Recent DIY projects. S/S mash paddle & PEX manifold

I finally have some time to post some pictures of my recent projects. For me, these little projects are what I love about home brewing the most (ok, well that and good beer ).

I'll start with the mash paddle since I just finished it yesterday. I am a Design Engineer for a company that manufactures custom s/s restaurant & hospital equipment. A big perk is getting to design equipment for my brewery in my free time. I used ProE for the design. The paddle section was cut on our laser using 14/3 s/s. The handle section is 1" diameter s/s tubing with the end capped and welded closed. I can't take credit for the fabrication of this because I had our best welder in the shop do it for me. He really did a great job.


I decided to try the PEX manifold because I had some in my garage already, and I had read some good reviews from other brewers using it. It was very simple to make. I drilled 1/16" holes on the bottom. I wanted to brew a batch with it before making a post about it just to make sure it worked well. It does! I was previously using a s/s braid and it was getting really beat up. This thing is rock solid.

Wow that's a lot of holes! Looks great!

Yes lol, took me about 2 hours to drill all those holes. It was tedious but I tried it with the slots first and didn't like how it turned out so I re-did it with the holes.

Forgot to mention that I did use the crimp rings but they weren't really necessary. It seemed to stay pretty snug without them but I added the rings just to be safe. The crimping tool is pretty expensive.

Do you have dimensions for the manifold. Also, was the pvc bent already, or did you have to warm it up and bend it?

Man you have the patience of a saint to drill all those holes, but it looks great

How do you plan on cleaning that manifold? I left mine so I could easily pull it apart and rinse the individual pieces

jflongo said:

Do you have dimensions for the manifold. Also, was the pvc bent already, or did you have to warm it up and bend it?

Click to expand...

It's PEX and it's flexible unlike PVC.

jflongo said:

Do you have dimensions for the manifold. Also, was the pvc bent already, or did you have to warm it up and bend it?

Click to expand...

I think he used pex tubing which is flexible. but like he said the disadvantage to this is the tool to crimp the rings is expensive.

I built a similar one , only rectangle for my Mash Tun. really easy to work with, but i just used SS hose clamps on it, pretty cheap. and It seems to work great and easy to take apart and clean, but so far i just back flush it and it seems to be fine. I cut slots in each section... very flexable stuff and so far 3 mashes and zero probs... running about 70% ave eff.

I built a similar one , only rectangle for my Mash Tun. really easy to work with, but i just used SS hose clamps on it, pretty cheap. and It seems to work great and easy to take apart and clean, but so far i just back flush it and it seems to be fine. I cut slots in each section... very flexable stuff and so far 3 mashes and zero probs... running about 70% ave eff.

wyowolf said:

I built a similar one , only rectangle for my Mash Tun. really easy to work with, but i just used SS hose clamps on it, pretty cheap. and It seems to work great and easy to take apart and clean, but so far i just back flush it and it seems to be fine. I cut slots in each section... very flexable stuff and so far 3 mashes and zero probs... running about 70% ave eff.

Click to expand...

Do you have a pic of your manifold, I'm interested in seeing one done for a rectangular cooler.

looks dont count

Looks don't matter as long as it works.

Just wanted to add an update. I have brewed 3 batches using the new manifold, one batch was a 1.100 barlywine. It works great and my efficiency went up from 72 to 76 since switching from the s/s braid.

As for cleaning. I try not to worry about it too much since it's pre-boil, but after a brew I take it out of the mash tun and run hot water through it to clear all the holes out. Sometimes I'll soak in oxyclean first. Then I usually let it air dry and its good to go.