New AG setup - gravity or pump?

[Gordie]

Howdy y'all. I have completely geeked out on brewing in the short span of 2 months and am in the process of getting my first AG rig set up.

My delima is this - I've got a MLT and a HLT that each have their own burners and I'm trying to either figure out whether to rig one of the burners on top of something and gravity flow the fly sparge or get a pump and avoid the logistical issues of rigging and running a 50,000 btu burner and HLT at an altitude of 3-4 feet.

Anyone have any strong opinions on gravity v. pump? I'm kinda leaning gravity on account of my preference to eliminate moving parts when possible and keep things simple (I'm a simple guy).

Any and all thoughts, opinions and annecdotes are helpful - I'm really new at this.

 

[david_42]

Did the gravity thing, have a one-level, pumped system now. Much easier to work with.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

I'd go pump..if you can afford it. That's the main issue for me. It has to be a food grade, high temperature pump.

Right now I have a very tall tower. (doubles as an anti-tank trap)

 

[FSR402]

I went with gravity for my 12 gallon system. It works great and I'm happy with it. My HLT is about 7 feet off the ground but I hard-piped water lines to it with a valve. So I can fill it (looking at a sight-glass) without having to climb. The MLT is about 4 feet up so I do have to stand on a small ladder to fill it or mix the grains but not a big deal. My kettle is about 2 feet up so that I can also gravity feed thru my CFC and into a bucket or carboy.

Someday when I go to a larger system, like a 1-2BBL system I will go to pumps so that I can build a single tier. But that's going to be a long time.

If you don't have the money for pumps (two work a lot better the one) then go with gravity. It's free.

 

[Gordie]

Right on. I think the pump is in my future. Most of what I've seen shows food grade plastic housings and recommends plastic barb fittings. Any problems with fitting a ball valve and ss barb?

I'd rather have metal. I'm just that way. I had a lot of Iron Maiden when I was a kid and it never really left me.

 

[twst1up]

:rockin: METAL!!!:rockin:

 

[Jaybird]

why not do BOTH I have a 3 tier system I gravity into my mash from my HLT and gravity into a grant from my mash then pump everything from there. I LOVE the system I built I am thinking of making it a closed system but as is I like it. the overall height of my system is about 5'6"
JJ