Ball Cocks.

[chivelegs]

...and the same to you too, Sir.


Thinking about automating my fly sparging and came across this.

http://shop.smithsofthedean.co.uk/12-in ... e-34-p.asp

If set just above the grain bed, do you think this would be OK seeing as it is ABS and needs to be used with 85c water?

[Kev888]

It gets over the usual problems, by being food grade and higher flow rate than normal (the mains pressure ones don't like low pressure very often).

Its not quite rated to 85c, although at that price it may be worth a punt. Also, the adjustable float height is a useful aspect, although its not on a long arm so the adjustment range is a bit limited.

Cheers
Kev

[barneey]

It does indeed look like a good find and well worth a punt at that price.

Would be interesting to figure out a way of extending the arm to allow for a little extra movement, maybe a length of threaded stainless studding or similar could work or a threaded plastic rod.

Coupled with a piece of tube on the outlet resting on the grainbed could be a goer.

Only one slight delivery + VAT doubles the price.

[chivelegs]

Hmm,
The same company also do them on Fleabay and Amazon for 2 different prices
http://www.amazon.co.uk/inch-Adjustable ... B006FIFRF4
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Adjustable-Pl ... 0654338264

I'll give it a shot and report back!

[Kev888]

interesting; maybe due to VAT and different charges from the online ebay/amazon services? Just to cloud things even more they have it on their website too (here)

I've bought barrels from them in person and through ebay before, had no problems. I'd not seen that 'shop' site or the amazon outlet before you posted that first link, though.

Cheers
kev

[chivelegs]

Yeah, after VAT and P&P it was cheaper on Amazon.
Now I've got to figure a way of fixing it at an adjustable level in a thermopot mash tun. The first thing that comes to mind is a shower clamp/rail set-up

[chivelegs]

Right, sod the shower rail idea. Time to raid the spares box.
This should be fully adjustable for height. Just have to wait for the float valve to try it out.


Untitled by chivelegs, on Flickr

[chivelegs]

Arrived today. Nice and compact design so wont be too hard to position correctly I hope. Now I've got top figure out how to distribute the sparge water evenly. Thinking of a PVC hose with holes drilled through.

[barneey]

The blichmann one is just a piece of hose with a float attached to it.

[chivelegs]

A quick update.

Used this yesterday and it was mostly successful.
Although the whole idea was to reduce worries about water levels in the mash tun, all that happened is I worriedeven more about whether the thing was actually working...Guess it will be less stress next time around.

The only problem is that the flow is very slow indeed, meaning that run off to the boiler has to be similarly slow. However, this ended up being not such a bad thing as efficiencies were well up on normal, even for a big 8.2% beer that completely filled the mash tun to the brim.

However, I was concerned that the liquor temperature must have dropped considerably with the slow flow and upped the HLT heat controller by a few degrees to compensate

Pics....

[barneey]

Does the last piccy show the actual flow rate

[chivelegs]

Not far off at one point! However, I realised this was due to bits of residue i've never bothered to clear out the hlt clogging the valve. Cleared that out and it went a bit quicker. Still needs more tinkering though. As you can see, my pvc hose fell off the end and needs some pfte tape to hold it in place.

[chivelegs]

Right then, time for plan B.

I tried opening out the flow restrictor on this and it still won't let enough water through, so I'm looking for a different way to attack this problem.

I'm thinking of a bog standard low-pressure Float valve http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p31280 with a copper float ball http://www.bhl.co.uk/product/COPPER_FLO ... DERED_516W

Anything look like it may cause any problems with mash temperatures of up to 75c?

[barneey]

Just one thing I can think about are the "bog" standard ones, designed to take a low pressure?