I just got the 20 gallon Blichmann Boilmaker in the mail which I plan to use as both my mash tun and kettle (after some transferring of the wort and cleaning of the spent grains)…but I don’t know if I need a pump to use the system. Can you just use the 20 gallon version as a gravity feed system? Thanks!
I don’t think the pot matters much. What process do you plan to use? Seems you need to gravity drain the mash into a holding vessel, clean, then gravity drain back into the kettle. Assuming a 10 gallon batch, you’ll be transfering around 100lbs of hot liquid.
Gravity should be fine. Make sure you are cleaning out all the husk material before you boil.
You might want to add a mashout step to your mash. As far as I know, the longer the wort sits before boiling, the more fermentable it gets. Wouldn’t necessarily be a problem. I may be wrong there.
Thanks! For the moment I’m going to be sticking to 5 gallon batches until I get a pump, but I just don’t want to wait for another purchase to be made to start using my new toy! I was worried that because the dip-tube is downward facing I might end up with a lot of lost wort unless I had a pump. Thank!
Cheers.
I have a dib tube like that on my HLT and kettle. As long as you attach a tube on the outside and it stays full of liquid, it will siphon wort until it reaches the bottom of the tube. If you don’t use a tube though, it’ll stop draining when it reaches the level of the valve.
Keep in mind that you’ll get higher than average boil-off using that size kettle for a 5 gallon batch. You have a large surface area for the volume.
you are going to have to lift the wort at some point. you can gravity drain into buckets and then lift and pour back in but I can’t think of a way that you could gravity drain into a holding tank and then gravity drain back into the kettle. so either runoff into 2 or more holding vessels or be prepared to lift ~50-60 lbs of hot liquid high enough to pour or drain into the kettle or to lift the kettle with that much hot wort into it. not a big deal, I do this. My ‘system’ is a cooler mash tun that sits on a table. I transfer hot liqour from my kettle to the mash tun first with a long handled sauce pan then, when the level is low enough to feel safe about it I lift the kettle and pour the rest of the liqour into the mash tun. When mash is done I drain into the kettle on the ground and then lift the kettle onto the burner. Or, for 10 gallon batches I run off into two or more fermenter buckets and then pour them into the kettle after adding the sparge water to the mash.
For the moment I’m going the way of lifting scalding hot liquids from the ground onto counter tops or to the height of pouring into another vessel. And if I prime the siphon as mentioned, and am careful it sounds like I can get the most out of my mash tun without losing liquid due to the dead space. Thanks!