snoworshine

Recipes 

Hey everyone,
I finally built a cooler mash tun out of the Coleman 70 quart Xtreme cooler and built a manifold. I went with stainless steel because I had some extra parts and now its time to cut some slots in the manifold for draining.

Has anyone figured out a nice size for the slots that works well? And also what spacing works well.

I wouldn't drilling holes instead of slots either, but I don't know which size hole would work.

Any comments or suggestions would be helpful.

Here are some pictures of the cooler with the manifold installed:
(Sorry for the bad quality pictures, they were taken with my laptop.)
http://picasaweb.google.com/snoworshine/Cooler?authkey=hPkF2kPZECc

BarleyWater

Recipes 

I believe slots are preferred over holes. My manifold has slots cut about every 1/4 inch (I didn't measure, just cut a close to each other as I could without making it too weak) about the width of a diamond cut-off wheel for a dremel, because that's what I used.

__________________

Fermenting: Nada
On Tap:Cran Wit, Dr Pepper Dubbel, Cascadian Pale Ale, Dark Chocolate Stout, Imperial Stout, Brown Mild, Schwarzbier
On Board: IIPA

www.franconiabrewing.com

snoworshine

Recipes 

Great, thats good to hear I was hoping to use the dremel for it. Does it flow fairly fast at wide-open?

BarleyWater

Recipes 

Wide open it is only restricted by the filter bed of the grain, with just water in mine, it flows just as fast with the manifold as it does without, which is faster than I would ever want to sparge (I fly sparge).

__________________

Fermenting: Nada
On Tap:Cran Wit, Dr Pepper Dubbel, Cascadian Pale Ale, Dark Chocolate Stout, Imperial Stout, Brown Mild, Schwarzbier
On Board: IIPA

www.franconiabrewing.com

BarleyWater

Recipes 

Also, you may need to take breaks because the dremel will get pretty damn hot.

__________________

Fermenting: Nada
On Tap:Cran Wit, Dr Pepper Dubbel, Cascadian Pale Ale, Dark Chocolate Stout, Imperial Stout, Brown Mild, Schwarzbier
On Board: IIPA

www.franconiabrewing.com

snoworshine

Recipes 

Yeah I can imagine that dremel will get really hot. Was your manifold stainless steel or copper?

snoworshine

Recipes 

And one more thing I forgot to ask, Are the sides of the manifold the best places to add the slots? And then is the inner or outer side of the manifold best?

BarleyWater

Recipes 

Copper, but the diamond wheel will cut through anything. The heavy duty cut-off wheels worked also, and are cheaper, but the diamond wheel is a little more narrow and it cuts like a hot knife through butter.

__________________

Fermenting: Nada
On Tap:Cran Wit, Dr Pepper Dubbel, Cascadian Pale Ale, Dark Chocolate Stout, Imperial Stout, Brown Mild, Schwarzbier
On Board: IIPA

www.franconiabrewing.com

AN_TKE

Recipes 

I have not actually used a slotted manifold, but i have heard that with a slotted design, the husks can bend and sneak their way through. Along with this advice, i was told that 5/32" is the perfect size. I went forth and made my false bottom by cutting off the bottom of a plastic 5 gal bucket and drilled a buttload of 5/32" hole in it. I have no problems with stuck runoff and my wort runs pretty clear.

Good Luck!

BarleyWater

Recipes 

I actually put the slots on the bottom of mine for a little extra filter power, that's how I saw other do it, and it works well.

__________________

Fermenting: Nada
On Tap:Cran Wit, Dr Pepper Dubbel, Cascadian Pale Ale, Dark Chocolate Stout, Imperial Stout, Brown Mild, Schwarzbier
On Board: IIPA

www.franconiabrewing.com