Transferring wort from brew kettle with ball valve

I am in the process of adding a ball valve to my brew kettle and am designing a diptube to transfer wort to my primary. I've always brewed in 5-gallon batches so picking up the kettle and dumping it has never been a problem, but I would like to automate this process as much as possible and am wondering if I can just rely on gravity to drain the kettle as long as the kettle is higher than the primary vessel or whether I will need a pump to automate the entire process. I understand that this pump is not self-priming so I would to siphon enough to fill the pump to get it started, but that it would be able to drain the kettle much quicker once started. Speed is not that big of an issue at this point, but being able to drain all of the wort is a priority.

So, can I rely on gravity to drain the kettle after the ball valve is opened or must I use gravity and a pump?

Topic pump siphon process homebrew

Category Mac

1
answered at

It will work fine by gravity.

But the amount of wort you get out of the kettle is dependent upon the geometry of your pots bottom, and how your pick up tube is positioned in the pot.

1
answered at

If the only purpose for the pump is draining the boil kettle, it might be wise to avoid the complexity (and one more thing to clean), because gravity will certainly work to transfer your wort to the fermentation vessel.

You may find that there is an incomplete transfer of wort. The volume depends on how far the ball valve is from the bottom of the kettle (even if the pick-up is lower). What I do is put a length of silicone tube on the output of the boil kettle and submerse that in the fermenter. This way, it siphons more wort, because without the tube, it breaks the siphon.

Use gravity and reduce cost, complexity, and cleaning!

1
answered at

I used a racking cane and gravity for 3 years worth of brewing, and it worked just fine. I don't see any reason you couldn't rely on gravity.

It will be slower than a pump, but you're looking at 3-5 minutes to fill the fermentor, rather than less than 1 with a pump, basically.

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