Mash Turn Bottom Design

[randyrob]

Hey Guys,

well i just put down ag#4 on the weekend and my easy hooker piping has had an absolute thrashing
this was it before its maiden voyage:



so i've started to make up a copper manifold, like so:



now i've started cutting the slits into the bottom of the copper (i'm just having a break after about 50 cuts
my hands are getting sore)

is there any real design to this or do i just put as many cuts in as possible?

i recall seeing some pics of others where they have just cut along the 3 long pieces of copper
and left the shorter bits i'm guessing this is purely just for strength?

Thanks Rob.

 

[Keifer]

Use lots of thin cuts. I have a few bigger cuts on my copper manifold and little bits of grain get through. Not enough to write home about but enough to notice each time i drain the mash. You wont need heaps of cuts, i put a few too many in, but i've never had a stuck sparge

 

[Batz]

You where expecting a bit much of the namby pamby bit of braid,triple the size and your laughing

Batz

 

[randyrob]

Use lots of thin cuts. I have a few bigger cuts on my copper manifold and little bits of grain get through. Not enough to write home about but enough to notice each time i drain the mash. You wont need heaps of cuts, i put a few too many in, but i've never had a stuck sparge

Heya Keifer,

thanks for the heads up!

i just found some info published by john palmer, that basically states

In addition, it is very important to avoid channeling of the water down the sides from placing the manifold too close to the walls. The distance of the outer manifold tubes to the cooler wall should be half of the manifold tube spacing or slightly greater. This results in water along the wall not seeing a shorter path to the drain than wort that is dead center between the tubes.

http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixD-1.html

i think i winged it because the distance between the copper and the wall of my mash turn is 4cm and the distance between each piece of copper piping is 8cm!

he also suggests you cut the long ones and leave the short ones alone
still want some input to see what works for everyone else before i do any more cuts.
either way it should be a bit better than what i had, more surface area etc,

Rob.

 

[BenH]

i recall seeing some pics of others where they have just cut along the 3 long pieces of copper
and left the shorter bits i'm guessing this is purely just for strength?

I think that sometimes the smaller pieces are left because of their proximity to the edge of the tun - to avoid channelling. Good luck with all the cuts, I remember it well.

 

[randyrob]

You where expecting a bit much of the namby pamby bit of braid,triple the size and your laughing

Batz

Heya Bats,

i know it was only 600mm long! must have been feeling cheap the day i bought that
plus i was just trying to prove a point to myself that making beer from scratch will actually work for me.
Which it has so time to upgrade!

Cheers Rob.

 

[randyrob]

I think that sometimes the smaller pieces are left because of their proximity to the edge of the tun - to avoid channelling. Good luck with all the cuts, I remember it well.

ahh i see that does make sense now! i'm leaning towards leaving them for now then and just cutting the longer
pipes, less cuts is always a bonus! any other takers

Rob.

 

[Sammus]

i reckon leave the end bits. after reading palmers study on manifold design, especially - i think he makes it clear to you dont want to cut the end bits.

 

[therook]

Randyrob,

Whats wrong with your original setup of using the braid?

Rook

 

[Cortez The Killer]

I made mine out of SS

It took forever to cut all the slots with a hacksaw

Luckily i was enjoying a few homebrews at the time - otherwise it would have been a very long day

Cheers

 

[randyrob]

Randyrob,

Whats wrong with your original setup of using the braid?

Rook

Hey Rook,

it appeared to be floating a little bit. sometimes when i gave it a good stir you could acutally
see the end of the mesh popping through the mash and it was also sucking air sometimes.
also i think my efficiency is suffering as the best i have got so far is 60%

Thanks Rob.

 

[nifty]

The first time I used the braid, I found it would float up, so the next brew I weighed it down with a length of ss rod, bent in a curve and shoved down the braid. It sits flat on the bottom of the tun still leaves plenty of room for the wort to flow.

nifty

 

[Sloth]

just a bit of a side note here...

how does everyone cut the slits in their manifolds?
I started using a hacksaw with a fine tooth blade (32D) but the cuts were larger than I expected. Then tried a pipe cutter. it made nice cuts but slowly bent my pipe.

Stil deciding on the best methods.

Thanks, Sloth.

 

[Cortez The Killer]

I used a hacksaw - not sure of the gauge

It came out like this

from memory the gaps were just over a mm wide

cheers

 

[Jazzafish]

Interesting. I have a braid manifold and pulled a 87% last week.

When I stir the mash I just use the spoon to straighten the braid and the weight of the grain holds it down well enough.

I was going to build a copper manifold after suffering efficiencies around 60 to 70%... but buying a crusher and adjusting the gaps gave me an extra 10% on average. I also noticed a 90min mash helped too.