Manifold For Mash Tun

[Brewme]

You might want to attach the photos Brewme

Hi,

Yeah, I realized I forgot that process after I went to bed.

Here goes...







I guess I could have done a better job with the wires to make it look a bit neater. But they seem to do the job. Should keep the pipes in place when stirring the mash.

Cheers

 

[Gavo]

Listening to Brewstrong podcast you'll hear Palmer and Jamil stating it's best to have them facing down - it's nothing to do with flow, but the amount of liquid you can extract from the tun, if facing up, anything below the cuts will be left behind, by turning it over you'll get more liquid out. They also go into spacings and the benefit - having too many you might get more liquids coming out near the tap rather than uniformly across the manifold, too little can be the same effect. They recommend around a 1/2" spacing which generally provides alot of slots for draining.

Would agree with both statements here. I have my manifold facing downand have done test runs with just water and would not have any more than 500ml left at the end of draining. My slots are about 5mm apart and I notice when cleaning the tubes out with the hose that the water runs out of the first half of the slots far more than the last half. Still works fine though so won't be loosing sleep over it.

Gavo.

 

[mje1980]

Guys you have got me thinking about going from SS braid to a copper manifold. Anyone done comparitive tests between the 2??. I used a copper manifold years ago, but i syphoned the wort out. As you can imagine i quickly went to an SS braid haha. Now im thinking ( about my whole setup actually ) and im wondering if i'll get less losses with a copper manifold.

 

[under]

Guys you have got me thinking about going from SS braid to a copper manifold. Anyone done comparitive tests between the 2??. I used a copper manifold years ago, but i syphoned the wort out. As you can imagine i quickly went to an SS braid haha. Now im thinking ( about my whole setup actually ) and im wondering if i'll get less losses with a copper manifold.

I think the SS braid is the problem with your setup. Heh.

 

[matho]

I started out with a ss braid, when I was fly sparging I would get stuck sparges
I went to a manifold to see if that would fix it and it did I also got a clearer wort but no increase in efficiency
I am now in the process of making a false bottom to see if it will help my extract efficiency because of the limitations of a manifold in a round cooler I defantly don't have as much area coverage as the rectangular manifolds do.

Cheers matho

 

[kieran]

I'm using braid and its brilliant. I always batch sparge too..

 

[mje1980]

I'm using braid and its brilliant. I always batch sparge too..

I've been using mine for over 5 years now. Love it, never had a runoff issue etc. Im just thinking about channeling. If i do a copper manifold ( will do at work when quiet ), i'll make it so i can swap between my braid, and the manifold. Im just curious to see if there will be any difference, with getting more wort out, as the braid sometimes lifts off the bottom. May make no difference at all, but its worth a try. It all goes through the same bulkhead fitting so the only volume difference might be because the manifold sits down on the bottom, and the slots are right on the bottom surface, though the braid usually sits right on the bottom too so?? who knows.

Im more thinking that possibly ( and this is a total guess ) because the braid is in the middle of my tun, some of the sugaz on the sides of the tun might not get to the middle, and by having slots on the sides and the middle, maybe those sugaz will have more chance to get down to the slots. Probably a wild arse theory, but i've been doing the same thing for a long time ( very happily i might add! ), and am just playing around.

Cheers

 

[[email protected]]

Mje1980,

I too use the braid and have another esky set up to do a copper manifold and fly sparging but I still keep using the braid and batch sparging as it is easy and I generally get 73% efficiency consistantly. What I do to keep the braid on the bottom of the mash tun is cable tie at three locations to a piece of copper tube the length of the braid. The copper tube by the way was supposed to make it's way to the manifold but found a better use!

 

[mje1980]

Oh im happy with mine, just looking at different setups. Just had a quick read of How to brew, the "building a mash tun" section. I think its reasonable to compare an SS braid to a single copper pipe in his diagrams/examples, and there seems ( according to him ) an efficiency difference with more pipes. Interesting, and it made sense regards to water flow, though im no scientist. Think i'll chase this up.

 

[boybrewer]

I built my false bottom from 1/2" copper tube my efficiency was around the 72% mark . I have just done a maiden run with it using my new HERMS system and my efficiency has now gone through the roof . I just did the numbers today and my efficiency rose to 93% . As this is the first run I am not expecting this rate all the time , but I will take it for now .

 

[Cocko]

View attachment 42424

Looks like your read 'palmers' to much understanding...

Perfect IMO!

I am sure it would work without the 'wire'

Anyway, nice work!

2c.

 

[rotten]

I soldered mine between all the t's etc, just left the long lenghts unsoldered for cleaning. You may find it a bit difficult to get all doughballs taken care of with the wire IMHO. well done all the same.
Cheers

 

[Cocko]

I soldered mine between all the t's etc, just left the long lenghts unsoldered for cleaning. You may find it a bit difficult to get all doughballs taken care of with the wire IMHO. well done all the same.
Cheers

Exactly what I did and I find cleaning a breeze! +1 Rotten.

So, I reckon solder up these joins:

 

[Cocko]

Example:

 

[mje1980]

Done a single and a double batch with the new copper manifold. Same method, batch sparge, flow it out as fast as it'll go. Efficiency has come up by a few points, nothing major though. Will keep using it. So far not too much different to my braid.