Need some tips for my 3 kegs system

[Griffsta]

Hey guys,

Im finally going all grain, I have 3 kegs I am about to convert. My question is simple:

Do I need to have a Sight glass and thermometer for each one?

If I put a sight glass on my MLT, is that legit? How about a thermometer? Do these screw up the sparging process at all?

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

I would think you would only need a sight glass in your HLT. I suppose you could use one in your MLT, but you could have issues with grain in it. As long as you can tell from the sight glass in the HLT how much water you had added to the MLT, you should be good.

You will want thermometers in both your HLT and MLT.

As far as your boil kettle, you might want a thermometer there, but you really only need it to check your post boil chill temp.

 

[Couevas]

A sight glass on your MLT is not needed. You won't really need to know the liquid level in there and any scale you put on it would have to change each time you change your recipe (ie. different amounts/types of grain taking up volume)

I would put one on the HLT, so that you can know exactly how much strike/sparge water you are using.

I would also put one on your kettle as you will want to know what volume you have boiled down to.

Thermos would be useful on all 3 though.....(even on the kettle, to know when you are at pitching temp)

Good Luck

 

[Bobby_M]

There's one application where the sight on the MLT is useful. I fill my MLT with water directly from the hose until I have the volume I need and then heat it in place. I can measure it off in my HLT and then do a transfer, but the one time cost of $20 for the sightglass was a no brainer to not have to do that. I think Lil' Sparky and I are the only people in the whole community here that see this advantage.

 

[conpewter]

Bobby, you ever get grain in your sight glass?

 

[Seabee John]

Hey guys,

Im finally going all grain, I have 3 kegs I am about to convert. My question is simple:

Do I need to have a Sight glass and thermometer for each one?

If I put a sight glass on my MLT, is that legit? How about a thermometer? Do these screw up the sparging process at all?

You don't need a sight glass on your MLT (as stated earlier), but if you do want one, there is a simple way you can keep grain out of the glass.

first install a close nipple on the inside of the keg (to the bulkhead coupling)

Second, get a cap (the same thread size as the nipple) and drill a hole through the end of the cap. The hole size isn't really important, just that it's smaller than the the thread size and large enough to let fluid pass through.

Next, cut a piece of stainless mesh (screen) in a circular shape to the outside diameter of the nipple.

Last, place the screen over the end of the nipple and then screw on the cap. This will screen out the grain, but let the wort through, then you can observe both the fluid level and color of your wort.

 

[Bobby_M]

Bobby, you ever get grain in your sight glass?

Not yet....

 

[Couevas]

Bobby, you ever get grain in your sight glass?

If you install your sight bulkhead below your false bottom (if you use a false bottom) you will not get grain in it.

If you use a braid, bazooka or manifold, you will have that risk unless you use the screen mentioned above.


Personally, I couldn't convince myself to pony up for any sights. I use a homemade dipstick for now. It is a piece of 3/8 PVC tube, marked with half gallon intervals. My 3 vessels are all sanke kegs with the same volume, so I can use one graduated dipstick for all.

 

[Bobby_M]

My sight bulkhead is wide open to the mash and nothing ever gets accumulated in there. Even if it did, it's nothing a quick blast with the hose wouldn't fix.

 

[nathan]

I'm with bobby. My mlt is a blichmann, though, so it's pretty rockin. I use it just for filling, to get sparge levels, I go by the 1" of water on top of the grain bed, but sometimes once I know that level I use the sight glass to check on it during the sparge and adjust flows.
I'd recommend you mount your thermometers as low as possible so you can get good readings on lower volume levels.

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

I have a thermometer, sightglass, and ball valve on my HLT. For me, that's one of the only places I really care about temperature. I have just a ball valve on both my MLT and boil kettle. I could see having a thermometer on both of those, but I don't direct fire my mash tun so it's not an issue. I check the temp once at the beginning of the mash, then close it up. If my strike water is the correct temp, my mash temp will also be correct.

I'm going to be adding a sight glass to my boil kettle at some point. I can estimate my pre and post-boil volume pretty well, but I'd like to get more accurate. Without accurate volume readings, it's pretty hard to evaluate your efficiencies.

 

[Griffsta]

But if I mount my thermometer close to the bottom, wont it be non-representative of the upper portion of the MLT?

 

[Couevas]

But if I mount my thermometer close to the bottom, wont it be non-representative of the upper portion of the MLT?

People can debate on this for hours, but there are generally 2 ways to prevent temp gradients....

You can stir your mash constantly/periodically or you can recirculate your mash.
By doing either of these, you will be providing enough circulation of mash to prevent temperature stratification (differing temps by location).

 

[nathan]

plus, if you use a smaller grain bill, or you pull a decoction (or both) and your grain bed height drops below your thermometer, it's useless. better to stir/recirc and have a good estimate than to sometimes have no use at all.