48 qt cooler from Academy Sports for 16 bucks…it didn’t have a drain plug so I drilled one with a Ridgid Hole saw.
Here’s the manifold made from 3/4" CPVC. I used my band saw to cut into the pipe barely enough to make a slit. I thoroughly cleaned and sanded the pipes with 400 grit sandpaper to remove all the manufactures markings and bar codes. I tested it and all but a quart of water drained out. I plan to do batch sparging (5 gal batches) eventually when I’m ready for 10 gal batches I already have a 100+ qt marine cooler.
Safe you looking for feedback ?
I was. The will be my first time batch sparging. I have read Denny’s blog on this and some in the Home Brew magazines and hopefully my mash tun is up to snuff.
It’s a nice build but if you move your outlet tee closer to your valve I think you could decrease the amount of wort you leave behind by tipping the tun toward the valve when you drain.
I was looking for a cooler with the outlet below the bottom of the cooler. I’m wondering with the grain bed in there if it will actually suck more of the wort out? I guess I need to give it a shot to see how it works before I start tweaking it.
I thought I read everything there was on batch sparging and was ready to start, however one of my other forum buddies, whom I have a great respect for and brews award winning beer tells me he does NOT disturb the grain bed on the second running. He has a home made sparge arm that very gently adds the sparge water without disturbing the grain bed. Most of what I have read and seen online shows the brewer simply dumping in the water and re stirring the mash redoing the vorlauf and adding the 2nd runnings to the mash tun. Simple no? Yes WTF?
I believe you stir for a batch but not for a fly but I may be wrong. I only did a fly sparge once pita
He’s not really doing fly sparging. His method is batch sparging but he simply does 3 runnings and doesn’t disturb the grain bed. He does 11 gallon batches and uses a pump so clarity is a big issue. His efficiency is about 1 % point from traditional fly sparging and he save a lot of time. Still I’m going to start with the traditional method and see how it compares to BIAB (which is great, when you sparge) Who knows I may go back to BIAB but I think for 11 gal batches batch sparging is the way to go.
When I fly sparged, I wouldn’t disturb the grain bed, and add water to keep it wet to the top of the grain bed,until you drain yer HLT. Then continue until you’ve met yer volume, pre boil. Because I didn’t concern myself too much about water volume in the HLT, I did pay close attention to the volume going into the BK. Sneezles61
