Mash Tun Design

[jiggaman12]

Hi guys new to posting here, although have been looking at these forums for ages!

My friend and I built a copper manifold like that described in John Palmers book 'How to brew'. I am just a bit concerned that we are not gathering enough sugars from our malt, as we hit all the right temperatures, for the right times etc. The reason I think we are not hitting gathering as much sugar as we should is that the manifold sits about 2 inches above the floor of the esky we are using.

Is it supposed to sit lower than this? If so, any suggestions how to get it to sit lower yet still drain through the tap in the esky?

Look forward to hearing some responses

 

[hsb]

Hi guys new to posting here, although have been looking at these forums for ages!

My friend and I built a copper manifold like that described in John Palmers book 'How to brew'. I am just a bit concerned that we are not gathering enough sugars from our malt, as we hit all the right temperatures, for the right times etc. The reason I think we are not hitting gathering as much sugar as we should is that the manifold sits about 2 inches above the floor of the esky we are using.

Is it supposed to sit lower than this? If so, any suggestions how to get it to sit lower yet still drain through the tap in the esky?

Look forward to hearing some responses

If you have an airtight connection between manifold pickup and your tap, it should siphon and drain to the limit of the manifold. You can sit the manifold on the bottom, even with slits pointing downwards.

 

[bignath]

Hi guys new to posting here, although have been looking at these forums for ages!

My friend and I built a copper manifold like that described in John Palmers book 'How to brew'. I am just a bit concerned that we are not gathering enough sugars from our malt, as we hit all the right temperatures, for the right times etc. The reason I think we are not hitting gathering as much sugar as we should is that the manifold sits about 2 inches above the floor of the esky we are using.

Is it supposed to sit lower than this? If so, any suggestions how to get it to sit lower yet still drain through the tap in the esky?

Look forward to hearing some responses

Hey jiggaman, welcome to the forum fella.

Not sure about the setup of the tap in your esky, but i have a tall, squareish Coleman esky and the manifold i've built (copper) sits right on the esky floor. When i collect my Mash runnings, at the end of the process, my spent grains looks like a lake that has been through a drought....cracks everywhere....I have no idea if this is ideal, or even good come to think of it, but it's obvious to me that i am collecting as much as i can (or as much as my recipe's tell me i should be collecting). Usually hit most of my targets, and when i don't, they are close enough for me.

 

[Supra-Jim]

two inches does sound high, the closer you can get the manifold to the bottom of tun, the better (i.e you stand to collect more wort). However efficiency is affected by many other factors. These can include but are not limited to grain crush, water chemistry, sparging/lauter techniques.

What efficiency are you getting and what efficiency are you expecting?

Cheers SJ

 

[manticle]

Two inches is about 50mm?

I would say too high. Anything under that is wasted unless you can figure a way to get it out. You could drain the last bit by gently upending the tun or sitting a brick under it.

There are a few other possible reasons for poor extraction though.

 

[kelbygreen]

maybe hook the manifold upto a bit of silicon tubing with clamps on the manifold and spigot. that way it can bend down to reach the bottom easier.

 

[gava]

I would start with checking your crush of your grain..

 

[jiggaman12]

Thanks for such quick responses!

Usually get my homebrew shop to do the crushing, so pretty sure thats fine. I like the suggestion of lowering the manifold and connecting some silicon tubing to the tap, I'll give that a try in my next brew. We are missing our targets, but haven't calculated efficiency just yet, as was concentrating on using all our new equipment. Will let you know if I'm still having issues but I'm pretty sure lowering the manifold should do the trick.

 

[peaky]

Thanks for such quick responses!

Usually get my homebrew shop to do the crushing, so pretty sure thats fine. I like the suggestion of lowering the manifold and connecting some silicon tubing to the tap, I'll give that a try in my next brew. We are missing our targets, but haven't calculated efficiency just yet, as was concentrating on using all our new equipment. Will let you know if I'm still having issues but I'm pretty sure lowering the manifold should do the trick.

As discussed above, laying the manifold flat on the bottom will lower the amount of wort lost in your system. When I first started using my esky mash tun I had the manifold sitting on the bottom of the tun but with the slits on the up side. I was losing more than 2 litres of wort which was staying in the esky. All I did was flip the manifold over so the slits were against the bottom of the esky and from then I have been able to get most of that wort out. The length hose on the tap when you drain your tun, will definately help with the siphon once the wort level gets low.

 

[humulus]

What height is the bung/drain hole in your esky?,i copied Palmers design slots facing down laying flat on the bottom ,i get nearly all of my runnings out,my bung is level with the bottom of the esky!!
cheers humulus