5 gallon cooler for Sparge water holder?

[will_rouse]

I'm trying to save on the amounts of pots to buy. Could I use my brew pot to heat up my mash water then use it to heat up Sparge water to proper temp. Dump it in a 5 gallon igloo cooler and use that for sparging therefore freeing up my brew pot. Is this a common method or should I go ahead and spend the money on a pot?

 

[mrkrausen]

It's probably not the most ideal but I've been doing this for some time with no issues.

 

[will_rouse]

It's probably not the most ideal but I've been doing this for some time with no issues.

Thanks that's what I needed to hear! And sorry about the horrid grammar. Getting used to this new phone.

 

[CA_Mouse]

I do this most of the time anyway. I use my old 5 gallon kettle to heat water and dump into my 5 gallon Cooler mash tun, then use that to sparge into my 52 quart Cooler.

Mouse

 

[moski]

I heat my strike water in my 30qt pot. I used to take out some for my strike water then add more and heat to mash out temp and use an igloo 5gal as a hot liquor tank for fly sparging into my 5gal tun. The Igloo holds temps wonderfully. That way the water is sittiing waiting for use at temp.

I've lately started boiling the whole pot and mixing the water in the mash tun down to my strike temperature (there are calculators for it). Then I add the remaining water to the hot liquor tank to mix my mashout/fly sparge at 170deg and the HLT holds at a ready.

All my water gets heated to a boil at one time and I dont have to watch a pot to hit a temp. If you know the temp of your tap water you can calculate how much to mix with boiling for a certain volume/temperature.

Results, water standing ready and one free brew pot. Now go find something else to spend that brew pot money on.

 

[ghack]

I do the same. Five gallon pot to heat the sparge water and poured it into a 5 gallon cooler fitted with a valve.

 

[moski]

Oh, and Ferm-cap of another boil foam reducer allows me to do 6.5gal boils in a 7.5gal pot. So new brew pot money went into my counterflow chiller build and two brew days.

 

[NonHopHead]

This is exactly what I do. During mash I heat the sparge water in my boil pot and transfer it to a 5 gallon igloo cooler. Works just fine.