Ok, getting ready for my first AG brew. I will be fly sparging (if for no other good reason than to extend my brew day and have more time to drink beer!) and would rather not spend the money on another kettle for sparge water, although I probably will eventually. My question is: Couldn't I have my kettle on heat maintaining my desired temperature and a plastic bucket with a spigot attached to my sparge arm and just pour (or siphon) the heated water into the bucket? I would keep the amount in the bucket as small as possible to avoid heat loss. I know this isn't the ideal way to go, but would it work with minimal or no adverse effects?
Sparging Equipment Question
- Thread starter panka16
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That may work if you're careful with everything. What temperature are you planning to sparge at? My main concern would be the plastics -- the bucket should be fine, what type of tubing are you planning to use? If you're going to keep the heat on your kettle and continuously siphon out of it, I would also be concerned with the heat melting whatever you are siphoning with.
I would use high temp tubing which is rated for 175 degrees for the siphon. I'm making a porter, so I'm going for a sparging temp of 151 - 153 degrees. I wonder if the amount of time the tubing is exposed to high temps has an influence on its integrity.
Your MASH temp should be in the 150s. Your sparge temp should be in the 170s.
i would think you would probably end up with much better results with a batch sparge, than what sounds like it would be a truly hobbled fly sparge. Especially if, as you say, you plan on doing it the longer way to get more drinking in. Anyway, wtf, go for it. Just take lots of pictures so we can see later.
shivalotus
Well-Known Member
What's your mash tun? Personally I have a 5 gallon igloo beverage cooler with a false bottom and I have better luck with batching than with fly. And by luck I mean better efficiency.
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My mash tun is a 40 qt converted rectangular cooler, I'm almost convinced that Gott coolers with false bottoms get better results. But, in the interest of saving some cash I went for the old cooler I had laying around. Honestly, the more I think about the this, the more I lean towards either batch sparging of biting the bullet and getting another kettle. And yes, Mike, beer consumption during the process WILL impact the results....good thing this is before the boil!
I'm no expert by any means but have had good conversion on my 2 first all grains. I have a very low budget set up and it seems to work very good. I have a 48qt. cooler with a home made copper manifold. I do a fly sparge but recirculate the whole mash runnings before starting the sparge. I do a mash out for 10 minutes at 168 then keep recirculating the wort for 20 minutes. Stir the mash again and wait 10 minutes then start the sparge. Both batches I did this way I had %75 conversion. I see a lot of people get %80 or more with their set up but Im happy with %75. I will keep tweeking to see if I can find a few more points but feel this is what my system is going to give me. My first all grain I missed my temps by about 4 degrees. I adjusted for this today and hit the temps right on :rockin:. I just poured the sparge water at 170 on a Dora The Explorer plate 
in the mash tun until I had my boil volume (6.75 gallons) and also hit my OG right on. Very easy and was done in 5.5 hours.
in the mash tun until I had my boil volume (6.75 gallons) and also hit my OG right on. Very easy and was done in 5.5 hours.
wilserbrewer
BIAB Expert Tailor
You don't need a second kettle! I would not try a fly sparge w/ a rectangular cooler! I copied this from Bobby M...link for the full article at bottom.
The Single Kettle/Burner Method with a simple picnic cooler MLT:
1. First you're going to figure out based on your grain bill, how much water you'll need to make the
ratio 1.25qts/lb. Example, if you have 12lb of grain 12 x 1.25 = 15 quarts or 3.75 gallons of
"STRIKE" water.
2. Heat strike water in your kettle to ABOUT 185F and dump it into your cooler, then close the lid.
Wow, doesn't that seem a bit hot? Your cooler is going to absorb quite a bit of heat in the first 5
minutes. Leave it alone with the cover closed to let it warm up. After 5 minutes, open it up and
stir the water, then test the temp. You're going to want it to cool to about 168F. Remember,
software will help you figure out exactly what temp to use. Once you reach your ideal strike
temp, dough in (mix the crushed grains in thoroughly) then close the lid.
3. After 5 minutes, open the cooler, stir once more and check the temperature in various places.
Again, you want it to settle to ABOUT 152F. If it's a degree or two high or low, it's OK. If it's off
by more, you might want to compensate with a little cold or boiling water. Once you're satisfied,
close the lid and wait 60 minutes.
4. After about 20 minutes, you'll want to start heating your sparge water in the kettle. You'll need
ABOUT the same volume as your intended finished batch. If it's a 5 gallon batch, heat up 5 gallons of sparge water to 180F.
5. After the full 60 minute mash, open the drain valve on the MLT and collect 2 quarts of wort into a
pitcher. Carefully return this back on top of the mash (this is vorlaufing), then drain the entire
MLT into a bucket. If the bucket has graduation marks, take note how much wort you collected.
