Trying out new gear

[Backwoodsbrewing]

I Have been putting together equipment for all grain brewing. Typical 10 gallon hlt and 15 gallon mash tun ,bulkheads with ball valves. And I also built a sparge arm out of 3/4 cpvc with 1/8 inch holes drilled in it. Both hlt and mash tun leaked hoping tightening will solve that problem. I gave it a test run today just running hot water through it. I heated 10 gallons of water to 160 degrees transferred with a 5 gallon kettle to hlt and ran it through the sparge arm to the mash tun. I lost 30 degrees in temperature from the boil kettle to the mash tun. I am fairly sure I lost heat due to cold equipment which should be easy to remedy by pre heating. I know I will have to dial in my temps before I can mash. What kind of heat losses do others find just in equipment

 

[plumber_bob]

I heat to different temps according to the season. My MLT, 10g cooler, is out in a shed when not in use and this time of year I heat my HLT to almost 180F.
In the summer it only needs to be about 170F.

It takes some trial and error to find your happy zone with temps.

You will always lose heat when transferring water, unless everything including ambient temp is 153F. Then It's too damned hot too brew!
Just gotta try, tweak, test, and repeat until you get it homed in. Then when you add grain into the equation, you go at it again.

I'm making it sound harder than it is, I'm sure, so just play with the temps some and check out what you can find on here about the subject. There's several threads dealing with this topic. Plus more posters will chime in with good advice as well, I'm sure.

pb

 

[Backwoodsbrewing]

I heat to different temps according to the season. My MLT, 10g cooler, is out in a shed when not in use and this time of year I heat my HLT to almost 180F. In the summer it only needs to be about 170F. It takes some trial and error to find your happy zone with temps. You will always lose heat when transferring water, unless everything including ambient temp is 153F. Then It's too damned hot too brew! Just gotta try, tweak, test, and repeat until you get it homed in. Then when you add grain into the equation, you go at it again. I'm making it sound harder than it is, I'm sure, so just play with the temps some and check out what you can find on here about the subject. There's several threads dealing with this topic. Plus more posters will chime in with good advice as well, I'm sure. pb

thanks for the input Bob