I've been talking about my plans and I finally had a free night to make it happen.
I plan to recirculate my mash because I'm direct firing. I suspect the only way to keep it flowing might be to use a false bottom but I wanted to try this out first.
I picked up a 1" diameter x 18" long stainless braided hose meant for water heater connections and did the usual disassembly to extract the innards.
I installed a 1/2" MPT to 5/8" tubing compression fitting into my MLT's bulkhead and then mocked up the various fittings to get it to lay flat on the bottom. Then I soldered it up.
Next, I drilled holes in the bottom of the piece that sits at the very bottom concave of the keg.
I made a coil from some 16gauge stainless wire and slipped it on. This is going to keep the braid from making direct contact with the pipe which would block off some of the open area. I want every hole in the braid flowing and able to drip the goods down to the pickup area.
I finally fed the braid over the tube, wrapped the ends with some teflon tape to keep the fraying under control while I hose clamped the ends.
In case it's not clear how I expect this to work; the entire braid is sitting flat on the bottom of the keg. Sweet wort will flow into the holes in the braid and make it's way down to the lowest point where the holes are drilled in the pipe. Siphon will pull it through the pipe and out the bulkhead...Weeeeee. This is just like the cooler based MLT "filter" only it's sitting over the dip tube of sorts so it won't get knocked around much.
I plan to recirculate my mash because I'm direct firing. I suspect the only way to keep it flowing might be to use a false bottom but I wanted to try this out first.
I picked up a 1" diameter x 18" long stainless braided hose meant for water heater connections and did the usual disassembly to extract the innards.
I installed a 1/2" MPT to 5/8" tubing compression fitting into my MLT's bulkhead and then mocked up the various fittings to get it to lay flat on the bottom. Then I soldered it up.
Next, I drilled holes in the bottom of the piece that sits at the very bottom concave of the keg.
I made a coil from some 16gauge stainless wire and slipped it on. This is going to keep the braid from making direct contact with the pipe which would block off some of the open area. I want every hole in the braid flowing and able to drip the goods down to the pickup area.
I finally fed the braid over the tube, wrapped the ends with some teflon tape to keep the fraying under control while I hose clamped the ends.
In case it's not clear how I expect this to work; the entire braid is sitting flat on the bottom of the keg. Sweet wort will flow into the holes in the braid and make it's way down to the lowest point where the holes are drilled in the pipe. Siphon will pull it through the pipe and out the bulkhead...Weeeeee. This is just like the cooler based MLT "filter" only it's sitting over the dip tube of sorts so it won't get knocked around much.