Coleman Xtreme Mash Tun, How to do?

Im about to make a mash tun with coleman xtreme cooler 36qt.
Which one is better by all means? Price,Working time, Better quallity, better durability and all other means...just what is better for me to use as a mash tun..

option 1:


option 2:
(btw, Should I use copper for this or cpvc? and holes up or down?)


and on the out side, what should I connect to the valve?

I have used both and now use copper with cuts down. Presently I have added a layer of aluminum sheet with chisel slits hit in it so it is barely a crack in each spot to cover the copper grid. I also did the chisel aluminum sheet trick on top after making a tray so water will not channel as it moves through the bed. It works fine for me. The outside really needs a hose on it so no oxygen gets in wort when moving it when it is hot.

pigroaster said:

I have used both and now use copper with cuts down. Presently I have added a layer of aluminum sheet with chisel slits hit in it so it is barely a crack in each spot to cover the copper grid. I also did the chisel aluminum sheet trick on top after making a tray so water will not channel as it moves through the bed. It works fine for me. The outside really needs a hose on it so no oxygen gets in wort when moving it when it is hot.

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Thank you for your comment, but I didn't really understand what are you saying here? which two you have? the filter and the copper or the copper and the cpvc? which one is better and recommended for me? and for what all the aluminum is added? where? how? why?
can you be more detailed?

Im sorry I didn't understand...

Use CPVC. Cheap and cheerful. Easy to clean. Just fit the couplers on, no glue needed.

Here's mine using 1/2" CPVC in a 52 qt Coleman Extreme cooler. It just happens that the 1/2" CPVC tube fits precisely inside the bulkhead fitting, making for an easy connection there. I used a 7 1/4" thin-kerf paneling saw blade in an upside down mounted circular saw to cut the slots to the right depth. No burrs at all. Watch your fingers and your moves, no kidding!

The manifold is shown upside-down to show the slots. Of course it's flipped over during the mash.


Whole manifold assembly in my 52 qt Coleman Xtreme Cooler mash tun.


Closeup of the fitting to the bulkhead.

IslandLizard said:

Use CPVC. Cheap and cheerful. Easy to clean. Just fit the couplers on, no glue needed.

I used 1/2" CPVC in a 52 qt Coleman Extreme cooler. The CPVC tube fits precisely inside the bulkhead, making for an easy connection there.

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Ok but why didn't you do the holes down instead of up? which one is better?
and how did you do the slits? with a saw?

and cpvc is durable? doesnt leave any plastic taste? easy to clean and isn't get painted by the wort?

And one last question, why did you choose this form for it? with the double connectors at the begining of it and the connectors thing at the end?

I used to use a cpvc manifold. I switched to a bazooka screen.

The cpvc manifold worked fine and required very little vorlof but I felt like I was leaving a bunch of wort behind.

The bazooka screen sets up quick and easy. I have to vorlof for a long time, but I think I'm getting every last drop of wort.

There is a big thread on the xtreme cool here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-coleman-70-quart-extreme-copper-mash-tun-313896/

You put the notches down so grain does not get sucked in. When the grain bed settles it sits on top of the manifold and liquid drains from the bottom. That is why you vorlauf. I also recommend the CPVC (make sure it is "C" pvc as this is for potable water). Easy to cut and clean, no need for glue, and cheap

Beernik said:

I used to use a cpvc manifold. I switched to a bazooka screen.

The cpvc manifold worked fine and required very little vorlof but I felt like I was leaving a bunch of wort behind.

The bazooka screen sets up quick and easy. I have to vorlof for a long time, but I think I'm getting every last drop of wort.

Click to expand...

I leave less than a quart of wart in my xtreme cooler. that is not very much

I'm not saying all manifolds leave a lot behind. I'm saying I thought mine left a lot behind. I think part of mine would blind-off when draining.

I use a bazooka as well. It's remarkably easy

I have a xtreme 70 quart with a copper manifold. Works great, never gets stuck. Super predictable and easy to clean. Didn't solder the joints so it can cleaned out quickly. It leaves about 1/2 gallon or so behind. It's great at holding temps. 1 1/2 hour mash, maybe 2 degree drop.

Isn't a quart/half a gallon and so are alot of wasted wort?

