Help me upgrade my system - questions

[Gymrat]

Vince/Roger, what is the capacity of those 5g coolers? Is it really 5g? That seems tight for a 5g batch considering the grains and water isn't it?

MadBrewer - thanks, I'll check out NB. I'm a buy versus build guy so I want it complete. I've been leaning towards batch sparging, too.



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I am pretty sure they are 5 gallon capacity. Which to me would be way too tight even for a 1.050 brew. I like to mash at 1.75 to 2 qts per pound of mash.

[Kealia]

Thanks Chris, what does your auto siphon look like? I thought that but wondered what temp they would handle.

I checked out NB's site and this looks interesting.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/fermenter ... lauter-tun

(And thanks to you, too Roger)

[BlackDuck]

I use this auto-siphon with 170 degree sparge water. It's held up just fine. It does have a little warping going on, but nothing major.

[BlackDuck]

That's a good looking mash tun Ron. I probably have about $75 -$100 bucks in the one that I built. So that seems like a pretty good deal. Especially, since you don't have to go shopping for all the material and spend the time building it. Time is money!!!

[MadBrewer]

http://www.northernbrewer.com/fermenter ... lauter-tun

That is the exact setup I bought. Like you said, I'm more of a ready to go kind of guy than a DIY guy. I have built other mashtuns in the past, this time I wanted to have something ready to go and something designed and built for our purpose. I have used this cooler 3 times now and it holds temps great. The false bottom differs than others in that it lays flat on the bottom of the mashtun with a smooth flat edge so grains are not as likely to get underneath and clog it up.

[Kealia]

I use this auto-siphon with 170 degree sparge water. It's held up just fine. It does have a little warping going on, but nothing major.

Yep, same one I have.

[Kealia]

http://www.northernbrewer.com/fermenter ... lauter-tun

That is the exact setup I bought. Like you said, I'm more of a ready to go kind of guy than a DIY guy. I have built other mashtuns in the past, this time I wanted to have something ready to go and something designed and built for our purpose. I have used this cooler 3 times now and it holds temps great. The false bottom differs than others in that it lays flat on the bottom of the mashtun with a smooth flat edge so grains are not as likely to get underneath and clog it up.

Great, I appreciate the feedback. This could be a great step for me since I already have a 5g pot that I use for my 3g BIAB batches that could become my HLT. I also have an 8g pot that will become my kettle so this would be a minimal investment that would allow me to batch sparge easily.

It also means I'd be doing more 5g batches which means more to share.

[Inkleg]

I'll just drop this off here.

[Kealia]

Yeah, I need a 7G so I can do 5G batches. Thanks for the linky.

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[FedoraDave]

Vince/Roger, what is the capacity of those 5g coolers? Is it really 5g? That seems tight for a 5g batch considering the grains and water isn't it?

MadBrewer - thanks, I'll check out NB. I'm a buy versus build guy so I want it complete. I've been leaning towards batch sparging, too.



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I am pretty sure they are 5 gallon capacity. Which to me would be way too tight even for a 1.050 brew. I like to mash at 1.75 to 2 qts per pound of mash.

My cooler is 5 gallons, but I mash at 1.25 quarts per pound of grain, which allows me to do 1.060 and even higher beers. I've managed to work with about 12 pounds of grain, maximum. It gets a little tight after that.

I can count on getting half my strike volume back in the first runnings, so if I'm using, say, 3 gallons for the mash, I anticipate getting 1.5 gallons. This makes it easy for me to calculate the volume of the sparges. As I mentioned, I do two batch sparges of 15 minutes each.

[Pudge]

Agree with FedoraDave's posts. I batch sparge with a 5 gallon cooler and run about 73% depending on the beer. Lower OG recipes will be 75% and big beers can drop me to 70% or below. I do have a couple of big boy recipes I occasionally do with roughly 17lbs of grains (1.075+). It is a very thick mash, requires a quad sparge to get to volume, and drops my efficiency into the upper 60's.

A 5 gallon cooler is great for most brews and hold temps solid for a very long time. A stainless pot will not. I do wish I had a 7 gallon cooler. That seems like it would be the sweet spot for me. A 10 gallon cooler would have significant dead space.

[ScrewyBrewer]

Vince/Roger, what is the capacity of those 5g coolers? Is it really 5g? That seems tight for a 5g batch considering the grains and water isn't it?

MadBrewer - thanks, I'll check out NB. I'm a buy versus build guy so I want it complete. I've been leaning towards batch sparging, too.

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Ron the cooler is 5 gallons so the initial lauter will be 2 gallons or so short of the pre-boil volume. That's where the Fly sparging comes in, 168F water is continuously added to the grain bed and collected until the pre-boil volume has been reached.

[Dawg LB Steve]

10 gallon round cooler from Lowes, converted spigot, PVC manifold, usually get about 74-76% efficiency. My capacity is right around 20 lbs grain and 6.25 gallons strike water @ ratio of 1.25 quarts to 1 lb grain. Have also just recently starting using a big grain bag 26 x 26 that fits over the edge of the top of the cooler, makes for easier cleaning and can prevent a stuck sparge. Also check out DIY Mash Tun in Advanced Equipment for some more ideas.

[braukasper]

When I was fly sparging I just floated 1/2 to 1 inch of water above the grain bed. I would move the tube a couple of times. Now I use a HREMS when I do all grain.

[Kealia]

Also check out DIY Mash Tun in Advanced Equipment for some more ideas.

Me and DIY don't really play well together

The more I think about this, the more I like it. It will be a minimal investment to see how I like brewing with the "traditional" set up. And, I can batch sparge while I get my feet wet and with another minor purchase (or try using my auto-siphon like Chris) I can test out fly sparging, too.