Can anyone think of a reason NOT to use my 12.5 gal SS conical as a hot liquor tank? It would be empty by the time I started boiling so would have at least an hour to cool back down to room temp before introducing the cooled wort. It is on a stand, so I could sparge by gravity, and I have a heat stick, so I’m not talking about exposing it to open flame.
I have a 5 gal double walled SS coffee urn I use for some sparge water but it is not enough for 10 gallon batches, so I have to heat up more in my boil pot and transfer it.
Other than poor insulation, I think it’s an ok idea. Might want to play with the temps a bit to make sure you get where you want after the cold stainless sucks some of the heat out.
That had also occurred to me. I generally heat my water to near boiling before mashing in, and adjust it downward, if necessary, by adding cold to reach mash temp.
Why? At the temp of the HLT there’s not going to be anything in there. Seems like more hassle w/the foam to me, let alone the cost.
Now if your going to make up 5 gal of starsan anyway for your utensils, then maybe it wouldn’t hurt to double use it, but I wouldn’t just for an already sanitized container.
I make my starsan with RO and save it for months. I replace it when it gets dirty or the volume becomes too low to be useful. I’d put my cost at about $6 a year for the water and concentrate. Also a spray bottle set to mist/foam would work as well without needing to fill the fermenter.
Don’t fear the foam. It’s 100% fine for it to be in the beer.
Depending on the volume, the hot liquor may not touch all parts of the fermenter long enough to sanitize.
The volume will be pretty full, but SS is a pretty good conductor of heat, so I expect that keeping boiling or near boiling water in it for several hours would heat the whole thing to sanitizing temperatures. I also clean everything with PBW and rinse clean immediately after I empty it, so there should not be anything able to grow in the first place.
To me, the extra few minutes to sanitize with a chemical sanitizer, which can be done during the boil or chilling, is well worth any perceived hassle.
Try it without the sanitizer, pull off a sample after filling the fermenter (before pitching yeast), and perform a wort stability test. You could also set aside a bottle for longterm stability testing.