Hot Liquor Tank

[Rob2010SS]

Hey guys. I'm looking to make the switch to AG from Extract but trying to avoid the $200 dollar investment in the AG starter kit at NB. I found someone selling a mash tun for fairly cheap. My question is what is needed to make your own HLT? Just another cooler with the stainless ball valve on the bottom? Anything else need to go on the inside?

Thanks for the help in advance. If anyone knows where I can get a kit similar to NB's all grain starter for cheaper than $200, I'm open to that as well.

 

[cmac62]

I have been brewing AG for the past three years and I don't use a HLT. I heat the water and manually add it to the MT for both dough in and sparge. I have been thinking about adding a HLT to my system, but all you really need is a 5 gal pot and a burner.

I hope this helps

 

[govner1]

Your 5 g pot is essentially your HLT.
When I started out i began with 3 gal AG batches using two 5 gal Rubbermaid coolers & one burner (Blichmann). One was my HLT & the other (w/ a false bottom) my MLT. I had one 8 gal BK that I used for heating my strike water. I then heated my sparge water ( a few degrees high) and stored in my HLT cooler until needed while mashing.
Then all was drained into the BK & all was gravity feed.
Now I've "advanced" to 6g batches with a dedicated 10g HLT, 15g MLT, & 15g BK w/ 3 burners, pump, CFC, whirlpool, etc.
I must admit, sometimes simpler is better!

 

[johnnysoj]

Before going to full all grain with a mash tun, and HLT, give Brew in a bag try. The only thing you'll need is a large mesh bag for the grain. You can probably get a 5 gallon paint strainer bag from home depot. You heat your strike water in your boil kettle, then you put the bag in, and mash in. If you're doing small enough batches, you can stick your kettle into the oven on around 155. Makes it easy. When your done, your just take the bag out, and let it drain. If you're doing no sparge, then you're ready to begin boiling.

 

[kh54s10]

You can use a cooler. You can use a pot. You could also use a pot for the mash tun, heat the water in it then add the grain.

I decided to use a 10 gallon pot for my HLT. I installed a ball valve and a sight glass with thermometer. I have it on a propane burner. I also have plumbed a water lined to it so that I can fill it by opening a valve.

Mine is a 3 vessel gravity system. 10 gallon HLT on a burner on the highest tier. 10 gallon water cooler/braid mash tun on the middle tier. BK on a burner on the low tier. It is high enough to drain into a bucket or my 6 gallon Better Bottles.



Arghhh! sideways pictures!!!

 

[SleepyCreekBrews]

A Hot Liquor Tank by any other name is just a water tank , but it rolls off the tongue a lot sweeter, dont it ?
It's supposed to be able to heat water too
Around here it's pretty easy to find used brewing equipment on Craigslist ...I suspect it's the same everywhere .

 

[RM-MN]

Hey guys. I'm looking to make the switch to AG from Extract but trying to avoid the $200 dollar investment in the AG starter kit at NB. I found someone selling a mash tun for fairly cheap. My question is what is needed to make your own HLT? Just another cooler with the stainless ball valve on the bottom? Anything else need to go on the inside?

Thanks for the help in advance. If anyone knows where I can get a kit similar to NB's all grain starter for cheaper than $200, I'm open to that as well.

That question has a real simple answer. You don't need a HLT. Not ever. Cool water for sparging gets you nearly the same results as hot water so save yourself some bucks.

As Jonnysoj mentioned, you can do your mashing as BIAB and save the cost of even the cooler mash tun as you would do the mash in the pot you will boil in. Your only added investment would be a fine mesh bag, assuming you already have an appropriately sized pot.

 

[Rob2010SS]

Hmmm interesting. This thread is making me think of all kinds of questions...

1. What is the difference between biab and an all out 3 tier all grain setup? If biab gets the same results why do ppl go the other route at all?

2. So i currently have a 5 gallon boil kettle that Im doing partial extract boils in. I really would like to stick to 5 gallon batches - no smaller or bigger. Based on the responses above, if i went the 3 tier setup, could i use my 5 gallon boil kettle as the hlt or is it too small?

