How To Build A Sparge Arm

[Keifer]

Im going to make a sparge arm out of some soft copper tubing and wanted to know if theres anything i should know about it before i try it. It's for a rectangular esky and i was just going to make a smaller rectangle and attach it to the underside of the lid.

It will be gravity fed, and i'll go buy the smallest drill bit i can find for the holes.

Sound about right??

 

[Trent]

Sounds good, Keifer
I have a similar sorta set up, and it works well. I have found that buying one of them little plastic taps, with a half inch male fitting on each end (and put in just before the water reaches the sparge arm) can help regulate the sparge water flow pretty easily.
All the best
Trent

 

[Keifer]

Cool, thanks Trent i'll give it a go

 

[yardy]

Sounds ok, pin punching the holes before drilling makes it easier or you could make a template.

look fwd to the pics

Cheers

 

[Keifer]

Well i had a little go at it today, i don't really care how it looks as long as it works. It seems to distribute the water ok, but from what i gather you have a 1-2 inches of water above the grainbed which should evenly spread the sparge water. It does prefer the first holes a little bit , but not too much. And i can run it nice and slow down to about 0.5L per min if needed. I plan to run it at about 1 litre per min, sound about right?

It does not run down the walls at all which is good.

Whatcha rekon so far? I still have to get a better way of holding it too

 

[Yeasty]

Im thinking of using something like irrigation sprayers from bunnings on a bit of hose.

Yours looks fine Anything that wont disturb the grain bed will work great

 

[Keifer]

I had the same idea yeasty, but i've turned into a worthless miser and used something i had laying around Im tempted to try it on my next batch, a double wheat, but should really wait and try on a single batch.

 

[devo]

I originally started out with a Phils shower sparger, then flood sparged via a manifold for about a year but due to inefficiant results have since gone back to shower sparging with a home made copper coil. The main adavantage of using the copper coil over the Phil's sparger is no moving parts.



On the under side of the coil I have drilled tiny holes for the sparge water to shower out over the grain bed. And yes I've only drilled holes along the copper tube up to the point that sits inside the mash tun opening, not outside.

 

[Keifer]

How did you find the change devo? easier to do? better efficiency? compared to batch sparge i mean

 

[devo]

The difference going back to shower sparging with my set up equated to around 3-5ltrs(BTW I'm doing 40 -45ltr batches). Buggered if I know why but in my experience with my AG rig shower sparging worked out better than flood sparging.

So you could say I come full circle since going AG.

 

[Sammus]

Do you get any problem with most of the water coming out of the first few holes? For this reason I thought it would be a good idea to put the holes in the top of the sparge manifold so it would fill up first...maybe get more of an even trickle...

 

[devo]

nah, not really. I use a march pump now and tend to have more control over the flow rate. When I was originally using a gravity set up it was a more of an issue.

 

[Keifer]

I found with my quick test that if the copper tube was flat, the water only made it half though the arm. So i angled it all down like in the pic and it helped alot, a small amount now comes out right at the end of the arm.

 

[The King of Spain]

I've made a rectangular tube with drip irrigation fittings. Heaps easier than copper and very cheap.

 

[BenH]

I've found that by sprinkling the water, the temperature drops significantly and I can't be bothered working out by how much. (the same principles apply in the shower, feel the water temp just out of the shower head, and just above the floor for comparison).

I now sparge using a 'sparge ring' made of vinyl tube with a few holes drilled in the top. This is connected to my hlt via some more tubing, and the ring sits just below the water level (above the grain bed). It means my sparge water temp is maintained.

Cheers.