Beer Forum

This is for Chad and his concern for Hot Side Aeration (HSA) on the B3-1550 that he now posses.

You see he has an issue with grains being pulled back through the sparge ring and into his Hot Liquor Tank (HLT).
This has caused a great deal of consternation.

I let him in on a dirty little secret on how to fix the issue.

1) Drill a VERY SMALL (1/16") hole in the copper tubing that connects the hose to the sparge ring. This hole is drilled just above the float switch.
2) This allows air to pulled into the hose thus relieving the strong back flushing of wort out of the mash tun during sparging.
3) Because the float switch turns on and off per the set level of water above the grain bed. when it turns off it pulls pretty hard back the other way taking with it wort and grains.
4) With this method of drilling a small hole in the copper tubing one initial concern developed for Chad. What about Hot Side Aeration?
This is a good question because during the entire mash cycle or while the system recirculates, it will cause a minute stream of wort to exit that hole that was drilled in the copper tubing. That minute stream will splash on the surface of the wort on top of the mash.

Now he was told by the boys at MoreBeer that they do not do such things because of the risk of HSA. I think he is going along with them on this.
I must remind him of the Brew Strong show with Dr. Charlie Bamforth wherein he dismisses the concern of HSA at such an early stage.
But the main reason for my post is to show him that very large scale craft brewers also do not worry about this kind of splashing of hot wort during pre-boil production.

Here is a photo of a brewday I had with the Anchor Steam Brewery in San Francisco, Ca. This is a photo of wort being pumped into the boil kettle from the lauter tun.
Notice how far the wort is traveling from the top of the boil kettle down to the bottom of it.



I hope for Chads sake he will put aside the "ancient" fears of HSA that MoreBeer is perpetuating, and make his brewday a bit less stressful.

I know you will Chad. I have faith in you.

Carlo
Sonoma, Ca

p.s. For a full picture tour of my brewday at Anchor check out:
http://pickettstaleworks.smugmug.com/gallery/4430529_ddaam#260309502_woeG2

I'm with Carlo on the HSA issue. That isn't a problem with his proposed solution.

Me, I solved the problem with a check valve inline between the HLT and the mash tun.

I tried an inline check valve once JZ and it gave some grief.

It is like racking canes to you.
It works for a lot of people, but It was more trouble than a solution for me. That is just me.

1/16" hole drilled solved all my back flushing & sucking issues.

hopbumpingbrewer wrote:
1/16" hole drilled solved all my back flushing & sucking issues.

I wish I could solve all my issues with sucking, but that ain't gonna happen in this lifetime.

I hear you on the check valve. Not sure why it works so well for me, but it is flawless. Again, I think your solution is a very good and cheap one and nothing really to worry about on HSA.

Thanks Jamil,
It is funny how things work out for each of us differently.

I was talking with Chad at the previous Downtown Joe's show & he was lamenting his feelings about the reverse motion of the wort and grains back into his HLT.
He seemed excited about the fix, and then when I talked with at Marin Brewing Co, boobs & brews fest, he seemed worried by the HSA.

He said that is why More Beer doesn't just drill such hole.

I just wanted to put some practical "real working brewery" proof to try and settle his nerves on the issue.
Chad is a good guy. I hate to hear him lament this brewing hurdle because of no solution.

Much love,
Bump

For the record, used your solution Carlo and it works like a champ (drilled a hole as mentioned above). No issues with HSA that I can detect, although we drink it all pretty fast around here.

Thanks again for the suggestion, now I can move on to worry about something else...

Glad to hear it brotha.
Hope you had a great vacation.

Take care,
Carlo