CPVC Manifold Question

I am making a new CPVC manifold for my mash tun.

Should I use holes or slots. If I use slots, should they face down (toward the bottom of the cooler) or up (facing the top of the cooler)?

Any recommendations?

If you use slots, they should face down to the bottom of the cooler.

Thanks! I thought that this would be the optimal way to do it. I read this website . . . which suggests that they face upward

I think that I will put mine toward the bottom of the cooler.

I made a copper manifold and cut slots, about every 3/8 of an inch. Works great and not a stuck sparge yet. I followed the guidelines in www.howtobrew.com although I have the printed book.

Palmer's book . . . at the website linked in Maestro's post above also shows the manifold slots facing upward.

sonvolt said:

Palmer's book . . . at the website linked in Maestro's post above also shows the manifold slots facing upward.

Click to expand...

The slots may be facing up for just the photo. Ifyou leave them like this, you'll leave 1/2" of sweet wort on the bottom of your cooler. Face them down and the siphon will suck up almost all of it.

I remember reading that on brewingtechniques and IIRC it had something to do with the laminar flow on the bottom of the cooler and channeling. It doesn't make sense to me without going back to look at it, because the wort has to drain through the grainbed to reach the bottom of the cooler, at which point a laminar flow doesn't look like it would hurt anything (as it would if it were down the side, i.e., channeling around the grainbed).

I went with down for mine and it seems to work fine, as well as it seems to be the conventional wisdom these days. BT appears to have 'shutdown' around July '04, and many of the articles are from before that, so it's possible there are new ideas/thoughts on some of the topics.

I put them facing down when I brewed today. My OG is higher than I expected it to be, so I am guessing this was the right choice.

When I look at the picture of the mash tun displayed, I thiink it would be impossibe or impracticle to have the slots facing down . The fitting that the siphon hose is attached to would be facing down and the manifold would tilt down hill. The siphon hose would be going down to the bottom of the cooler and then have to make a sharp u turn to go up and out of the cooler. There would be such a kink in the hose that that it probably would not siphon. If you use that picture as a blueprint either cut the slots on the opposite side or turn the fitting in the opposite direction if you want the slots to face down.

The manifold I made drains through the bulkhead so I can flip it over and have the holes either up or down. I've used it once with the holes facing up. It worked perfictly. The nenxt time I may have the holes facing down.

David

I just tested this actually...My brew with the slots UP, 81% efficiency. Slots DOWN, 68% efficiency.



Makes more sense to me to have them up, as long as they are thin enough to keep husks and grains out of the mainifold.

Hmmm...might have to experiment next time with my slots up. However, based on the huge wheat mudpie I made this weekend I'm a bit concerned. I imagine with barley I'd be okay.

Hmmm, I use mine with slots down and I also get about 68% efficiency. I like the idea of better efficiency, but I also like the consistency I get by having the slots down. Perhaps I'll try it on the next few brews I make and see if it's as consistent.

For what it's worth I get 80% efficiency with the holes down (yes I drilled it b/c I didn't have a hacksaw handy). I can't see that having them up would realistically make much if any difference. If it's facing up I do think the grainbed would be more likely to compact down on the manifold and clog it though this is a minimal concern. I say stick with what has worked for you in the past.. don't bother trying to fix it if it ain't broken. Heck, if we all really cared about efficiency then we'd have false bottoms anyways.

As for that photo, the manifold could be easily disassembled and reassembled with slots down but siphon tube sticking up. Anyhow, I use a drilled rubber stopper in the cooler's drain hole, run a copper pipe out of it and connect a ball valve with hose barb onto it using compression fittings. It works great... no leaks what so ever.