgrade later if you want to.

 

[Bobby_M]

The challenge is that metal makes it easy to apply heat but it does take some planning to retain that heat. Most insulations applied to kegs to get them even close to cooler heat retention can't take direct flame. At that point, you're left with a compromise where the insulation is easy to remove and reapply. The alternative is to insulate the heck out of it and treat it just like a cooler by never direct firing, but then why not just use a cooler?

 

[baywater]

Im addicted to stainless steel... What about the sparging part..can i just fill mlt with water from hlt and drain at same time for sparging.. ?

 

[helibrewer]

Im addicted to stainless steel... What about the sparging part..can i just fill mlt with water from hlt and drain at same time for sparging.. ?

Do you batch or fly sparge?

 

[baywater]

Is fly sparging continous

 

[Ma23456]

Yes

 

[baywater]

Why would anyone batch sparge if fly sparging is as simple as controlling the flow rate and water in equals water out?

 

[passedpawn]

Why would anyone batch sparge if fly sparging is as simple as controlling the flow rate and water in equals water out?

1: that's not so simple
2: batch sparging is a lot faster
3: if you get channelling when flys-sparging, you will have poor lautering efficiency - you'll leave sugars
4: requires more equipment

I like the idea of fly-sparging, but at the homebrew level I don't see any advantage.