Homebrew Sparge Plate

Inspired by MoreBeer's Ultimate Sparge Arm, this Thing is used in beer making during the mash process. Wort is recirculated through the sparge plate via 1/2" CPVC tubing and a pump and/or during the sparge process. You could gravity feed your sparge water as well if you do not own a pump. The inlet of the plate allows a good interference fit with 1/2" CPVC tubing.

As this Thing is used on a food product at high temps (e.g. 140F-170F), please use a food-safe filament that can handle higher temps. I used Natural PETG from MatterHackers. PLA will warp at these temps and ABS is not food safe.

Note: For the tubing, do not use regular PVC. At these higher temps, chemicals will be leached from the plastic. Use CPVC.

Print Settings

Printer:

Monoprice Maker Select V2

Rafts:

No

Supports:

No

Resolution:

0.2

Infill:

40%

Notes:

I used a 40% infill. Probably overkill, but I wanted to be sure the piece was rigid.

How I Designed This

I tested with various interference fits on my printer and this one creates a tight connection while still being easy to disconnect, just like a typical CPVC connection. The wort goes through the inlet, goes into the plate, hits the cone and is dispersed through the 16 channels. The channels are all evenly spaced. I intentionally created some dead zones, that encourage recirculation to help mix the fluid while sparging (this can be seen in the YouTube video embedded above).

This print would benefit greatly from the use of soluble support material. I used rounds on the bottom of the pedestals, and used chamfers on the pedestal tops to reduce any issues with sagging filament. If you have good bridging techniques, there should not be any issues, but there are some areas that require some slight bridging that led to some renegade strands of filament on my print. Causes no issue with beer brewing process, however. :) Brew Strong!

Category: Kitchen & Dining