Mash Tun Upgrades!

Tonight Caspio came over with a keg of his Hefeweizen and brazing torch to work on some brew equipment. I've been meaning to upgrade my single copper tube manifold on my MLT, so I figured why not build a fly sparge manifold at the same time? And really, what goes better with a few pints of homebrew than a blowtorch, magma hot solder, and power tools?!

First, pics of the manifold for the bottom of the MLT:


Drilling a bunch of 3/32" holes in the bottom of the manifold for adequate draining. A big upgrade in surface area and total coverage than my old single copper tube.



And here, proof that I did at least some of the work. Soldering up the fly sparge manifold in an "H" pattern:


Not so random holes drilled in this piece. I drilled holes at an angle and staggered them to achieve an even flow over the top of the grainbed. Or at least that's the idea...we'll see what happens.

At Caspios suggestion I gave the top tube a long length of 9". This will enable me to adjust the height of the manifold depending on the grainbed depth. I also added a SS hose clamp so once I find the proper height for a given brew, I can tighten it down and lock it into place.




I'll be using a march pump in this setup, so I have a male quick disconnect mounted on the top of the intake post. This makes it easy to pump in from the HLT, and gravity drain out to the boil kettle.


Not bad for a nights' work!

Good job!!!!! How come I wasen't invited for a night of drin... I mean building! j/j LOL
Cheers
JJ

How do you all set the sparge height using this method? Set it, let it run, lift the lid to check, adjust repeat ? Isn't it a PITA not being able to see inside while trying to adjust? I imagine each batch is going to be slightly different depending on grain bill.

IrregularPulse said:

How do you all set the sparge height using this method? Set it, let it run, lift the lid to check, adjust repeat ? Isn't it a PITA not being able to see inside while trying to adjust? I imagine each batch is going to be slightly different depending on grain bill.

Click to expand...

this is not that hard,,,,fill mlt with mash and measure from top down to top of mash, transfer that measurement to manifold depth adjustment and lock in place while leaving a gap of about 1/2-1inch for liquor over grainbed.


nice setup thats halfway to pols herms setup now
although i'd be worried about not being able to clean the filtering manifold inside

eriktlupus said:

although i'd be worried about not being able to clean the filtering manifold inside

Click to expand...

I've used my amazing ms paint skills to clarify a little bit. The red marked joints were not soldered, allowing disassembly for cleaning or things like that.

eriktlupus said:

this is not that hard,,,,fill mlt with mash and measure from top down to top of mash, transfer that measurement to manifold depth adjustment and lock in place while leaving a gap of about 1/2-1inch for liquor over grainbed.


nice setup thats halfway to pols herms setup now
although i'd be worried about not being able to clean the filtering manifold inside

Click to expand...

The filtering manifold actually comes apart. The long cross pieces aren't soldered together, so I can easily take it apart and clean it.

How do you all set the sparge height using this method? Set it, let it run, lift the lid to check, adjust repeat ? Isn't it a PITA not being able to see inside while trying to adjust? I imagine each batch is going to be slightly different depending on grain bill.

Click to expand...

I plan on just eyeballing it, based on the outflow to the boil kettle. I'll adjust the march pump valve and set the height accordingly. I figure maybe 5 mins of messing with it, then I'll leave it alone until I hit my pre-boil volume.

OK which one of you two were drinking and drilling? I am calling OSHA
You probably didn't wear safty glasses either did you?