Idea for all grain setup with only one pot

[Garak]

I've only got one pot over 5 gallons at the moment and one heating element on route. Funds are short so I've been thinking about ways to do a batch without a dedicated HLT.

The idea I came up with is to use the boil pot for HLT and mash out & sparge into one of my 12 gallon pyrex carboys. Then lift the pyrex above the boil pot to siphon the sweet work back into the boil pot. That lift is no small task, I've lifted around 10 gallon in the 12 gallon pyrex 12" and it was quite a struggle. So I'll need to come up with something to help with that. Maybe I could go with a 5 level setup, where the boil pot would start out as HLT on level 5 and then move to level 2 after sparging. The pyrex would be on level 3 for the sparging, then sanitized and moved to level 1 to accept the wort. I'll have to do some measurements to see if I have the height for that. A simpler solution might just be to use two 5 and a 2.5 gallon pyrex carboys as they are an easy lift.

I'll need a high temp racking cane and tubing for this and I have a $15 vacuum pump on order to start the siphon. I'm assuming I'll want silicon tubing. Any ideas for a low cost valve? Could I just pinch the silicon tubing with a clamp?

[akr71]

I mash in a picnic cooler and got along OK with just a 30qt kettle/HLT for a while. In fact, I still mash in the picnic cooler, but I think your way would work.

[mr x]

Silicon tubing is easy to pinch. I've done the same type of thing you are doing. It'll work. What I did was use a plastic cooler as a HLT holding tank. I used the boil kettle to heat the water, then transfer it to the cooler, so I could still sparge into the boil kettle. Where are you getting the pyrex carboys?

[Garak]

Its the same lot of pyrex that I picked up from an older brewer a few weeks ago. He had to give up brewing for health reasons and was selling it all dirt cheap.

[akr71]

Silicon tubing is easy to pinch. I've done the same type of thing you are doing. It'll work. What I did was use a plastic cooler as a HLT holding tank. I used the boil kettle to heat the water, then transfer it to the cooler, so I could still sparge into the boil kettle. Where are you getting the pyrex carboys?

If you don't want modify your cooler, I like X's idea. At least there are handles on the cooler and is damned easier to pickup that a 12 gallon glass carboy.

[maltster]

I'm new to all grain(5 batches so far) so my equipment is primitive but it's been working pretty good so far. I heat my sparge water in two 3 gallon pots on the stove top and transfer it to a plastic primary bucket (my HLT) with a 3/8" hose barb screwed in the side near the bottom. My MLT is a rectangular coleman cooler with a piece of stainless hose braid for a false bottom. I used to do a split boil but I just finished building a new boil kettle using a 55l keg and a regular 4500w heater element. It gets a 5 gallon batch boiling in 20-25 minutes.

[wortly]

Go to fabricville and spend $5 on some polyester sheer. I used this method for a whole summer until I got my setup together. Your efficiency take a hit, but all in all it works great!


http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/ ... =polyester

[Garak]

I forgot to mention in my post that I have a cooler mash tun built. I have a copper pipe manifold in the bottom

My main issue right now is that I only have the boil kettle to heat water in the basement where we brew. I don't have a dedicated HLT. So my plan is to mash out and sparge into one or more of my pyrex carboys. Once that is done the HLT is no longer needed and becomes the boil pot. It just adds an extra step of transferring the sweet wort from the pyrex to the boil pot.

The pyrex isn't that bad to lift, about the same as the cooler. The big neck makes a great handle. Its a 100lbs lift of swashing liquid either way. I think I'd rather build some sort of lift or rig up a winch of some sort. The real challenge is doing this without spending any money. The simple solution might be just to build a stretcher like sling with two 3ft 2x4 and some webbing and make it a two man lift. In the back of my head I'm picturing a seesaw like lift but that totally blows my budget of $0.

Maltster:
That was my original plan. But I really don't want to be carrying hot water down the stairs, nor 10 gallon of wort after the boil. I'm targeting 10 gallons to fill two corny kegs. So I need to do it all in the basement laundry room which is adjacent to the "fermenting cellar". The laundry room is nearly a perfect home brewery, 220v power, floor drains, big laundry sink, adjacent bathroom with stand up shower(that we have setup as a carboy washing booth, I need to take pics of this next time I'm washing carboys)...

