Sight glasses, why?

[Rob2010SS]

So with a new toy showing up in the next couple of weeks, I'm looking at little things to buy for it. I keep seeing people with these sight glasses on their equipment...

What are the reasons that people would use these on their equipment? If you have a free $100 bucks to spend, are they worth it?

 

[Homergah]

If you're going to push beer or wort from one vessel to another it's nice to see when you've started picking up trub, yeast, etc. You place the sight glass right before the valve closest to the vessel that you're transferring into.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Or before a pump so you don't run it dry.

I like to have sight on either end of a transfer.

Though in fairness most homebrewers aren't brewing in enough quantity to need it. Because clear beverage hose works.

 

[tll77]

I use one at the dump valve of my unitank so I can see trub/yeast/beer layers and know better when to stop the dump.

 

[baulz]

I have one in my RIMS tube so I can confirm wort is flowing. I could live without it, but like many of us love shiny new stuff.

 

[brewbama]

I also have one on my RIMS output port not just to see wort flow but also to monitor progression of clarity thru the mash.

 

[Rob2010SS]

Alright. So I just pulled the trigger on the 20 gallon spike system. In this instance, a sight glass would be nice on the bottom of my conical, correct? So as wort is leaving the counterflow chiller and bottom filling my conical, the sight glass on the bottom of the conical could be used to keep trub out of the fermenter, correct? Or is that not the best use for it?

 

[Qhrumphf]

Ideally you'd use a tee and valves on both ends. Coming out of the kettle, as soon as you pull trub (or run dry), you switch to boiling (or at least pasteurization temp) water. Use that water to push the last of the clean wort. And then at the tank you can visually see the change and close off the tank and bleed the water to the ground/drain/wherever and flush the chiller and lines at the same time.

No crap into your chiller, and no line waste.

You can use the exact same set up to pasteurize your chiller too. Flush it with boiling water, pack it to keep it microbe free, and then push the water out with wort and switch valves.

 

[Youngster]

I have one going into my mash during recirculation

 

[verboten]

because I like new toys

 

[Jayjay1976]

I'm eying one myself to put on my still head. I plan to pack it with copper scrubbies or use it as a botanicals basket so I have something to stare at during long spirit runs. Which I use to fuel my ethanol go-kart, of course.