I use a copper manifold with the holes facing down. It works really well and its easy to dismantle and run in a vinegar bath to clean. All in all, why not just try every way you can to see which produces the best beer for your set up. The only problem you would run into is having many batches of beer in the works, which in my opinion, is a good problem to have!

ben2904 said:

Isn't a quart/half a gallon and so are alot of wasted wort?

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Quart is a quarter of a gallon so depending on batch size it could be a lot. Wasted wort is wasted wort depending on how you look at it. Most people compensate for their system for loss.

ben2904 said:

Isn't a quart/half a gallon and so are alot of wasted wort?

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It's not awesome, but if you know that, you can scale and adjust to accommodate it. Beersmith is great for that. The issue is that the slits in the manifold lose suction when the runnings get below the top of them. Therefore it leaves everything that's left. I just adjust my bill accordingly.

I chose to make manifold instead of using a screen. I have also made one from CPVC and copper as well. CPVC is cheaper and easier to work with. Copper is both more expensive and harder to work with but I believe having copper in the mash, and in the boil, will assist with a healthier fermentation. The yeast benefit from it I believe...

They are both functionally the same. Yes, you will have a small amount of wort left behind but that's not the fault of the manifold. As uphill brewer suggests, you can factor any losses into Beersmith or other software. You should do a test run of your mash tun with water to see exactly how much wort would be left behind. That's the "deadspace".

My Coleman 70QT Cooler MT with copper manifold only leaves behind about 1 cup of water. Any other wort loss is due to what's absorbed by the grain. Again, what ever software you use should calculate that stuff for proper volumes and grain bill. (I use Beersmith)

ben2904 said:

Ok but why didn't you do the holes down instead of up? which one is better?
and how did you do the slits? with a saw?

and cpvc is durable? doesnt leave any plastic taste? easy to clean and isn't get painted by the wort?

And one last question, why did you choose this form for it? with the double connectors at the begining of it and the connectors thing at the end?

Click to expand...

I was editing my original message when you wrote this. I added some more info how I cut the slots.

And yes, the slots will go down during the mash. Just flip the manifold over. I only pointed them up for the picture.

CPVC is for potable cold and hot water and I think it's OK to 180°F. I tasted the water after an hour "hot stand," and it had no plastic taste or smell.

I got my design from the couple of "Extreme Cooler" threads out here. Someone linked to one of them, there are a few. I just scaled it to my cooler's size (52 qt).

The manifold fits exactly and just tight in the bottom space. When you knock it with your mash paddle it won't/can't separate or dislodge from the bulkhead. There is hardly any room for it to move. It took me about 2 hours in total to make it, from measuring, to cutting, to fitting, but about a day in total to fit and seal the darn bulkhead fitting. The drain hole on mine was really close to the bottom, and angled (sloped) down. I did add a piece (1 inch "sleeve") of gray plastic conduit inside the hole to give it a body to tighten the bulkhead fittings against. Otherwise it would compress too much.

Alternative to bulkhead fitting:
I noticed a piece of PVC or silicone hose of the right diameter (1/2" OD?) could fit JUST through the existing plastic drain hole, without removing anything. That would save buying a bulkhead and the hassle of fitting and sealing it in. Just a little silicone caulk to seal it around the hose would be plenty. Then put an inline valve on the outside.

I have the Extreme 72 quart with ½" CPCV manifold and holes ON THE BOTTOM

draining will stop once the level of the wort gets past the lowest hole

if holes are on the top, that leaves enough wort to cover most of the diameter of the manifold

underneath leaves less wort. it will scavenge up the wort because SCIENCE! that's how a drain/siphon works (as long as the outlet is below the level of the wort in the tun)

my manifold, before I drilled holes. works great, 1 quart deadspace, takes about 2 quart vorlauf and never had a stuck sparge

Here are some links:

70-quart-coleman-extreme-mash-tun-w-cpvc-manifold-391483
mash-lauter-tun-coleman-xtreme-70-quart-cooler-387018
my-coleman-70-quart-extreme-copper-mash-tun-313896

Here is a pic of my manifolds, both CPVC and Copper side by side. Mine aren't as elaborate as some I have seen but they are very functional. Reading in How to Brew, I was under the impression that the manifold should be further away from the sides than what I have seen several people post pics of.

You can see the slits in one pic and the other shows a manifold in a 48QT MLT with the slots down.

