Hot liquor tank

[rponcejr]

I see some people use a cooler for got liquor tank. How and why is it good what are pros and cons

 

[TheCondor]

I personally use it so I can heat up sparge water in my boil kettle then transfer to cooler and it will hold temp. Meanwhile I start my first runnings straight into kettle and not into buckets or other holding vessels. If that makes sense.

 

[rponcejr]

You use 2 coolers one hit liquor other mash and that way you sparge then go into a boil? Is that right Or close? Trying to get a good setup

 

[TheCondor]

Yea. So I mash in a 10 gallon cooler. When mash is almost complete, I begin to heat sparge water in my boil kettle. I will go a few degrees past sparge temp then transfer to smaller 5 gallon cooler. I begin to runoff into my boil kettle and from there you can batch or fly sparge.

 

[rponcejr]

Thank you for the help

 

[aprichman]

I use a 10 gallon kettle with a diptube for my HLT. It's an option that may not be too much more expensive than going with a cooler.

 

[kh54s10]

I think the main reason to use a cooler is it is cheaper than a pot and burner. I use a 10 gallon pot on a turkey fryer burner as my HLT. That way I don't have to move hot water to the HLT. I also have an all gravity 3 tier system so I don't need a pump. Everything goes downhill once heat is applied.

 

[rponcejr]

Is a 5 gallon mash and hot liquor tank good for a 5 gallon batch o beer

 

[TheCondor]

I have a 5 gallon hot liquor and 10 gallon mash tun. You can do a 5 gallon mash but it gets tight with bigger grain bills.

 

[Natdavis777]

I used to use a 10gal Rubbermaid cooler as my HLT (Heat in the BK then transfer to the HLT, then start fly sparging into the BK). Basically it was cheap vessel that's sole purpose was to hold hot water and keep it hot. And I didnt have a 3rd keggle yet. Fell into a free keg awhile back and ditched the cooler.

 

[woo_pig]

I bought two 10 gallon coolers .Didn't really think about it. I only needed 1 10gallon and 1 5 gallon for HLT. I'll find someone that will buy it from me.

 

[LBF]

I've been using two coolers, although I typically call my HLT cooler an HWT (Hot Water Tank) since that's all I ever put in it. When I was first buying my AG equipment, I didn't think about needing it, figured I could use my old 5-gal kettle for heating the sparge water. Until I realized that my sparge water volume was over 5 gallons that is. I was in Home Depot one day after that and saw they had a deal on a 48 quart cooler with a free lunch box, so it came home with me. I tried just attaching to the drain plug, but it didn't work out so well and I ended up putting in the same type of ball valve setup as I did on my MT.

So now I heat the strike water in my kettle, drain it into the MT and put that up on my redneck gravity flow stand and add the grain. Towards the end of the mash, I heat my sparge water and run it into the HWT, then hoist that up on the top level. From there, it's all downhill. Once I'm done with the HWT, it gets taken down and flipped over to drain dry. When I'm done with the MT, it gets hauled down the the compost pile and dumped. Then I clean it out while the boil is going. Done with the boil, I set the CFC on the tailgate and the fermenter behind the truck.... What? I did say it's a redneck gravity flow stand, also known as my work truck...

FWIW, I have a 15 gallon kettle and 72 quart MT. The idea was to be able to brew 11 gallon batches of established recipes, thus the need for a large HWT/HLT.

 

[RM-MN]

Now that you have several opinions on hot liquor tanks, consider just using cold water for your sparge. It makes little difference in the quality of the sparge whether you use hot, warm, or cold water but using cold water cuts the cost since you can just use your fermenter bucket to dump the cold water in and won't have to buy another pot or cooler.

 

[govner1]

Now that you have several opinions on hot liquor tanks, consider just using cold water for your sparge. It makes little difference in the quality of the sparge whether you use hot, warm, or cold water but using cold water cuts the cost since you can just use your fermenter bucket to dump the cold water in and won't have to buy another pot or cooler.

I respectfully disagree. Part of the reason for using sparge water @ 168°-170°F is to stop the enzymatic activity of the mash process & preserve your fermentables profile.
Additionally, warmer water makes the sugars you are rinsing more fluid and helps w/ improving the flow from your tun. Cold water can in some can cause the formation of more gelatinized material & result in stuck sparge a. This can occur even when your mash/sparge temp drops below 140°F.

 

[applescrap]

I respectfully disagree. Part of the reason for using sparge water @ 168°-170°F is to stop the enzymatic activity of the mash process & preserve your fermentables profile.
Additionally, warmer water makes the sugars you are rinsing more fluid and helps w/ improving the flow from your tun. Cold water can in some can cause the formation of more gelatinized material & result in stuck sparge a. This can occur even when your mash/sparge temp drops below 140°F.

Theoretically yes, actually no.rm was right. Cold water is fine to sparge with its real downfall lies in making the boil take longer because you are cooling wort. With hot water sparge you save time by heating sparge water during mash. Infact heat sparge water and use bucket food safe duh and time everything just right and no need to use 2nd cooler you batch from bucket. Id bail on 2nd cooler unless you need it for a valve to fly sparge. Reason being cold water works and above reasoning that you can just dump hot water from bucket. An experiment was just done on this and it was discussed on Basic brewing radio.