Copper Manifold

[lokpikn]

Im up to my 10th brew and have been getting parts to do my first all grain brew which will be this sunday the 16th. Any way ive made up a copper manifold to some designs i saw on john palmers web site.
On the site it says to space the cuts about 1/2 inch apart in all my wisdom ive spaced them about 1/2 cm apart. does any one know if this will cause any problems with flow or channeling????
My mash /luter tun is a 54ltr model and will be doing a doubel batch.(English pale ale)

 

[pint of lager]

Your spacing sounds fine to me.

Make sure that you can control the flow rate with your tap. Any sort of ball valve or gate valve will be fine. It is the snap tap style that are a problem.

Before launching into a double batch, just do a smaller single batch till you iron everything out.

 

[dicko]

Im up to my 10th brew and have been getting parts to do my first all grain brew which will be this sunday the 16th. Any way ive made up a copper manifold to some designs i saw on john palmers web site.
On the site it says to space the cuts about 1/2 inch apart in all my wisdom ive spaced them about 1/2 cm apart. does any one know if this will cause any problems with flow or channeling????
My mash /luter tun is a 54ltr model and will be doing a doubel batch.(English pale ale)

Hi Lokpikn,
As J Palmer says in his text, channelling can be caused by the slots being to close to the walls of the tun.
I have a copper manifold in a 54 litre Keep cold Round cooler and it works fine. I made it to the design as illustrated by JP and it is a basic square shape in the round mash tun.
Your slots will work OK, but as they are a bit closer than 1/2" you may find that the copper pipe may have a tendency to bend if not handled carefully.
As POL said, try to do a smaller batch first up, as a double is a lot of ingredients if you get a poor result or more to the point if you find you are not happy with the recipe.
The only worry I have with my mash tun and a 23 litre(smaller) brew is maintaining the mash temp for the full time. It tends to drop a couple more degrees with the less grain mash volume.
Cheers and good brewing

 

[mikem108]

My copper manifold is quite dodgy, it was the first one i made, different designs and materials would always get clogged so I went back to ol faithful which gives suprisingly good efficiency. The holes are just randomly drilled, initially there wasn't enough of them and the flow was slow so I drilled some more, works fine! Looks crap


Wrapping up the mash tun in an old blanket helps keep the temp up.

 

[lokpikn]

Thanks guys sound good to me. ive got the pipe far enough from the walls to prevent channeling (I hope) & also a ball valve to slow down the draining speed.
As ive got a large mash tun 50ltrs. ive read that i may have promlems sparging as i wont have much grain bead depth so thats why im going to do a doubel.
I going to brew with a mate who has done quite a few ag batches. If this one works good i got a mate with a smaller esky about 25 ltrs ill turn into a mash/luter tun with a manifold to work on single batches.
Cheers to you all

 

[Screwtop]

My mash tun is a round 35L Cosmoplast Keep Cold Cooler. First manifold was made from braided stainless steel reinforcing tube, worked but dented easily if hit it with the mash paddle. Changed to a round copper manifold with hacksaw cuts at .5" on the bottom and found out what channeling was. With the braid manifild the grain bed would be intact wall to wall after lautering. Using the round copper manifold the grain bed would resemble a big mound with a gap of around 25mm on the perimeter. Obviously the diameter was too large and liquid was drawn mostly down the sides of the grain bed, Used to take about 3 - 4 litres to clear at times depending on grist. A pity as the copper was more robust, have changed back to braid and have to go easy when stirring the mash. Experienced reduced efficiency while using this manifold but too many other variables to know yet if it was solely due to the channeling. Have made a MKIII out of poly pressure pipe with holes drilled in the bottom instead of slots, but havn't tested it yet.

 

[lokpikn]

My mash tun is a round 35L Cosmoplast Keep Cold Cooler. First manifold was made from braided stainless steel reinforcing tube, worked but dented easily if hit it with the mash paddle. Changed to a round copper manifold with hacksaw cuts at .5" on the bottom and found out what channeling was. With the braid manifild the grain bed would be intact wall to wall after lautering. Using the round copper manifold the grain bed would resemble a big mound with a gap of around 25mm on the perimeter. Obviously the diameter was too large and liquid was drawn mostly down the sides of the grain bed, Used to take about 3 - 4 litres to clear at times depending on grist. A pity as the copper was more robust, have changed back to braid and have to go easy when stirring the mash. Experienced reduced efficiency while using this manifold but too many other variables to know yet if it was solely due to the channeling. Have made a MKIII out of poly pressure pipe with holes drilled in the bottom instead of slots, but havn't tested it yet.

Hey Ya screwtop
When you made your copper manifold how close were they to the wall of the esky. I read that they cant touch the walls at all and depending on the size of your esky need to be about 25mm away.