Sparge Arm

[Old Hooky]

I'm nearly ready to start my first brew in 4 years. I used to have one of those Phils Rotating Sparge Arms but it probably ended up down the tip. Can someone give me some intruction on how to make something like this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjEeAnPWg1I

[scotia]

15mm copper capped, series of 1.5mm holes for the sparg arm inserted into a 15mm T tighten. For the inlet tighten the olive with a small piece of 15mm copper and screw back untill rotating freely then a wee blob of solder to stop the nut undoing its self then attach which ever fitting you are using on the mash lid.

[Old Hooky]

Many thanks for that I'll let you know if it's a success.

[Old Hooky]

Hi. Success! I now have a brilliant rotating sparge arm but I have a query. I drilled ten 1.5mm holes on either side of the T Piece and angled them so that they will spin the arm. The problem is I will get through 25 litres of water in around ten minutes and I thought sparging had to be around half an hour. I've got plenty of copper pipe so would it pay me to make smaller holes? in which case I'm wondering if the arm will rotate if I do this. However the construction works perfectly andf I can't believe I didn't try this. Thanks again.

[scotia]

Try less holes and smaller as you suggest.
I only did my first brew on Monday but that was over two hours and transfering 10ltr of water each time, allow to stand for 15mins draw off into the underback sparge another 10ltr as this was being done

[Old Hooky]

Thanks. I didn't actually time this so I will fill up my HLT with water tomorrow and run it off into the mash tun and time it. Having said that, even my old Phils Rotating arm went through the water in about 20 minutes but I never had a problem with any of the beers I made they were all top notch.

[Old Hooky]

Timed it this morning. Just six minutes to empty 25 litres of hot water. So I made a couple more arms and drilled the holes 0.5mm and the problem is there is not enough water coming out to propel the arm around. Is 6 minutes too quick for sparging? I can't understand why and thought it was only for the purpose of rinsing the grain. Can someone enlighten me? Failing that I will have to make one using smaller bore tubing.

[mozza]

The worry would be a stuck mash if you drain too quickly

[24/7]

OH
You're also trying to rinse the sugars released in the mash away from the grains. Imagine golden syrup on the side of your bath and trying to remove it by chucking a jug of hot water at it instead of using the shower attachment and spraying it evenly!

Cheers
Steve

[Old Hooky]

I'll have to get some thinner tube from a model shop or somewhere. Thing is that mine works as good as that one on the YT link I posted so he must be sparging too quick.

[newtonsshed]

I'd be interested to see how you get with this as I need to make one like you return after 4/5 years off and not got one at the mo. My old one broke and from there just went to batch sparge, now want go back to fly. I've got some 10mm copper I think sitting around that I can use for the arm (may not be very stright) that needs blanking off or even some beer line that I could use for the arm What size holes be suitable for a 10mm arm and how could I blank the ends off? Thinking I could crimp the ends together?
Thanks
Andy

[Old Hooky]

Andy, I just crimped the ends in a vice. If you can get the "T" compression fittings for your tubing then you are well on your way. I'm looking for smaller tubing to build mine and regarding the holes to drill - it is trial and error. As I mentioned above I drilled "10" 1.5mm holes on each arm and this was enough to propel the arm round but it was emptying the HLT too quick. I've even been looking at batch sparging myself after watching a few videos on YT because building this thing is taking up more time than I wanted. Can you explain to me how you batch sparge, is it just a case of emptying the mash tun completely then closing the tap and filling up with more hot water about half of whats left of say 25 litres collected. I'm not clear on it because there seems to be a lot of Americans doing videos but not English.

[newtonsshed]

Hi old hooky could you adjust the flow rate coming out the hlt to the sparge arm?
Re Batch sparging pretty much yeah you've got it; drain tun refill with sparge water which will pull through the sugary wort that was left behind, I'm led to believe it's not as efficient as fly but there is some debate and can always compensate with an extra handful of grain. I never noticed any difference between the two. You could also do it 2 or 3 times ie instead of one 25l batch do 8l batch 3 times or 12l twice so mash, drain the tun to boiler once stopped by itself, refill tun with 8l of sparge water stand five minuets open tap and drain to boiler, repeat with another 8l & repeat with another 8l. You could also instead of using sparge arm do it manually with a watering-can rose that's suitable or silver foil or even those disposable oven treys that have the little holes in the bottom and pour sparge water into this. Likewise the sparge arm doesn't have to spin - you could use like a copper manifold (out of the boiler) with little holes in with the surface area covering as much of tun as possible so then wouldn't need to rotate.

I know you drilled 1.5mm holes on a 15mm copper tube and the .5mm holes didn't rotate; I'm just wondering as using a smaller diameter arm ie 10mm copper not 15mm what size holes I need and whether .05mm hole would power this

[Old Hooky]

You could try drilling 10 holes at 0.5 and see if it works. I tried turning the tap down to make the flow less but then the arm stopped rotating so I needed it on full to get the arm to rotate, this is why I've been looking at batch sparging because I've spent a whole day on this and not made any progress. I had that Phils Rotating Sparge Arm some years ago and that was excellent.

[newtonsshed]

You know you can buy them right for £22.44 from say the home brew shop stainless steel too if ur into shiny things but don't give up be worth it in long run and u have sense of achievement.