3. For biab, how big of a boil kettle would i need to do full 5 gallon batches? 8 gallon?

Thanks for the info.

 

[Blackdirt_cowboy]

1. There no difference in the final product. This is mostly just personal preference, predicated by how much space you have and how much equipment you want to own. Some people have lower efficiencies with BIAB, but there are ways to work around that to bring efficiencies up.

2. I don't do traditional all grain, so I'm not the best qualified to answer this, but I think you could get by with your 5g pot as an HLT, but I do believe that bigger would be better.

3. Personally, I wouldn't go smaller than a 10g pot for 5g batches of BIAB. You could get by with an 8g pot, but bigger beers would be near impossible unless you add a sparge step.

 

[johnnysoj]

+1 to blackdirt_cowboys response.

Some people, like me like to have the option to do larger, stronger batches, so we opt for a bigger setup. As far as limitations with BIAB, you need to get creative if you want to do heavier beers (>1.060) as you'll run into issues fitting all the grain in the bag. You can always add DME, or LME to bump it up though.

As far as your 5 gallon kettle, thats a bit small, even for three gallon batches. I would keep an eye out for a 8 to 10 gallon kettle, minimum.

If you want to learn more about the process and see if its for you, check this out:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6WVul6IEKk[/ame]
Brewing TV's brew in a bag episode.

 

[jalc6927]

I got mine on eBay, 10 gallon mash tun, and 10 gallon HLT for $139, plus 26 shipping

Works great

But as stated there are other options for HLT. They're only needed to hold your sparge water at a certain temp while mashing

 

[z-bob]

My HLT is a 5 gallon plastic bucket with a 5500W heating element. It will boil 3 or 4 gallons of water in just a few minutes. Pour that in the mash tun and add cold water to hit my temperature.

 

[z-bob]

Hmmm interesting. This thread is making me think of all kinds of questions...

1. What is the difference between biab and an all out 3 tier all grain setup? If biab gets the same results why do ppl go the other route at all?

2. So i currently have a 5 gallon boil kettle that Im doing partial extract boils in. I really would like to stick to 5 gallon batches - no smaller or bigger. Based on the responses above, if i went the 3 tier setup, could i use my 5 gallon boil kettle as the hlt or is it too small?

3. For biab, how big of a boil kettle would i need to do full 5 gallon batches? 8 gallon?

Thanks for the info.

BIAB doesn't scale up all that well. The bag gets too bulky and heavy (but some people do it anyway)

Eight gallon kettle will work, but 10 would be much better if you have the room for it. I do 4 gallon batches in an 8 gallon kettle, and even that is pushing it sometimes.

 

[doug293cz]

+1 to blackdirt_cowboys response.

Some people, like me like to have the option to do larger, stronger batches, so we opt for a bigger setup. As far as limitations with BIAB, you need to get creative if you want to do heavier beers (>1.060) as you'll run into issues fitting all the grain in the bag. You can always add DME, or LME to bump it up though.

As far as your 5 gallon kettle, thats a bit small, even for three gallon batches. I would keep an eye out for a 8 to 10 gallon kettle, minimum.

...

With a 10 gal pot, you can do about a 15.6 lb grain bill in a full volume (no-sparge) mash (9 gal mash volume) to get a pre-boil volume of 6.5 gal, and a post-boil volume of 5.5 gal with an OG of about 1.072. (95% conversion efficiency assumed, and bag squeezing to a 0.08 gal/lb absorption rate.) To do higher gravity brews, you would need to add some kind of sparge step, so you can mash with more grain and less water. For an 8 gal pot (7 gal mash volume), full volume mashes would be limited to grain bills of just 4.7 lb, with resulting OG about 1.026 so you would need to sparge for any brew.

Brew on

 

[doug293cz]

BIAB doesn't scale up all that well. The bag gets too bulky and heavy (but some people do it anyway)

...

