All Grain Equipmemt

[CBecksOSU1]

Folks,

I'm about to delve into all grain and had some gear questions. I'm gonna build a mash latter and already have a good 10 gallon kettle. Questions are the following

1. What size kettle do I need to heat enough sparge water. Keep in mind I only plan on 5 gallon batches.

1. How do I keep my sparge water at the desired temperature while I batch Sparge and mash out

I'm 4 deep into a six pack of Cigar City Jai Alai so please excuse grammar spelling
Thanks brothers

 

[Bobby_M]

You can collect your first wort runnings into a bucket while your sparge water is occupying your kettle. Then when you move the batch sparge water into the mash tun, you dump the wort into the kettle and fire it up. That's a pretty typical one-kettle process.

 

[westo2]

The other option is to pick up a 5 gal cooler. Get the sparge water a few degrees above target, dump it into the 5 gal cooler and run off your wort into the main kettle. This will allow you to get your wort heating towards a boil while proceeding with your mash.

 

[hottpeper13]

If going the 2 pot route, the HLT should be as big as the boil pot. My buddies that started out with smaller ones have upgraded to same size,and can now do mashout and sparge in one unit.

 

[RM-MN]

Are you batch sparging? If so your answer to question #1 is zero. You don't need to heat any water for sparge.

The answer to question #1 is you don't worry about it. You don't need hot water to sparge and you don't need a mash out either. There is so little difference in the amount of sugars dissolved in cold water instead of hot that it isn't worthwhile to heat the sparge at all. You'll have saturated grains at about 150 degrees and adding the cold sparge water to that gets your sparge temp up to a reasonable range. Instead of buying another kettle that gains you nearly nothing, buy grains because grains is what it takes to make beer.

 

[madscientist451]

Are you batch sparging? If so your answer to question #1 is zero. You don't need to heat any water for sparge.

I agree with RM-MN, but I do heat my sparge water, figuring that it will save me a few minutes later getting the whole pot to boil.
If you're just starting out, keeping things simple is a good way to go. Get some brewing time in and then you'll better know where to put your beer equipment dollars.

 

[RM-MN]

I agree with RM-MN, but I do heat my sparge water, figuring that it will save me a few minutes later getting the whole pot to boil.
If you're just starting out, keeping things simple is a good way to go. Get some brewing time in and then you'll better know where to put your beer equipment dollars.

As long as you already have the pot to heat the water, sure it does speed up the time to boil but I wouldn't suggest to buy a second pot just for that purpose.

 

[RedlegEd]

You could always go the BIAB route and not worry about it at all.

 

[CBecksOSU1]

Are you batch sparging? If so your answer to question #1 is zero. You don't need to heat any water for sparge.

The answer to question #1 is you don't worry about it. You don't need hot water to sparge and you don't need a mash out either. There is so little difference in the amount of sugars dissolved in cold water instead of hot that it isn't worthwhile to heat the sparge at all. You'll have saturated grains at about 150 degrees and adding the cold sparge water to that gets your sparge temp up to a reasonable range. Instead of buying another kettle that gains you nearly nothing, buy grains because grains is what it takes to make beer.

Fantastic! I was always under the assumption that the sparge water needed to be held at a higher temperature. Thanks