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Ever since moving to 10, then 15, then back to 10 gallon batches, I've been using the old copper manifold from my 5-gallon cooler mash tun as a sparge ring. I've never liked it -- it's too small, is impossible to get it to sit flat, the water holes are too big (thus not allowing me to get uniform internal pressure), and it doesn't distribute water anywhere near uniformly.
So I built a new one (see below). This fits just inside the ring of my keggle mash tun, the holes are much smaller (not pictured, but are ~1mm diameter), and a quick test yesterday showed me that I get pretty uniform flow through the holes at even low water pressure. The four mounting points are soldered to the ring.
maltbarley wrote:Hopefully you don't get any grain bits through your pump or the small holes may clog.
This will purely be used for output of the HLT. I vorlauf & transfer to keg using other tubing. Also, I typically use one pump purely for water, the other for wort, so that pump should remain pretty clean internally.
I should probably blast a bunch of pressure through first to ensure I get rid of any solder flux or copper shards, though
Cool rig. I have been thinking about making some kind of sparge arm. The vegetable steamer I'm using now seems to work OK, so I'm satisficing at least for a while longer.
An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk with his fools. - Hemingway
This is yet another piece of equipment that I have overlooked for my AG brewing. Luckily I have plenty of beer and don't need to brew right away, so I can sit around and ponder these things.
Eric - can you explain the strainer aparatus you use?
Marotte Brewery wrote:This is yet another piece of equipment that I have overlooked for my AG brewing. Luckily I have plenty of beer and don't need to brew right away, so I can sit around and ponder these things.
Eric - can you explain the strainer aparatus you use?
I never had one originally. They're not truly necessary, just convenient.
My old method:
Get a large sheet of aluminum foil.
Duct tape it into the top of your mash tun (hopefully getting a bit of a "bowl" shape)
Poke a bunch of small holes in it
Use a big ladle, measuring cup, etc to manually pour, OR use a bottling bucket with a spigot to regulate flow of sparge water.
After watching the simplicity with no apparent loss of efficiency, I like the MLT return on Tim's Sabco. Just a piece of hose long enough to float on the top of the mash so that it creates a whirlpool and maintains about 2" of liquid over the top of the grain bed.
It's never in your way, doesn't clog with grain, is super easy to clean and seems to work really well.
backyard brewer wrote:After watching the simplicity with no apparent loss of efficiency, I like the MLT return on Tim's Sabco. Just a piece of hose long enough to float on the top of the mash so that it creates a whirlpool and maintains about 2" of liquid over the top of the grain bed.
It's never in your way, doesn't clog with grain, is super easy to clean and seems to work really well.
+1, socaldoug on B3 forum used this with much success on his sabco style rid.
The sparge ring on my 1550 was a vourlof pain.
Brad, you should consider updating your avatar. The boy is much bigger now.
I was a bit worried about channeling without using anything, but then my old sparge ring did a very weak job of distributing the water anyway. I wonder if I'll notice efficiency bumps from this or not...
I'm surprised people were vorlaufing through their sparge rings though... When I vorlauf I just use the outlet tube of my mashtun->boilkettle pump. I never thought it important to push it through a ring.
John -- yeah, you're right... I should probably have a picture with both of the kids
bwarbiany wrote:I was a bit worried about channeling without using anything, but then my old sparge ring did a very weak job of distributing the water anyway. I wonder if I'll notice efficiency bumps from this or not...
I think when you keep the grain under water at the low flow rate of a sparge you get a pretty even pull through the whole grain bed. The sabco/plain hose seems to do a good job of distributing the new sparge water to the whole area above the grain. I would expect the drain pattern to be more important for preventing channelling.
bwarbiany wrote:I'm surprised people were vorlaufing through their sparge rings though... When I vorlauf I just use the outlet tube of my mashtun->boilkettle pump. I never thought it important to push it through a ring.
On the 1550 that is the one return. It's used for the SMART (mash recirculation system) return too. Since I started batch sparging I don't use the sparge ring, and I pump into the top via hose for the vourlof same as you. Just another benefit to batch sparging. No sparge ring to clean.
jward wrote:On the 1550 that is the one return. It's used for the SMART (mash recirculation system) return too. Since I started batch sparging I don't use the sparge ring, and I pump into the top via hose for the vourlof same as you. Just another benefit to batch sparging. No sparge ring to clean.
I didn't realize the Sabco was a one-pump two-level system... Now it all makes sense.
Marotte Brewery wrote:
Eric - can you explain the strainer aparatus you use?
I take a long twist tie and tie it to something to cross the mashtun. Then I dangle (I can see the jokes already) my vegetable steamer from the twist tie. I'll try to post a picture.
Brew Captain use my method (which I got from him) AND tin foil over the top with holes poked in. He just can't seem to find enough uses for tin foil
An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk with his fools. - Hemingway
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