Sparge bucket.

[Theoriginalrich]

I’ve been thinking of using a food grade bucket with lots of holes drilled in the bottom for sparging.
I’ve got a Brewzilla and currently use a jug to pour my sparge water over my mash. I finish the sparge a little quickly and think a bucket on top of the malt pipe with lots of little holes over a greater area would be better.
Would this work?

 

[robster62]

I use a jug and colander to sparge in my brewzilla, but I have lost the top plate.

 

[Rwilts]

I use a 5l jug and the top plate.. do tend to think that it is too quick, especially when people say that it should take an hour!. If the sparge water.flows through the grain bed quickly is it not washing out the sugars? I also use a fair amount of rice hulls I wonder if that's providing too easy a path for the liquid

 

[Clarence]

It'll work perfectly well. Another idea would be to use an undrilled bucket with a tap and a false bottom.

 

[AJA]

I use a bottling bucket with a tap and tinfoil with holes in.
A false bottom would work, I have also seen a pan splatter screen used.

 

[Begbie]

I use one of those collapsible plastic colanders over the grain basket and pour from a 2L jug. I'm always on the lookout for a bigger diameter one that'll fit snugly inside the basket though. At the moment, I move the colander around to ensure that the full surface area of the grain is 'washed'.

 

[The Baron]

I use a 5l jug and the top plate.. do tend to think that it is too quick, especially when people say that it should take an hour!. If the sparge water.flows through the grain bed quickly is it not washing out the sugars? I also use a fair amount of rice hulls I wonder if that's providing too easy a path for the liquid

If you want to spend a precious hour+ of your time sparging with a slow sparge arm system to get a point or too more then do so
I prefer to put a value on my time that is more precious than a point or two more or just add a little more grain to compensate for any slight loss.
I hit my numbers and get circa 75% efficiency and thats good enough for me with the jug sparge
Traditionalists will slow sparge

 

[jof]

I use a jug (or rather kitchen kettle) sparge, but have made a recent change for a hybrid of batch sparging.
I don't have an all in one, just a boiler, do I run the wort off to the FV before returning it to the boiler.
1) run off wort
2) refill mashing vessel with hot water.
3) open top of grain bag & stir for a couple of minutes.
4) run off 2nd batch of wort
5) go back to normal sparge with remaining sparge water.

It seems to save me about 1/2 hour in sparging time

 

[AJA]

Stirring will trigger a few brewers

 

[Theoriginalrich]

I use one of those collapsible plastic colanders over the grain basket and pour from a 2L jug. I'm always on the lookout for a bigger diameter one that'll fit snugly inside the basket though. At the moment, I move the colander around to ensure that the full surface area of the grain is 'washed'.

Cheers @Begbie you’ve just changed my mind for me. It also helps with saving space as well.

 

[Clint]

I'm also using tin foil punched full of holes.

 

[The Baron]

I'm also using tin foil punched full of holes.

I use tinfoil with holes in it on the top of the mash as I too have lost my top plate(when I empty the mash pipe into a bin bag it fell in and I forgot to recover it)

 

[Rodcx500z]

I just use the top plate and a 1L jug for my brewzilla, works for me takes about 20 minutes

 

[Bogdweller]

I use an old yogurt carton with a lot of small holes punched around the circumference of the bottom. Pour sparge water in and use a device to spread the sprinkling wort across the top of the mash evenly (my arm!)
Works for me but a bit cumbersome I guess. It's all about what technique you develop for yourself and feel comfortable with.

 

[Mayor of Simpleton]

I use a jug and the top plate and sparge with a couple of litres at a time. Sparge takes an hour or so. Mash efficiency is around 80-85% which I am happy with.

 

[crowcrow]

I have a 1 litre plastic hug that I drilled a few small holes in. I only sparge with 5 litres - I don't bother with a 'proper' sparge - as others, I try to keep my brewing quick and so far everything I've made has been drunk happily!

 

[Twogunrocky]

£1.39 from Screwfix, drilled the bottom and sits absolutely perfectly on my fv.

Job done for less than 30 Bob