[ratchet]

can you hang a pulley from the ceiling and just use a rope to lift the carboy?
If you can make a box that the carboy sits in, you'll have a stable platform to lift using the pulley... doesn't get much cheaper than some rope and scrap-wood (assuming you have a pulley laying around)

[LiverDance]

The aussies invented BIAB.... http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/i ... opic=11694

[Garak]

I've though of that but I really don't want to put holes in the drywall overhead. Its not my house. That said I don't think my buddy would mind as long as I do the plastering and painting before he goes to sell. I do a lot of renovation work for him anyway. I don't have the parts on hand to do that though.

I just had another idea... Why don't I just use CO2 from the kegging setup to push the sweet wort up to the pot. I've been thinking of rigging up a CO2 push system for racking so we don't have to lift the fermenters. The biggest problem I have is that I don't have the right bungs for the pyrex carboys, the ones I have now are #13 and they don't really fit, they pop out with the slightest bit of pressure.

[ratchet]

what size do you need?

will a #12 work?

[Garak]

Yea its #12, thats what the spec sheet says. NG only carries up to #11

[derek]

can you hang a pulley from the ceiling and just use a rope to lift the carboy?
If you can make a box that the carboy sits in, you'll have a stable platform to lift using the pulley... doesn't get much cheaper than some rope and scrap-wood (assuming you have a pulley laying around)

You certainly can - I set up a system like that for my wife to hoist wine carboys in our old wine cellar. She's only five feet tall, but had carboys stacked three high. We used a simple pully and a winch off an old boat-trailer (I blew the $0 budget bit, though, by adding a barn-door rail allowing her to slide the whole swinging contraption the length of the room). We just used the screw-on carboy handles (they clamp around the neck) and hooked the winch to that. That way you don't have to figure out how to get your carboy _out_ of the box.

Over 10 or so years, she only lost one carboy.

[ratchet]

Yea its #12, thats what the spec sheet says. NG only carries up to #11

you have PM

[lucky96]

I forgot to mention in my post that I have a cooler mash tun built. I have a copper pipe manifold in the bottom

My main issue right now is that I only have the boil kettle to heat water in the basement where we brew. I don't have a dedicated HLT. So my plan is to mash out and sparge into one or more of my pyrex carboys. Once that is done the HLT is no longer needed and becomes the boil pot. It just adds an extra step of transferring the sweet wort from the pyrex to the boil pot.

The pyrex isn't that bad to lift, about the same as the cooler. The big neck makes a great handle. Its a 100lbs lift of swashing liquid either way. I think I'd rather build some sort of lift or rig up a winch of some sort. The real challenge is doing this without spending any money. The simple solution might be just to build a stretcher like sling with two 3ft 2x4 and some webbing and make it a two man lift. In the back of my head I'm picturing a seesaw like lift but that totally blows my budget of $0.

Maltster:
That was my original plan. But I really don't want to be carrying hot water down the stairs, nor 10 gallon of wort after the boil. I'm targeting 10 gallons to fill two corny kegs. So I need to do it all in the basement laundry room which is adjacent to the "fermenting cellar". The laundry room is nearly a perfect home brewery, 220v power, floor drains, large Pedestal Sink, adjacent bathroom with stand up shower(that we have setup as a carboy washing booth, I need to take pics of this next time I'm washing carboys)...

Taking 10 gallons of water down to basement by the stairs is really dangerous. In my opinion, you should take all your brewing stuff to outside area and create a place for it there maybe in your garden or in your porch.

[Garak]

That is a very old post.

The lifting and basement were two separate points. I was only looking at lifting the pyrex carboy a few feet so gravity could do its thing. I ended up using the vacuum pump to suck the sparge water into the carboy. It didn't work so well as it was difficult to account for heat loss.

After a long break from brewing I'm currently gearing up to build a more traditional 3 vessel 2 pump brewery. I'm not as broke as I was 6 years ago, so this time I can do it right.
--
Chris

[Ruby]

I've been brewing with a one pot system and have had great success. My 55 Litre HLT is used to heat the strike water and I pump to a 60 Litre cooler mash tun. After mashing, I fly sparge from the kettle and collect the wort in buckets until the sparge is over and then pump the wort into the empty kettle and boil. Before the pump it was a little difficult getting the wort into the kettle without some splash, but after reading an article in Brulosophy regarding the overestimation of the effects of hot-side aeration, I wasn't as concerned. Now the pump eliminates aeration completely.