Easy to read one page instructions for MLT?

I have a friend who is pretty handy and I am not. I tried to explain to him how I want my MLT. And he was asking me questions that I couldn't answer. Is there anyone who has any one page instructions/pictures that I could print out and show him? I told him what the purpose was but he did not understand what I was trying to tell him. I want a MLT made out of a round cooler (which I have to buy) or if it's possible, to use my 60 quart rectangular ice cube cooler. I do 5 gallon batches, so I'm not sure what size would be best.

I think I'd do stainless steel (the plumbing stuff), not copper. Unless it's possible to do it with cPVC. I need to know the names of the parts- like that valve thing and what exactly it is. Anyway, I know what I'm thinking but I don't know the names of the parts you guys use for the MLT. He said he'd build it if I could tell him what he needed to do in a short description, with a picture. I'm not usually such a ditz, but I have no idea how to describe this to a guy.

Thanks for any replies!
Lorena

Does this help? Courtesy of our new sticky: links guides and troubleshooting:rockin:

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

Yes, it helps, thanks. I guess I need to learn terms like "bulkhead fittings". I was using words that he couldn't possibly understand. You know, like thingy and do-hickey.

Now, I have to go find a cooler on sale......

Lorena

Wally World has 5 gallon Igloo coolers for pretty cheap.

then you need something along the lines of this ,however you can save yourself alot of money and build your own at ACE hardware, or whichever local hardware store you have.

Then heres your false bottom Should be good to go after that

Thank you- that's exactly what I need. Instead of ordering the "weldless cooler kit" for $42.95, I'll show it to Roger (the guy who'll do it for me) and have him go to Ace and pick it up. He can weld, solder, cut, etc, all those other "guy" things. He has a dremel, etc, and I don't.

I'm going to be doing 5 gallons. That's about all I can handle, as I'm doing it indoors and I can't lift 10 gallons anyway. I'm going to boil on my stove in either one big pot, or I might have to break it up into 2 pots to boil the wort.

One last question- is the stainless false bottom easier to install/use/clean than the copper manifold? I know that copper is outrageously expensive, so I was thinking that the false bottom would be best.

Again, thanks for answering my dumb questions. I don't have a homebrew club or shop near me, so I've never seen this in action beside "How to Brew" and other assorted little things on utube.

Lorena

Lorena, what I have is easy, easy, easy to build.

Get a nine-gallon Coleman Xtreme cooler. $30 at Dick's Sporting Goods. Didn't lose a single degree of temp during my last mash. It's big enough to do a really big beer, or if you want to do a ten-gallon batch with your brew buddy. A couple bucks more (my five gallon cooler was $18, I think), and it gives you a TON more flexibility going forward.

For $16, buy a cooler-kit weldless bulkhead from Northern Brewer: #8305 Kewler Kitz XL Bulkhead, http://www.northernbrewer.com/weldless.html

Take that to Home Depot and a ball value that will screw right on, maybe $8 in the plumbing department. Then, get a hose barb that will screw into the ball value, another couple bucks. Then, find a stainless steel braid - you can buy them online, or there's a hose at the Depot you can buy for $7 just for the braid (make sure you find the stainless one, though). That works very, very well in place of a manifold.

Then, you just need to get some fittings in the hardware section to connect the braid to the other side of the coupling. Stand in front of the fittings section of the store for twenty minutes while you try various combos (BRING THE BULKHEAD WITH YOU!).

Get some teflon tape, and put it all together. No welding at all. Doesn't leak a bit. You don't even need to cut any holes in the cooler; when you remove the spigot from the Xtreme, the fitting is the perfect size.

Total cost will be just north of $50, it's not the cheapest way of putting one together, but it works like a charm.

I've done the SS braid and the SS false bottom. I really do prefer the false bottom over the braid. I havent messed with a manifold so I cant help you there. But once Im done with my mash I dump the grains, and take my hose with a spray nozzle and blast any grains out with ease. Piece of cake to clean up really if you dont wait, and clean up as your wort starts to boil.

You will need a seperate large pot for heating your strike and sparge water. I found a nice large speckled canning pot off amazon.com for around 15 bucks. Its thin so heating water takes very little time.

AG is very simple. But, like everything else, you need to spend a little bit up front to get the right equipment. But its a small one time investment which will pay for itself in the money you save not having to buy extract.

lorenae said:

Thank you- that's exactly what I need. Instead of ordering the "weldless cooler kit" for $42.95, I'll show it to Roger (the guy who'll do it for me) and have him go to Ace and pick it up. He can weld, solder, cut, etc, all those other "guy" things. He has a dremel, etc, and I don't.

I'm going to be doing 5 gallons. That's about all I can handle, as I'm doing it indoors and I can't lift 10 gallons anyway. I'm going to boil on my stove in either one big pot, or I might have to break it up into 2 pots to boil the wort.

One last question- is the stainless false bottom easier to install/use/clean than the copper manifold? I know that copper is outrageously expensive, so I was thinking that the false bottom would be best.

Again, thanks for answering my dumb questions. I don't have a homebrew club or shop near me, so I've never seen this in action beside "How to Brew" and other assorted little things on utube.

Lorena

Click to expand...

My system is pretty much what you are looking at. I bought the Rubbermaid 5 Gallon cylindrical cooler from Wally's for about $20 or so. I then used CPVC to make my manifold. It is rigid and sits up off the bottom of the tun. (In other words straight out from the spigot hole). The slots are facing downward. The manifold has 4 channels, so basically it is made from 4 elbows and 5 T's, plus some various threaded fittings. The biggest trouble I had was getting everything to fit in that small bottom. The two sets of channels are not equidistant. This is because of the size of the T fittings. The one in the middle (going out) pushes the two halves slightly away from each other. I glued the elbows and such together (with the PVC glue) and then boiled the parts until I could no longer smell the solvent (about 30-40 minutes). The slotted channels come are not glued in so it can be dissembled and cleaned. Ok so, some notes. The pros, it is cheap and quick and works great. The cons, the slots are rough because I used a hacksaw although I am not worried about it being sanitized and it can break if you are too rough. I brewed a fairly big beer in it recently (1.07) and it worked great. The grainbed was very deep, and usually is fairly deep for regular beers too. The very best thing is you almost see no temperature drop over an hour (67-68 F Ambient temp) with that cooler. One guy on here has a nice photo of how he did a copper one with that same cooler. This all being said, I may re-do the manifold in the future because I want something a little more robust. But it works and cost less than $10 for the manifold and plastic ball valve for regulating flow.

Oh yeah, reading Chimone's post made me think of something. I currently am splitting my wort between a 5 and a 2.5 gal SS pots. This gets old fast because you run into other issues. I try to boil off and then add the reduced wort from the small pot into the large on (carefully of course) so that I have one pot to chill. I have located a 9 gallon #340 SS pot that comes with a thermometer and a valve on it for about $116 (shipped). I am getting one, so I will let you know how it is if you are interested. The guy sells these straight from the manufacturer, that is his business. So there are some up front costs, but in the long run you easily recoup.