Do you add your sparge water to the MLT prior to draining the first runnings?
Do you add your sparge water to the MLT prior to draining the first runnings?[/quote]
No, I batch sparge. See www.dennybrew.com
Do you add your sparge water to the MLT prior to draining the first runnings?[/quote]
No, I batch sparge. See http://www.dennybrew.com[/quote]
Yeah, I’ve ready your site before. Learned my basic AG procedure from it (thank you!), although I do not follow it precisely.
A third vessel of some type is needed to keep the first runnings separate from the sparge water prior to sparging–although I agree you don’t have to use a vessel to hold sparge water during the sparge in the same sense of “holding” sparge water when fly sparging.
It looks like your “third vessel” is a second pot rather than a second cooler. I have only one pot that I use for all of my heating steps. For my sparge water I heat it in the pot and transfer it to a small cooler until I’m ready to use it.
[quote=“kcbeersnob”]
Yeah, I’ve ready your site before. Learned my basic AG procedure from it (thank you!), although I do not follow it precisely.
A third vessel of some type is needed to keep the first runnings separate from the sparge water prior to sparging–although I agree you don’t have to use a vessel to hold sparge water during the sparge in the same sense of “holding” sparge water when fly sparging.
It looks like your “third vessel” is a second pot rather than a second cooler. I have only one pot that I use for all of my heating steps. For my sparge water I heat it in the pot and transfer it to a small cooler until I’m ready to use it.[/quote]
OK, I understand now. Yeah, I have a 7.5 gal. pot for heating water and a converted keg for boiling. You’re right, you need 3 vessels whether the thrid is a cooler or a pot.
I use my older 7 gallon pot to heat my strike water. Mash in. With 15 minutes left in the mash, I heat my sparge water in my same pot. I drain first runnings into a space bucket with gallon markings and then pour into my 15 gallon boil pot, just as the sparge water gets to temp. Put the boil pot on the burner, sparge and drain into the graduated bucket when done and dump into the boil pot for my final boil volume.
One cooler, two pots, one bucket.
Same
[quote=“kcbeersnob”][quote=“ACKbrew”]Disclaimer: Not a pro
I never understood the two cooler thing. I’ve found myself adding cold water b/c I overshoot, and firing a burner when I undershoot. I also never understood the round cooler thing. Just seems like it could be awkward.[/quote]
I’ve never understood advising people to buy something new when what they have on hand will work perfectly fine–at least to start if not for the long haul. 
The two cooler thing is simple. Three vessels in total. A kettle for heating strike water, sparge water and performing the boil. A cooler to use as a mash tun. A third vessel used to hold sparge water while draining your first runnings into the kettle. The third vessel does not need to be a cooler. It can be any vessel large enough to hold the volume of sparge water safely at the required temp. Since I did not have such a vessel, I had to buy one. I decided to go with a cooler, so I would have the option to use it to hold the heated sparge water at temp until it was time to sparge.[/quote]
I guess what I meant to say was that you can’t simply place a burner under a cooler, so I don’t see see the need for a two cooler system. My friend usually does a recirculation mash through a coil in his HLT, which is a converted keg. Sometimes you gotta fire a burner, and his BK is always at the ready. I just drain first runnings into a graduated bucket. Like I said, it’s a pretty simple system, that I maybe have $40 more into than when I brewed extract. Nowhere did I say the OP had to go buy anything new…
[quote=“560sdl”]I use my older 7 gallon pot to heat my strike water. Mash in. With 15 minutes left in the mash, I heat my sparge water in my same pot. I drain first runnings into a space bucket with gallon markings and then pour into my 15 gallon boil pot, just as the sparge water gets to temp. Put the boil pot on the burner, sparge and drain into the graduated bucket when done and dump into the boil pot for my final boil volume.
One cooler, two pots, one bucket.[/quote]
Why not just drain directly into the 15 gal. pot?
[quote=“Denny”][quote=“560sdl”]I use my older 7 gallon pot to heat my strike water. Mash in. With 15 minutes left in the mash, I heat my sparge water in my same pot. I drain first runnings into a space bucket with gallon markings and then pour into my 15 gallon boil pot, just as the sparge water gets to temp. Put the boil pot on the burner, sparge and drain into the graduated bucket when done and dump into the boil pot for my final boil volume.
One cooler, two pots, one bucket.[/quote]
Why not just drain directly into the 15 gal. pot?[/quote]
Two reasons:
-
I like the bucket with measurements on it so I know exactly how much I need to collect from the batch sparge (I know I can measure other ways)
-
I start heating the first runnings (slowly) while I am collecting the sparge. It it usually just short of boiling when I add the balance of the wort from the sparge. Saves 5-10 minutes
I guess I have different ways to accomplish the same thing and kinda save a step. I have a stirring paddle for the kettle that’s marked in 1/2 gal. increments so I can just put it in the kettle to measure how much wort I’ve got. And I just go ahead and start heating as the sparge is running into the kettle.
In better weather I can do that, but I currently mash inside and boil outside.
