Need help planning my direct fire rims sparging system

[Tomtanner]

Hello gents,

I am the end of my Brutus type three vessel single tier build and am focussing on my mash tun so that I can get to brewing.





Here is what I currently have in place. I have two thermometers and a false bottom in place and lids from ikea that look like this





I have seen a few examples of using a fly sparge system alone with these lids that look very sharp, but I want to be able to see my fluid levels during recirculating. Also is a simple rotating sparge arm all that is needed when adding sparge water?

I guess what I am looking for are examples of what others have in place for this system so that I can grab some ideas and hopefully save a little cash by getting it right the first time.

Are there any examples out there?

 

[rekoob]

plenty of examples out there, try searching for them. I have seen a bunch, didn't look for any to link here cuz i don't know how to do that yet. lol
notice your valve is right above the "vent" hole. you may have some valve heating problems and might need to plug that hole or put a heat shield under your valve.
you prob wont be able to see your water level with the top on anyway, heck even with the top off it's hard to see in the tank most of the time just from the steam.
when I started my stand I only had one pump for a while so I was batch sparging. come to find out I get damn good results and have always been over my numbers so I just stuck with that instead of changing back to fly sparging. I do like fly sparging and will prob get around to adding a sparge arm at some point but it's low on my list right now.
everything looking good. good luck.

 

[Docgineer]

Are you planning on using the Brutus style lid recirculation scheme? If so, it's going to be really hard with normal tools to drill a hole in glass. You could pay someone to drill it out I suppose. If you aren't all about recirculating through the lid the ol side port and hose on top of the grain works well. I used to use that with no issues before I got a new mash tun.

 

[Tomtanner]

plenty of examples out there, try searching for them. I have seen a bunch, didn't look for any to link here cuz i don't know how to do that yet. lol
notice your valve is right above the "vent" hole. you may have some valve heating problems and might need to plug that hole or put a heat shield under your valve.
you prob wont be able to see your water level with the top on anyway, heck even with the top off it's hard to see in the tank most of the time just from the steam.
when I started my stand I only had one pump for a while so I was batch sparging. come to find out I get damn good results and have always been over my numbers so I just stuck with that instead of changing back to fly sparging. I do like fly sparging and will prob get around to adding a sparge arm at some point but it's low on my list right now.
everything looking good. good luck.

Wow I didn't consider the valve heating, thanks for the tip! I'll plan on fixing that ASAP.

 

[Tomtanner]

Are you planning on using the Brutus style lid recirculation scheme? If so, it's going to be really hard with normal tools to drill a hole in glass. You could pay someone to drill it out I suppose. If you aren't all about recirculating through the lid the ol side port and hose on top of the grain works well. I used to use that with no issues before I got a new mash tun.

Well probably not those lids no. I have seen people use these lids with a rotating storage arm but was just curious if the glass would fog too much to see anything. A lid for me isn't mandatory, but it looks like a good place to mount a rotating sparge arm.

Outside of a sparge arm does one need to add an additional valve for adding strike water etc prior to recirculating?

 

[rekoob]

I added a return port at the top of each of my kegs (BK/MT/HLT) for recalculating, just cuz I wanted to put the lids on to keep stuff from falling in. I will say that I don't use the port for adding my sparge water, I just take the hose off the HLT return and hold the hose in the top of the MT to add water. on both the MT/HLT on the inside of the return is a 45 degree elbow to direct flow down. Like I said earlier, I don't fly sparge right now so I don't have to worry about disturbing the grain bed. on the BK i have a piece of 6 or 8 inch pipe on a 90, the pipe is bent to have the flow close to the wall of the keg and causes a whirlpool when the pump is running during cooling with the IC.