Here is a smaller one for a 5 gallon round cooler MLT.

pigroaster said:

The outside really needs a hose on it so no oxygen gets in wort when moving it when it is hot.

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I, and my brother in law, have both, independently, tried to intentionally hotside aerate our beers. I can say that I had no discernible difference between the one I let splash from about 3 feet to the one where I had a hose. This is not to say I do not use a hose and take care not to oxygenate the wort... I absolutely try to prevent it. However, I do not think it is as big of an issue as it is sometimes made to seem.

It also doesn't mater if it gets oxygen till after it is in the fermenter. thats what the aerator stones are for.

Also I tried the bazooka tube and am much happier with the CPVC. A quart of wort in a 15g batch is nothing. Also the screen would get clogged sometimes and I would have to keep beating on it with my stir stick to keep the wort flowing and forget it with a pump.

I would think the good and bad . The stainless braid gets squished very easily . It needs to be protected IMAO.
The PVC has slits that are going to allow in a lot of crap and therefore you will have to be careful on vorlauf and draining slowly .

what to do ?
PVC - Well I would use the aluminum plate suggestion with a nylon paint strainer bag put over it to stop the crap from getting into it .
Stainless braid- Again a false bottom and nylon bag . I would also make the braid much bigger . Maybe 4 foot . Snake it around in there and you will have a easier time with stuck sparges .

This is what I do with stainless braid https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f85/my-new-mash-tun-filter-376005/ This is for a round cooler of course but principle is the same . I dropped the metal screen for the nylon paint strainer .
I have never had a stuck sparge using this and I run it wide open sometimes

Here is what did in my Coleman Xtreme:







I made the false bottom from perforated aluminum from Amazon. It cost about 17 dollars. I already had a bazooka screen, so I left it there. It does a pretty good job. I regularly get efficiency into the 80s.

DoWBrewer said:

Here is what did in my Coleman Xtreme: I made the false bottom from perforated aluminum from Amazon. It cost about 17 dollars. I already had a bazooka screen, so I left it there. It does a pretty good job. I regularly get efficiency into the 80s.

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That's pretty cool. Nice work!

DoWBrewer said:

Here is what did in my Coleman Xtreme: I made the false bottom from perforated aluminum from Amazon. It cost about 17 dollars. I already had a bazooka screen, so I left it there. It does a pretty good job. I regularly get efficiency into the 80s.

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This is awesome
More details please!

eric19312 said:

This is awesome
More details please!

Click to expand...

Here is a link to the perforated sheet:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000H9VBRA/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

It just happens to be nearly the right size for a Coleman Xtreme 70qt. I bent the sides with from pliers to keep the false bottom about an inch off of the bottom. It is very sturdy. I bought some silicone tubing and cut it down the middle to put on the ends. It would probably be good to add it to all of the edges, but I haven't done that yet. It would be better if it had slightly smaller holes in the sheeting. Some grain does get through, but I am not sure if it comes through the holes or around the edges. It works really well. I have fly sparged with it once, but decided to go back to batch sparging.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

You hardly get any "crap" into the boil pot with the CPVC. I only have to vorlauf for ~half gallon. then I run the output through a paint strainer just in case. I have done this since January and brew every two weeks. I get maybe a tablespoon of grain. Not too bad for 15g brews.

MarcusKillion said:

I would think the good and bad . The stainless braid gets squished very easily . It needs to be protected IMAO.
The PVC has slits that are going to allow in a lot of crap and therefore you will have to be careful on vorlauf and draining slowly .

what to do ?
PVC - Well I would use the aluminum plate suggestion with a nylon paint strainer bag put over it to stop the crap from getting into it .
Stainless braid- Again a false bottom and nylon bag . I would also make the braid much bigger . Maybe 4 foot . Snake it around in there and you will have a easier time with stuck sparges .

This is what I do with stainless braid https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f85/my-new-mash-tun-filter-376005/ This is for a round cooler of course but principle is the same . I dropped the metal screen for the nylon paint strainer .
I have never had a stuck sparge using this and I run it wide open sometimes

Click to expand...

The bazooka screen does not need to be protected. I've had over 25 pound mashes and it has never collapsed.

Orion7144,

I think you are taking this far too personally. Not every negative comment that someone makes about why they abandoned their manifold is an attack on your manifold.

