MLT Manifold DIY

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HellerAle

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Hello fellow beer makers,
I am making the switch from extract to AG. Felt the need to build something this week and decided to make a manifold for my new 10g. MLT. Was wondering from your experience whether to put the holes up or down and if I should solder it or not?

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Holes down....

I tested it with holes down. Put a few gal. of water in and opened the valve.
I ended up with about 3/4 cup of water left in the bottom. I would anticipate this amount much greater if the holes were up. The reason I asked was I had read in other posts that there were concerns with having them down. Just wondering why people have them face up.
 
i would assume you should solder the joints, probably with a lead free solder for health concerns. i dont know a lot about MLT's yet though so i may be wrong.
 
I tested it with holes down. Put a few gal. of water in and opened the valve.
I ended up with about 3/4 cup of water left in the bottom. I would anticipate this amount much greater if the holes were up. The reason I asked was I had read in other posts that there were concerns with having them down. Just wondering why people have them face up.

All mlts leave liquid behind, it's called your deadspace. You factor it into your brewing software when you are setting that up...mines actully IIRC 2 cups...so 3/4 is quite nice.

I haven't seen any manifolds that were face up except those in threads where the people with more experience then told them to turn them over...
 
How about solder or no? It has a pretty snug fit w/o and it would seem pretty easy to clean by not soldering it.
 
Holes down, no solder. Soldering will make it a lot harder to clean, and there's no pressure, so if it's a snug fit, then there's nothing to worry about. If a little liquid leaks through the joints, who cares, the pipes are full of holes.
 
I'll be the voice of dissent and say to solder. I clean mine so nothing is left in the slots and rinse, but I like having a manifold that doesn't fold.
 
I went through the same dilemma with mine. I ended up soldering about 1/2 and 1/2. I basically did what would be the equivalent of making yours come in half down the middle. I wasn't so much worried about it coming apart during brewing as I was while cleaning it/storing it. I didn't want to put a puzzle back together every time. Plus I got to learn how to solder copper. (It's really easy)

By the way, when you were draining your MLT to test how much water it left behind, you did have some tubing running off your ball valve right? So you get a good suction down to the bottom?
 
It looks nice and all but I don't think it will work all that well. You really need to understand how the manifold works as to pulling the wort thru the grainbed. You have a large dead space right in the middle and you will be channeling down the sides of the cooler.

Please do some reading. How to Brew - By John Palmer - Appendix D - Building a Mash/Lauter Tun
 
It looks nice and all but I don't think it will work all that well. You really need to understand how the manifold works as to pulling the wort thru the grainbed. You have a large dead space right in the middle and you will be channeling down the sides of the cooler.

Please do some reading. How to Brew - By John Palmer - Appendix D - Building a Mash/Lauter Tun

As long as he isn't fly sparging I wouldn't think that would matter. For a fly sparge it might be an issue though.
 
+1, batch sparging you are running off as fast as your system allows.

Ok so then why build it that way at all? Why noy make it right the first time. Some day he may want to fly sparge. I know when I started I had no thought that I would ever fly sparge but I built mine to work both ways just incase I changed my mind. Now I do both depending on the batch size and the time I have.
 
Ok so then why build it that way at all? Why noy make it right the first time. Some day he may want to fly sparge. I know when I started I had no thought that I would ever fly sparge but I built mine to work both ways just incase I changed my mind. Now I do both depending on the batch size and the time I have.

I assumed since he had a picture he had already built it. Maybe its a pictures of his friends, I don't know, but if I had already built it, I would stick with it and batch sparge. I get way higher efficiencies with batch sparging.
 
I can't speak from experience, but it seems to me that more surface area is still beneficial to batch sparging. The only difference is that you don't have to "cover" the entire bottom for an even flow. I would venture a guess that his manifold will be better able to quickly drain wort without stuck sparges than a simple manifold of one long piece of copper or a braid. Plus, add in a couple T's and another piece and it would be fine for fly sparging too.
 
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