Raking Arm

[JunkAle]

Our equipment vendor is pushing back on our request to have a raking arm with agitator for spent grain removal and also potentially for loosening the treber cake if needed during water sparging steps. Their view is that for a 10HL system it is an overkill and the cost is not worth the added efficiency. They suggest we can just take the spent grain out manually and also if absolutely necessary to loosen the cake, can also be done manually.

Anyone have experience working without a raking arm and are their arguments reasonable? Thanks in advance!

[gitchegumee]

Automated grain-out on 10hl is IMHO totally unnecessary. Last time I worked with an automated grain-out on a 10hl system, I permanently removed it and did the (short, easy) job manually. Even more work to clean than it would be without. Not to mention having another piece of equipment to pay for, operate, maintain, and suffer through a broken seal leaking oil in your lauter. There might be some advantage to having a rake if you have a very special mash or lauter. Like using lots of gooey adjuncts, or an unusually deep bed. Even this can be mitigated with use of rice hulls. Otherwise, the increase in efficiency will be next to nil. Save some money on this and put it where the ROI is greater, or where you get more brewhouse flexibility. Like a heated mash mixer! Good luck!

[kai]

For a 10hL I'd go for a big dump hatch. Less moving parts and probably just as fast with a little labour.

[Kushal]

We manually grain out a 15 bbl mash tun 4 times a day.
takes 15 - 20 min (ea).

If we get a stuck mash we underlet and re-circulate before starting again.

I don't see the point of automating on such a small scale, just more things that can break.

[JunkAle]

Thanks all - appreciate the input