Transferring liquid

[AgentO3]

During the brew process liquid is transferred from vessel to vessel. What is the best way to handle that while keeping costs as low as possible?

Stages that require transfer of liquids.

• Filling mashing pot.
• Mashing pot to boil pot.
• Boil pot to sparging.
• Sparging to fermenter to keg/bottles.

[AgentO3]

I think the most obvious answer to use gravity whenever possible. A design where the different stages are stacked on top of each other would also lend it's self to a more compact system.

Food grade electric pumps are rather pricy, so to keep cost low I would like to try to avoid electric pumps when possible. I think a good alternative is pressure transfer using either compressed air or CO2. Here is an article that outlines a method using pressure to rack a keg.

http://humboldtbeerworks.com/racking-from-a-carboy-into-a-keg-under-pressure/

[codelitt]

The pumps are pricey, but less pricey than it would be to try to automate it using CO2. It depends on your level of desired automation I guess.

[AgentO3]

CO2 is probably not the best choice here, but compressed air might be a pretty good option. I think gravity will work for the majority of the work that needs to be done.