Is a sight glass a good or bad idea on a mash tun

[bobsbeer]

I guess you are adding the grain to the water and measuring the water in the MT before adding the grain. Is there no way you can fit a sight glass to your HLT? Alternatively you could put the dipstick in the HLT and measure it down.

[GeeThom]

I have a 7 litre gradualted stainless jug which I fill and pour into the HLT so I know the exact volume heated. I can then add all of this to mash tun as required. I then refill for the sparge.

[guypettigrew]

I guess you are adding the grain to the water and measuring the water in the MT before adding the grain. Is there no way you can fit a sight glass to your HLT? Alternatively you could put the dipstick in the HLT and measure it down.

Or put a suitably calibrated dipstick in the mash tun and measure it up!!

Guy

[darkonnis]

I mash in at at 2.5 to 2.7L/kg and have never had any water over the grain.
The mash is meant to float.

Yes it should, I was more meaning if you add your malt to the mash tun after your liquor and its sticking out the top when fully mashed in, you don't have enough liquor. When you're fully mashed in the mash will float. As a general rule anything from 2L/kg to 5L/kg is fine, but if you're doing a big beer and stretching to capacity in the MT and going in at less than this ratio, the minimum required is for it to be fully covered.

[bobsbeer]

Or put a suitably calibrated dipstick in the mash tun and measure it up!!

Guy

You could, but unless you measure the water without grain, you may be out. I underlet into my MT so any measurement in the MT would be useless. While my system measures the flow from the HLT to MT electronically with a flow meter, I also have a graduated scale in the HLT as a backup.

[guypettigrew]

Understood. I pump hot liquor into my mash tun, adjust the temperature if necessary, then stir in the grain

A flow meter? Now there's something I'd like! I want to more accurately control the run off rate from the mash tun to the boiler. At the moment I have to guess the flow rate, wait and see how long 5 litres takes to run off, then adjust the rate accordingly. Very amateurish! What do you use, and where did you get it from, please?

Guy

[bobsbeer]

I have one of THESE from EBay. Works a treat, although I only use it to measure flow, it can also be used to operate a solenoid valve and temp sensor. I have a switch that I can select 3 different inputs from 3 flow sensors in my system. HLT to MT, MT to Boiler and Boiler to FV. It can also be done using an Arduino plus the flow sensor. I think Fil wrote some code ages ago to do that, but this seemed like the lazy way to go. It does need a 24v input, which I used an old scanner power supply I had on hand.

[barneey]

What temp rating are they to?

[bobsbeer]

They vary, but most are about 80c. I have had no problem with the one I have from boiler to FV even though I recirculate boiling wort to steralise. All mine have camlocks either side, so easy enough to pour videne or starsan through. The only problem I have had is to ensure they are properly rinsed through after use as if not they get stuck with the sugar residue.

[guypettigrew]

Thanks bobsbeer. Much appreciated.

Guy

[Fil]

Thanks for the credit where its not due Bob .. i have only copied steve's Brewshark project on the arduino, search in here and on thbf for "brewshark" for the arduino project

Brewshark measures volume, It can be tweaked to measure flow too.. ..