Idea for Sparging

[RJS625]

I was brewing BierMuncher's Bluemoon clone (partial mash) last night when I had an idea for sparging that may or may not exist/be good. We were using socks for the wheat and we mashed in one pan @ 155F, at the end of the 70 minutes we took socks out and dropped them in another pan with one gallon of water at 180F to "sparge" This seemed to work well; we ended up with OG 1.035.

So since we are designing our all grain rig I had an idea. Could you use a basket with holes in it to suspend your grain in your MLT for mashing and then pull the basket and drop it into either your HLT or BK that contains water at sparge temp? Maybe a SS pan with holes in the side and bottom?

BTW the Bluemoon clone smelled awesome, can't wait to try it; thanks BierMuncher!

 

[kanzimonson]

I don't think it would work quite as well. With 10# or more of grain, I don't think you'd get as much of a rinsing effect as you did with dunking socks in water.

In my mind, I'm taking it to the extreme: you get a plastic fermentation bucket, drill holes all over the sides and bottom to make it pretty permeable, and dunk from one mashing bucket to another sparging bucket. It would be less work for you to build a Zapap lauter tun, and much more effective.

 

[homebrewer_99]

This is not a new idea. This has been done before, MANY TIMES...

Instead of ruining 2 buckets why not just do your dunking (recommended 10 minutes) in the sparge water in another pot?

 

[Wellshooter]

I brewed with a friend the other day and he sparged by dunking the grain sack in the BK. OG was right on the money. A lot simpler than the instructions that I had been following.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I brewed with a friend the other day and he sparged by dunking the grain sack in the BK. OG was right on the money. A lot simpler than the instructions that I had been following.

...and no 2 hours spent drilling holes into a perfectly good primary fermenter...

 

[RJS625]

I didn't say it was new, just not sure if anyone does this. I'm talking about on an all grain scale though, not partial mash like I did. For partial mash this worked well and I'll probably use it for future batches. But for all grain like kanzimonson said I wonder if this would work with 10+lbs of grain in some sort of metal basket. Quick search for Zapap seems analogous to a false bottom and fly sparging, no? The rig we are building is a single tier 3 SS vessel system so that's why I'm thinking a metal basket or SS vessel with holes.

 

[david_42]

It would certainly work. I could do this by drilling out my old 30 qt pot. It fits fine in the 60 qt one and the 48 qt IceCube mash tun. Drilling 100's of tiny holes in SS isn't my idea of fun, though. Would be easier if it was aluminum.

My turkey fryer came with a Hush-puppy tray, but the holes are way too large for grain.

 

[RJS625]

Could always make a metal frame out of SS wire and line it with SS screen... Maybe we'll build one if we can find the material and when we get our rig going compare this to batch sparging.

 

[LandofOZ]

i use the 5 gallon paint strainer sock/bag mash in a 5 gallon igloo water coller with 4 gallons water and then sparge in my brew pot. the sock bag just fots over the opeenings of both. but 10 to 12 lbs grains is brobably max for my 5 gallon set up. hav e had no problems hitting my OG's, just an adaptaion of brew in bag. A lauter and sparge in bag. ///////////////////////////KISS

 

[homebrewer_99]

Land of OZ

So, you're from Wamego, KS?

 

[Denny]

Why? What's to be gained from it?

 

[Bobby_M]

I was brewing BierMuncher's Bluemoon clone (partial mash) last night when I had an idea for sparging that may or may not exist/be good. We were using socks for the wheat and we mashed in one pan @ 155F, at the end of the 70 minutes we took socks out and dropped them in another pan with one gallon of water at 180F to "sparge" This seemed to work well; we ended up with OG 1.035.

So since we are designing our all grain rig I had an idea. Could you use a basket with holes in it to suspend your grain in your MLT for mashing and then pull the basket and drop it into either your HLT or BK that contains water at sparge temp? Maybe a SS pan with holes in the side and bottom?

BTW the Bluemoon clone smelled awesome, can't wait to try it; thanks BierMuncher!

I guess the real question is, why bring the heavy wet volume of grain to a new water supply when you can bring the lighter volume of sparge water to the MLT instead? A cooler with the stainless braid is so easy and functional. Also, the dunk sparge doesn't really let you vorlauf.