Blichman autosparge

[Islandboy85]

I was thinking of adding the autosparge to my keg mash tun, but I wasn't sure if it would work well in a keg. I do 5 and 10 gallon batches. Has anyone added it to a keg yet?
If I can't fully control it with it mounted permanently in the keg, then maybe I can mount in on an adjustable mount.

 

[Islandboy85]

I e-mailed Blichmann to ask them if the Autosparge would fit a keg MLT and be able to perform fore both 5 and 6 gallon batches. This is what they said:
"It'll fit and there is about 8" of swing in the arm.* For small batches you can just run deeper water level on top
of the grain if it doesn't reach far enough."

YAY! So, we know now it works. Do those of you who have the Autosparge like it? I'm only sparging with it not vorlaufing, so grain won't ever get stuck in it.

 

[KVP]

I like mine.:rockin:

 

[ikonis]

I personally am not a huge fan of it at all. It's not very "auto" in my experience. And it leaks like a sieve with any amount pumping action. I've tried to counteract the leaking by wrapping the plunger with teflon tape... but that is less than ideal. It also makes it even less "auto" by putting enough pressure to keep the float submerged.

It "works" and is still in my rig... but I feel that I could have simply put an elbow and a barb with a hose and achieved more than acceptable results.

 

[beach]

I like it very much. My MLT is a sanke and I've done 5 to 11 gallon batches with no probs.

Beach

 

[Cooner]

This may be off topic slightly, since the original question was whether to use the autosparge in a keg mash tun, but FWIW I thought the autosparge was a great idea, but a little expensive.

I found a 3/8 inch plastic float valve that was temperature tolerant and I built my own. I mash and sparge in a cooler and I went through the lid of the cooler right in the middle. I drilled a hole just large enough for the inlet of the float valve. I used a 3/8 to 1/2 coupler and a 1/2 inch hose barb for the inlet. In the cooler I built a sparge "ring" out of temperature tolerant braided vinyl tubing. It hangs just below the lid

It woked great as long as I turned the flow of the runnings down pretty low. Can it be too slow?? A question I haven't seen. The idea for me was to sparge without having to open the cooler, but unfortunately I still needed to vorlauf.

I've only used it twice as I was batch sparging previously, but I did see an increase in efficiency. It does take longer than batch sparging though and that may be why. I think it must be doing a better job of rinsing the grain bed with the fly sparge.

 

[Islandboy85]

This may be off topic slightly, since the original question was whether to use the autosparge in a keg mash tun, but FWIW I thought the autosparge was a great idea, but a little expensive.

I found a 3/8 inch plastic float valve that was temperature tolerant and I built my own. I mash and sparge in a cooler and I went through the lid of the cooler right in the middle. I drilled a hole just large enough for the inlet of the float valve. I used a 3/8 to 1/2 coupler and a 1/2 inch hose barb for the inlet. In the cooler I built a sparge "ring" out of temperature tolerant braided vinyl tubing. It hangs just below the lid

It woked great as long as I turned the flow of the runnings down pretty low. Can it be too slow?? A question I haven't seen. The idea for me was to sparge without having to open the cooler, but unfortunately I still needed to vorlauf.

I've only used it twice as I was batch sparging previously, but I did see an increase in efficiency. It does take longer than batch sparging though and that may be why. I think it must be doing a better job of rinsing the grain bed with the fly sparge.

Where did you pick up the plastic float valve from?