BIAB scales just fine. All it takes is a pulley suspended above the pot to make bag lifting easy and neat. I brew outside and suspend my pulley from a step ladder. BIAB has been done up to at least 145 gal kettle volumes (of course at that size you need a winch to go with the pulley. )

Brew on

 

[Rob2010SS]

I got mine on eBay, 10 gallon mash tun, and 10 gallon HLT for $139, plus 26 shipping

Works great

But as stated there are other options for HLT. They're only needed to hold your sparge water at a certain temp while mashing

Not going to lie, that's pretty impressive and a great deal!! I can't buy a round 10 gallon beverage cooler and build a mash tun for less than 80, let alone getting both MT and HLT for 139! Good find.

 

[helibrewer]

Assuming traditional, not BIAB brewing, you can use a simple aluminum pot with a valve as your HLT. Aluminum is cheap, easy to install valves into, and you can get a new 15-20 gallon pot for less than $100, look at Latin food stores...tamale pot.

You don't even need a burner, throw a 120VAC, 1000W bucket heater in at when you get out of bed and it will be plenty hot enough for sparging by the time you are ready....although, a burner is much faster.

 

[z-bob]

BIAB scales just fine. All it takes is a pulley suspended above the pot to make bag lifting easy and neat. I brew outside and suspend my pulley from a step ladder. BIAB has been done up to at least 145 gal kettle volumes (of course at that size you need a winch to go with the pulley. )

Brew on

Perhaps I should have just said it doesn't scale as easily. There's a guy in my local homebrew club that uses BIAB for what looks like about 1 bbl.

 

[jalc6927]

It would be better if it had a heating element in it, or a thermometer, but can't have it

Putting a thermo isn't hard not sure about heating element

 

[RicardoBrittoni]

I have a 10 gallon aluminum tamale pot, Amazon, $40 with lid, I drilled it for a ball valve (weldless, taken from the biol kettle kit, got a 3 piece for that) and second hole for sight gage and thermometer. Works great, it only has to heat water. Not very demanding.

 

[RicardoBrittoni]

It's over there on the left. Not sexy, but works until it move up to a bigger kit.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

BIAB is less equipment intensive and works just fine. The beer is the same.

The only way I'll do BIAB is with a bag in a cooler as really like the simplicity of hitting and holding mash temps that way.

A simple solution, that works for me:

rectanglular cooler MLT $22 coleman 48 qt at Walmart
10 gal boil kettle (I got a welded Brubuilt with valve for $180)
5 gallon beverage cooler HLT (I had this already, but about $30)

I just run a high temp hose into the drain outlet of the MLT. It's a tight fit and requires no mods or hardware to attach. I have an inline brass ball valve just outside the cooler (just barbed on both ends). Use a BIAB custom fitted for about $40.

I run a silicone hose on the outside of the HLT valve...again, no mods or hardware.

I heat my strike water in the kettle and drain into the MLT. Add grains and mash. Heat sparge water while mashing and drain to HLT. Drain first runnings to kettle and start heating. Drain sparge water to MLT, stir and drain into the kettle.

It's really easy, not too expensive and I hold within a degree on my mash temps with no fuss. Cleanup is easy and I have the coolers to use for other things if I'm so inclined.

 

[lslbrew]

It's over there on the left. Not sexy, but works until it move up to a bigger kit.

Yours looks better than mine. I had a old rectangle turkey fryer kettle that I converted into a HLT. By convert I mean that I found a hose barb that would thread into the existing drain valve. Only last week did I finally add a real bulkhead, pickup tube and ball valve and a thermometer.

 

[dyqik]

An Ale Pail bottling bucket will also work fine as a HLT. The sparge water temperature isn't critical.

Personally I use a 5gal home depot cooler, from when I started brewing in 2011/12. However, if I was starting from scratch now, I would probably go BIAB.

 

[Mathomson75]

I bought the nb 10 gal kit for about $160 shipping included if your patient just wait for the right sale. Or if you can get a mash run cheap try batch sparring. I personally like fly sparging but I have friends who feel the same about batch.

 

[MaryB]

All depends on what you are used to and want to use. I learned with a 3 tier setup all gravity fed so that is what I use. No pumps to clean, 170 degree sparge water means it takes less time to get to a boil...