Transferring from HLT to cooler mash tun

[turbo-snail]

Current, I do BIAB, but am looking to build a cooler mash tun. How do you folks move the hot water from the HLT to the cooler mash tun? I'd like to do everything gravity driven. My kettle has a valve in the bottom, but I feel like it would lose some temperature on the way to the mash tun. Or am I overthinking this?

 

[BrewerBrad82]

If you are using a gravity fed system, your HLT should be physically above the MLT anyhow so all you need to do is open the valve on the HLT to drain into the MLT. Yes, you will lose a bit of temperature during the transfer, but you can just adjust for that by making your hot liquor a bit hotter. It may take a few brew sessions to figure out the exact temp loss, but calibrating a new system is standard fare for anyone.

 

[Smellyglove]

Just do a "dry-run" where you dip your thermometer into the water in the Mt after you've filled it and add that offset to the temp you should heat the water in the HLT. Remeber to keep the lid off for as long as you guestimate you'll have it off when adding and stirring grains, and stick the probe halfway down into the MT, if you stick it at the surface you'll get a wrong reading.

 

[daksin]

Yeah, just measure your temp loss and account for it when heating up your hot liquor. You can also put some boiling water in the mash tun before mashing in (and then drain it out) to help warm up the mash tun to reduce temperature drop issues.

 

[pvpeacock]

Here's how I do it:
1. heat water in brew kettle on Blichmann burner with raised legs
2. transfer hot water to 10 gallon Igloo mash tun on ground using camlock connections and silicon hose -- by using a hose, I lose very little heat;
3. dough in, correct mash temperature by stirring and adding cold water as needed;
4. put mash tun on table and let sit for 60 minutes;
5. heat sparge water in brew kettle;
6. transfer sparge water to 5 gallon Igloo HLT with camlock/hose;
7. at end of mash, put brew kettle on ground below mash tun (on table) and drain using camlock connection/hose (after vorloufing);
8. put mash tun on ground and HTL on table top and add batch sparge water + stir;
9. put mash tun back on table and drain into brew kettle on ground;
10. repeat steps 8 & 9 if batch sparging twice;
11. put full brew kettle on burner and begin boil.

Alternatively, for steps 6 & 7, you could use your brew kettle as your HLT and simply drain (lauter) your mash tun into a 5 gallon bucket after the mash; you could then put your mash tun on the ground under your brew kettle and transfer your sparge water straight from the brew kettle into the mash tun, stir and drain into the 5 gallon bucket. Once your brew kettle was freed up during the second batch sparge, you could pour the wort from the 5 gallon bucket into your brew kettle.