DIY Mash/Lauter tun & wort chiller

Hey all,

This week I've been looking at what it'll take to go AG from extract, and I made my mash/lauter tun and wort chiller (I'd been getting by by doing condensed wort boils and chilling in an ice bath in the sink).

I've taken pictures, and totalled up what it all cost me, not too much for having a 50qt m/l tun and a 50' chiller, $130 all told. It was about 50 for the 50' 3/8" copper (Home Depot is moving, so the $50 coil was $35), and the rest was in fittings and whatnot. The coolers, one 20qt, one 50qt were 40 together, 40 for the cpvc pipe, fittings, glue, and hole saw. The pics are here. (vBulletin only wants me to post 4 max.)

I used a 1/8" bit for the sparge manifold, and a dremel to make the notches for the lauter. The pics are pretty self-explanatory I think, I just looked around the net and saw what others had done in their pics and tried to replicate it. I'll let you all know how well it works in a couple days after I've used it (Just started my yeast starter today, gotta give it a couple days). The only thing that's not pictured is the hoses that go from my sparge tank to my m/l tun to my boil kettle, and the i/o hoses for the wort cooler, but they're in the price of everything as well.

Of course, if anyone has any comments or words of wisdom before I start my first AG batch, those would be appreciated as well.

-Aaron

It appears as though you attached the water distribution manifold to the lid. I wouldn't have done that. Although some websites clearly show pictures of coolers setup just like yours. I think there is something to be said for laying the water distribution manifold on the top of the bed with the holes up and leaving it flow up.

In the setup you have now, if the holes are too big for the flowrate, then one hole is going to drip and channel into the bed. The other thing is someday you'll have a pump and be recirculating either to clarify or for HERMS/RIMS. And then that manifold will aerate/oxidize the wort.

Do you have your slits up or down in the pickup manifold ? I have a similar manifold and they are down. I think it picks up better. I think slits up leaves a 1/2" of wort in the bottom, but I think one can argue that either way.

Did you glue the pickup manifold together ? Some people just push them together so they can be taken apart for cleaning, possibly in a dishwasher. But then again, then the manifold has the chance of coming apart when/if you stir your mash.

I attached the manifold, but it's not glued, so it'll come apart quickly if needed. I think I have the pipes ran and holes drilled in such a fashion that they'll all receive water, with the surface tension (I think) making it so there has to be a little bit of extra water pushing out through a 1/8" hole.

As far as whether the slits are up or down, that's not glued one way or the other, so I can try both ways and see. I'd think up would be best so the wort would go into the manifold and go to the exit, but results may tell a different tale.

I glued the pickup manifold together, but it also can be soaked in hot water with a sanitizer, so cleanup shouldn't be too difficult.

As far as the HERMS/RIMS, I figure I'm only $80 into this, and it'll let me brew 5-7 gallons easily. I figure this'll get me a good start into AG brewing, and if/when I want to go deeper into it, I'll find bigger and better ways to construct another brew kit.

Way to go.

Good job on that wort chiller. It looks like your system will work out well. There is a video here where this guy uses the same cooler setup as you have made. It might be useful or informative. Brew cam project > http://www.krotchrott.com/videoframe.html