Interesting mashtun design
- Thread starter pendragon
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
Rushis
Well-Known Member
GrizlyGarou
Well-Known Member
Lots of people use the stainless braids. That design is a good start, but needs a bit of work though.
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2007
- Messages
- 62,016
- Reaction score
- 6,922
There's nothing wrong with that design at all. Some people will argue the use of brass, but I've seen no problems with mine. A lot of people use that. Mine is a coupler through the wall, a nipple with a stainless braid slipped on and just crimped at the other end. Working for about a year so far.
Montanaandy
Well-Known Member
Put the PVC tubing back into the SS braid. Helps prevent stuck sparges (I found out the hard way). Montanaandy
Montanaandy
Well-Known Member
Meant to say to drill holes in it then put it back into the SS braid.
GrizlyGarou
Well-Known Member
I've got brass for my valve, too. I was talking about the braid being right up against the side of the cooler. There's no better way to assure channeling than that.
cyberbackpacker
Well-Known Member
I am surprised no one has mentioned it, but using the conduit lock nuts on the inside of the tun is not a very good idea IMO. They are definitely not SS, and I believe are usually zinc or galvanized steel. I personally don't want to be leaching that into my mash.
Everything else looked like the typical cooler MLT build to me...
Everything else looked like the typical cooler MLT build to me...
Yeah, thats what I was thinking, the lock nut would be ok on the outside but not on the inside.
Would it be better to have the braid in a straight line as shown in other designs rather than coiled around the cooler then? I'm looking to make one of these over the weekend and would like to do it right the first time.
oceanselv
Well-Known Member
I used a round cooler for my mash tun. Instead of using the zinc plated conduit lock nuts on the inside I have them on the outside of the cooler. On the inside I used a large neoprene fender washer and the 1/2" tee fitting to seal the neoprene washer to the cooler wall from the inside. On the outside I have another neoprene fender washer, a large zinc plated fender washer to help keep the neoprene washer tight against the cooler and then the lock nut and a ball valve. This has held up very well for me. For my sparging arm I used a piece of PEX tubing and bent it to conform to the lid of my mash tun. I then drilled several 1/8" holes in the tubing at various angles approximately 1/2" apart. This gives a nice shower head effect on the grain. Note they video made mention of not pulling the stainless steel braid. If the braid is pulled the diameter will narrow and can cause a stuck runoff. If you do get some narrowing of the stainless braid unwind a wire clothes hangar and insert the hook end into the braid and rotate the hangar to open the braid. Next attach a pen or other hard round object to the opposite end of the hanger and push the hanger through the braid. This should open the braid sufficiently to allow for a proper mash and runoff.
GrizlyGarou
Well-Known Member
I made a copper wire frame for my braid. The wire touches the sides of the cooler in four places to keep the braid centered, then I put circles into the cross pieces to run the braid through. I ended up with enough braid to go from the outlet almost to the other end, back again, then to the other end. I've got no pics, but if that makes no sense at all I could probably get one later today soemtime for ya.
Let's try another way. You want the braid or manifold to be centered. If it is long enough to be more than the length of your cooler, double it back. The distance between the different sections of braid or manifold should be twice the distance from the braid or manifold to the edges of the cooler. Too close to the edges and your wort will be lazy and just go down the side of the cooler to get out, leaving lots of delicious sugars behind. This would be for batch sparging, not fly sparging. I don't know anything about fly sparging other than it works better with a false bottom.
Adding tubing back inside the braid, even riddled with holes, is going to block off a significant amount of open braid area. I don't recommend it.
People talking about channeling, it only matters with fly sparging. If you batch sparge, it's irrelevant.
I don't recommend using any kind of sealing washers or Orings on the outside wall of coolers. Essentially what it does is mask any leaks you may have on the interior wall which can fill the insulation foam with wort and then lactic puke lava.
People talking about channeling, it only matters with fly sparging. If you batch sparge, it's irrelevant.
I don't recommend using any kind of sealing washers or Orings on the outside wall of coolers. Essentially what it does is mask any leaks you may have on the interior wall which can fill the insulation foam with wort and then lactic puke lava.
GrizlyGarou
Well-Known Member
I wasted five minutes of my life measuring my cooler to get good braid spacing?! I guess it can't hurt anything, though...
Right, in batch sparging, the braid is really just to hold the grain back while getting as much of the wort out as possible.
Scooby_Brew
Well-Known Member
It's a good MLT design and a very nice video. I gave it 5 stars on youtube.
IMO though: coiling inside the braid is just not necessary, but I guess it won't hurt neither. As far as the size, I would go with something bigger, like 62 qt+, so once you go to 10 gal batches, you won't have to worry about getting a new MLT.
IMO though: coiling inside the braid is just not necessary, but I guess it won't hurt neither. As far as the size, I would go with something bigger, like 62 qt+, so once you go to 10 gal batches, you won't have to worry about getting a new MLT.
