Which Hlt

[vicelore]

Hey guys.

Well after doing a few extracts im looking at getting my brewery set up and get into the AG

ATM i have a 70 liter stainless Kettle from beerbelly that im extremly happy with.

I was thinking the next thing i should buy is a HLT. iv opted for the HLT over a mash tun as the HLT will be usefull for extracts for cleaning, steralising bottles etc. With all my extracts we have spent allot of time waiting for kettles to boil to use.

I only want to buy this ounce and am looking at it lasting a long time.

I was looking to buy all stainless equip for the brewery ( fittings vessles etc ) as i cant be assed with different cleaners.

Soo im after your opionion on these thaughts. I dont mind saving up and spending 700 on a HLT and another 700ish on a SS mash tun. My final system will be gravity fed and im going to have a SS rack made up by a fabricator.

Also wondering what size i should be looking at for the HLT as im still learning about the process used in AG and not quite sure..

My last Extracts have been around 44 litre full boil so looking at around that ammount for my AG.

Cheers guys looking forward to the advise.

 

[vicelore]

No one ??

 

[alowen474]

I would be going larger than your kettle for your HLT, for a 44L post boil vol, you will want about 60L of water in your HLt for ag.
Setting it up with a 3600w (15A) or 2400(10A)heating element, a timer on the power point and a temp controller you can set it to be ready when you get up / home and mash away.

You can get a small HLT, but you need to add water post mash in and have it heated ready for sparge.

 

[AndrewQLD]

If your planning on heating all of your mash/sparge water in one hit then for 44lt of wort into the fermenter you will need aprox. 68-72 lt of mash and sparge water depending on your boil off volume, so you would need a vessel large enough to hold that amount, say +80lt.

However if you plan to heat your mash/strike water first then heat your sparge water after mash in you could get away with a much smaller vessel, say 40 lt.


Andrew

 

[devo]

I find that a starting liquor volume of 70ltrs gets me around 50ltr to 55ltr at the end of a 70minute boil.

 

[Tony M]

If you are doing 50L boils, work on a minimum of 70l for HLT. If you want to go for a one drain sparge, then you will need a mash capacity of 70L. If you are are fly sparging or happy to do a couple of rinses when sparging then half that size is plenty. Think seriously about incorporating a pump in your system and getting everything down to at the most shoulder height, or you will spend half your time waltzing around on stepladders tending your brew. Think about it. If you are running into a fermenter on the floor then you have say 300mm for a chiller then three pots all about 500mm high so you end up well over two metres high.

 

[remi]

I've gone 70L kettle, 50L HLT and mash-tun in my set-up (all by beerbelly and very shiny). I do the occasional double batch (45-ish litres post-boil), and manage with a 50L HLT. When I do double batches, I just heat up the strike water volume in the kettle (which doesn't take very long), and then sparge with the HLT water from there on.

I've got a 2400W element (i rent, so no option to install 15A power) in the insulated HLT (with electric timer), and it takes less than 2hrs to heat it from tap temp to 90+ degrees.

If you wanted to avoid having to use the kettle to heat your strike-water, then you would need a HLT bigger than 70L (ie 80L+), and without 15A power you might find it takes a bit long to heat-up.

You can check out photo's of my set-up in my gallery.

Hope that helps

Remi

 

[Doogiechap]

Bloke you can work backwards if you are happy with the 70l Kettle.

70 l kettle is good for typical 50l preboil batches (perhaps 60 if you like living on the edge).
Lets say 60 to allow for the occasional oversparge.

So at 75% efficency, 60 litres of 1050 liquor would be gained via approx 13Kg of grain. Now this grain will typically be mashed at say a ratio of 2.5 - 3:1 so 13Kg x 3 = 39 litres.
Your sparge is based on how much you initially transfer to your kettle so factor in 1.1 x 13Kg Grain bill and say 2 litres of loss via false bottom/ hoses/ taps being left open h34r: so a total of 15.13l taken away from the original 39l means roughly 24 litres in the kettle.
This means you have a sparge volume of 36 litres needed to fulfil your desired batch quantity.
SO
You can either have a HLT that will heat enough water for your entire batch at a capacity of 75 litres minimum
OR
You can opt to refill a smaller HLT once you mashing has started and go with a 40l unit.

It seems you don't mind throwing some moolah at this so with that factored in, a larger HLT is probably a better long term purchase. Make sure you factor in your energy requirements ie how much power you have available to heat such large volumes of water. I would sugges 3600 watts would be the minimum size you would want to go for with 70l if electricity is your fuel of choice.

I hope this makes sense
Cheers
Doug

 

[vicelore]

Thanks for the replys guys just the kind of info i was after.

I defently have a bit to learn about AG after reading your post Doogie lol

But what you guys think is if im gonna skimp i should get a 40 litre and heat/run it through the mash twice or splurge and get a 70 litre ?

Thanks again guys

 

[Doogiechap]

But what you guys think is if im gonna skimp i should get a 40 litre and heat/run it through the mash twice or splurge and get a 70 litre ?

Thanks again guys

Nearly, skimping requires filling the 40l HLT twice, once for the mash and once for the sparge.
Not skimping requires filling the 75l HLT once and using roughly half for the mash and half for the sparge.

Eliminating the refill step makes the brewday a tad simpler especially as you should be refilling about the time you are panicking because you haven't achieved your strike temperature .
Cheers
Doug