You're going to find that you lost a good percentage of liquid to grain absorption. In our example,
it's likely that you only got out 2.5 gallons from the 3.75 strike volume. Here's where you have to
decide ultimately how much wort you want in the kettle to start with. You will boil off about 1.25
gallons in 60 minutes of vigorous boil so you'll want at least 6.5gallons to start with. To figure out
how much to sparge with, take this pre boil figure (6.5) and subtract it from how much wort you
collected out of the MLT for first runnings (say 2.5). This leaves you with 4 gallons. This is exactly
how much you'll need to sparge with.
6. Assuming you got the sparge water up to 180F, pour about HALF of the required sparge volume
into the MLT (in the example it will be 2 gallons. Stir it well for a couple minutes, vorlauf 2 quarts
again, then collect it in the same bucket the first runnings are in.
7. Repeat step 6 again with the remaining sparge volume. At this point, you should have about 6.25
gallons in the bucket. You can also split this amount between two buckets to make handling them
easier.
8. Remove any excess water from the kettle and carefully transfer all your wort from the buckets
into the kettle. Stir this wort up and draw off a bit to measure your pre-boil gravity and take note
of it. You'll also need an accurate measurement of how much volume you collected. Once you
have these two numbers you can figure out your mash/lauter efficiency as explained earlier on
this page.
9. Proceed as you normally would for an extract batch. You've just made your own wort without
"instant beer".
http://www.suebob.com/brew/Bobby_Mallgrainprimer.pdf
The Single Kettle/Burner Method with a simple picnic cooler MLT:
1. First you're going to figure out based on your grain bill, how much water you'll need to make the
ratio 1.25qts/lb. Example, if you have 12lb of grain 12 x 1.25 = 15 quarts or 3.75 gallons of
"STRIKE" water.
2. Heat strike water in your kettle to ABOUT 185F and dump it into your cooler, then close the lid.
Wow, doesn't that seem a bit hot? Your cooler is going to absorb quite a bit of heat in the first 5
minutes. Leave it alone with the cover closed to let it warm up. After 5 minutes, open it up and
stir the water, then test the temp. You're going to want it to cool to about 168F. Remember,
software will help you figure out exactly what temp to use. Once you reach your ideal strike
temp, dough in (mix the crushed grains in thoroughly) then close the lid.
3. After 5 minutes, open the cooler, stir once more and check the temperature in various places.
Again, you want it to settle to ABOUT 152F. If it's a degree or two high or low, it's OK. If it's off
by more, you might want to compensate with a little cold or boiling water. Once you're satisfied,
close the lid and wait 60 minutes.
4. After about 20 minutes, you'll want to start heating your sparge water in the kettle. You'll need
ABOUT the same volume as your intended finished batch. If it's a 5 gallon batch, heat up 5 gallons of sparge water to 180F.
5. After the full 60 minute mash, open the drain valve on the MLT and collect 2 quarts of wort into a
pitcher. Carefully return this back on top of the mash (this is vorlaufing), then drain the entire
MLT into a bucket. If the bucket has graduation marks, take note how much wort you collected.
You're going to find that you lost a good percentage of liquid to grain absorption. In our example,
it's likely that you only got out 2.5 gallons from the 3.75 strike volume. Here's where you have to
decide ultimately how much wort you want in the kettle to start with. You will boil off about 1.25
gallons in 60 minutes of vigorous boil so you'll want at least 6.5gallons to start with. To figure out
how much to sparge with, take this pre boil figure (6.5) and subtract it from how much wort you
collected out of the MLT for first runnings (say 2.5). This leaves you with 4 gallons. This is exactly
how much you'll need to sparge with.
6. Assuming you got the sparge water up to 180F, pour about HALF of the required sparge volume
into the MLT (in the example it will be 2 gallons. Stir it well for a couple minutes, vorlauf 2 quarts
again, then collect it in the same bucket the first runnings are in.
7. Repeat step 6 again with the remaining sparge volume. At this point, you should have about 6.25
gallons in the bucket. You can also split this amount between two buckets to make handling them
easier.
8. Remove any excess water from the kettle and carefully transfer all your wort from the buckets
into the kettle. Stir this wort up and draw off a bit to measure your pre-boil gravity and take note
of it. You'll also need an accurate measurement of how much volume you collected. Once you
have these two numbers you can figure out your mash/lauter efficiency as explained earlier on
this page.
9. Proceed as you normally would for an extract batch. You've just made your own wort without
"instant beer".
http://www.suebob.com/brew/Bobby_Mallgrainprimer.pdf
