3 Vessel - 1 x Urn, 2 x Cooler, 1 x Pump

[Hopkins]

Hello all,

I have been extract brewing until now using a small pasta pot and then top up water into the fermenter. I am now moving to all grain having recently purchased a Crown 40L urn, 15m immersion chiller, a wort pump and a whole pile of bits and pieces.

Idea is to start with BIAB - which I will likely do next weekend.

Now, I have also been doing some reading on 3 vessel systems (both 3 pot and 2 pot with cooler mash tun versions). It got me thinking about the possibility of using a second cooler as "sparge water" storage rather than a heated HLT.

My mate does BIAB in his Crown urn and over a 60 min mash only loses about 1-2 degrees (at least in Perth summer).

So, given a cooler would presumably perform better given its better insulation, why not use one for a mash tun and a "non heated HLT" aka sparge storage tun?

My idea is to have a vertical system (saves space), with crown urn at the bottom as the boil kettle, cooler mash tun (around 40L) above that, and then a second 40L cooler above that for sparge water storage.

You would boil (actually not quite) sufficient water volume (strike plus sparge) in the urn to begin with. At strike temperature, pump the water into the mash tun (or to the sparge storage and then use gravity to fill mash tun from there). Do the mash whilst keeping the remainder of the water in the urn at around sparge temperature. Then when mash is done, pump the remaining water into the sparge storage and empty the mash tun into the kettle. Then do either 1 or 2 batch sparges using the water in the sparge storage.

Means a 3 vessel system, but with only 1 heating element, 1 pump and no HERMS/RIM heating to complicate things. Hoses could even be left in the same position the whole time (with some 3 way valve trickery)?

I suspect this has all been done before.

Any comments?

Bryson

 

[Hopkins]

So, has anybody used a cooler to store sparge water in this way?

If so, is the time delay between end of mashing and end of sparging sufficiently small to ensure the sparge water temperature remains pretty much constant?

Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Feedback would be appreciated by this new comer!

Bryson

 

[Hopkins]

Well it seems plenty of people out there in internet land have been using a cooler as "sparge water storage" rather than using a heated HLT. Original thoughts aren't always original!

Seems nobody around here is doing it though?

I am going to give it a go and see what happens.

 

[Yob]

Herms isn't complicated

 

[dblunn]

Hi, if you can get your hands on a book called, Brew like a pro by Dave Miller you will see that is the method he uses.
Dave

 

[Hopkins]

Thanks Dave, I'll try to find it.

 

[Blind Dog]

The book is on the kindle store if you have the ability to use kindle, but IIRC his is much as you describe

 

[Hopkins]

Hi, if you can get your hands on a book called, Brew like a pro by Dave Miller you will see that is the method he uses.
Dave

I should have said that I assume that you aren't Dave Miller

 

[dblunn]

Ha, no I'm not he!
The book is a good read, no in the same league as Noonan, Strong etc but worth a look particularly as he advocates the method your planning to use and he gives some info on operating the system.
Regards, Dave (not Miller)

 

[Hopkins]

Thanks again. Just downloaded it via Kindle. Will be a good read I am sure.