The thing about manifolds is they are as good as they are made. If they aren't made well, the have problems. That's why everyone has a different experience with them. Mine was prone to falling apart and getting stuck in places causing incomplete drainage.

The time my manifold separated and I had to reach my hand into the 150F mash and put it back together., that brewday really sucked.

Beernik said:

The time my manifold separated and I had to reach my hand into the 150F mash and put it back together., that brewday really sucked.

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YIKES!!! Knock on wood, mine has never come apart. In fact, it seems fairly tight when assembled. I am though, especially careful when stirring the mash as to avoid moving it.

52qt xtreme cpvc manifold. I batch sparge, no problems for 3 years now - slits cut on the bottom with a dremel

motobrewer said:

The bazooka screen does not need to be protected. I've had over 20 pound mashes and it has never collapsed.

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I also use the bazooka screen, agree it works well. But it have to drain pretty slow. I batch sparge and it still takes about an hour.

eric19312 said:

I also use the bazooka screen, agree it works well. But it have to drain pretty slow. I batch sparge and it still takes about an hour.

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My screen drains very fast. I can turn my pump on full blast and it drains very quickly. Just goes to show what another poster said that many people have many different experiences.
The only time I've had trouble draining was when I accidentally crushed my screen with my mash paddle. I recommend against crushing your screen with your mash paddle.

DoWBrewer said:

Here is a link to the perforated sheet:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000H9VBRA/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

It just happens to be nearly the right size for a Coleman Xtreme 70qt. I bent the sides with from pliers to keep the false bottom about an inch off of the bottom. It is very sturdy. I bought some silicone tubing and cut it down the middle to put on the ends. It would probably be good to add it to all of the edges, but I haven't done that yet. It would be better if it had slightly smaller holes in the sheeting. Some grain does get through, but I am not sure if it comes through the holes or around the edges. It works really well. I have fly sparged with it once, but decided to go back to batch sparging.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Click to expand...

something I was thinking of trying, never saw anyone else do it, so if you have time to answer a few of my questions:

#1 - which bazooka screen are you using?

#2 - am presuming it is removable for easier cleaning?

#3 - regarding the size and how far off the bottom it sits - I understand that as far as drainage and amount of wort collected goes, you don't have to account for the water that sits below the false bottom, but what about the amount of strike water and your water to grist ratio? seems to me that you would have at least a gallon sitting under there and would have to account for that.

for example, for 10 lbs at 1.5 qts/lb, I would strike with 15 quarts. if you did the same, 4 quarts of that wouldn't be mixing with the grain, so it would be like striking 1.1 qts/lb. not a bad ratio, but thicker than what was calculated

I used a Zapap setup for a batch and didn't think of that until I started trying to mix my cement mash

eric19312 said:

I also use the bazooka screen, agree it works well. But it have to drain pretty slow. I batch sparge and it still takes about an hour.

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woah, why? you're saying it takes an hour to sparge? that's insane.

i brewed saturday, i did a 2 hour mash (for, non-brewing reasons) and I still got done in 4 hours total.

motobrewer said:

woah, why? you're saying it takes an hour to sparge? that's insane.

i brewed saturday, i did a 2 hour mash (for, non-brewing reasons) and I still got done in 4 hours total.

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Sorry...my full lautering process is 1 hour or more.

First runnings...5 min vorlauf, 25-30 min to collect wort.
Mix in sparge water for 5 min, 5 min vorlauf, 25-30 min to collect wort.

I do put the first runnings on the burner while collecting the second runnings and add the second runnings into the kettle every 10 min or so so that I am just about at a boil when I collect the last of my second runnings.

I've tried draining my cooler faster as described on Denny Conn's tutorial but have not been able to get that to work with my tun. If I run fast I find the grain builds a dam near the middle of the cooler and takes even longer to fully drain. I end up being a little faster and seem to get clearer wort and higher efficiency if I just let it run slow.

Here is the bazooka tube I am using:
http://brewhardware.com/false-bottoms-filters/139-screen
It doesn't collapse at all and is very easy to clean. But it only extends about 1/2 of the length of my cooler.

that's crazy. i drain wfo. usually takes a few minutes. add sparge water, mix, vorlauf again, drain wfo.

here's mine:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/mash-boil-screen.html