My 70 qt Mash Tun

[EricS]

Finally getting my equipment together for AG. I started working on my mash tun.

Picked up a 70 Qt Colemann Extreme cooler from Walmart.


Copper and CPVC fittings and in the back my ghetto homemade mach paddle.


Put together the ends for the wort extractor. Because of the T's I was not able to get the spacing I wanted on the side where it will connect to the bulkhead. Opposite side has correct spacing so the two inner tubes will be angled when inserted.



More to follow.

 

[EricS]

Stopped at the LHBS to pick up the bulkheads and a brewometer, and grabbed a few beers.


I had a ***** of a time getting the cooler drain valve out, kind of beat the hell out of it.


Installed the bulkhead


Attached the copper to the bulkhead.


Attached all the copper, you can now see how the inner copper pipes run towards eachother on the one end. I still have to cut the slits in the bottom.


More to come, I will keep you posted.

 

[Liquidicem]

That's looking great. I'm still trying to decide on a 10 gallon round cooler or something bigger like that.

 

[beergears]

Uh... the valve on my smaller 36 QT Coleman xtreme unscrewed right off.
I vaguely recall that it was not very obvious that it actually could, at the time...

 

[98EXL]

nice manifold...I'm going to save some copper from my chiller project to replace the braid I have now

 

[Anthony_Lopez]

nice stuff... i'm building mine on sunday...

 

[EricS]

That's looking great. I'm still trying to decide on a 10 gallon round cooler or something bigger like that.

Thanks, the reason I went with the 70 qt was so I have the ability to do big beers plus I thought it would be easier to mix the mash in a rectangular versus the round type.

Uh... the valve on my smaller 36 QT Coleman xtreme unscrewed right off.
I vaguely recall that it was not very obvious that it actually could, at the time...

Yeah, I realized how easy it was after I beat the hell out of it.

 

[67coupe390]

nice work!!!!!! Pm me I'm in Waukesha too!!!

 

[EricS]

This sucks, I am at work today and I want to finish this thing. Well hopefully I can get to the store to buy the last few parts I need and will finish it tonight and/or tomorrow.

 

[EricS]

Coupe390 I PM'd you.

 

[FSR402]

Looking at your pictures I would like to point out a few things.
First off to get the center tubes to run straight just cut a little off the "T" fittings.
But the main thing I feel I NEED to point out is the layout of the manifold. Do not cut slits in the outer tubes. This will cause channeling along the walls. Also pleas read This... Then you will understand what I'm talking about.

 

[Sean]

It seems like you are going to have a hard time keeping a 5 gallon batch at a consistant temperature in that large of a cooler. Even if you are doing a big beer, you are not going to even fill that thing half full. In addition to the shallow grainbed that I think FSR402 is refering to.

You might be better off using that cooler for something else an getting a smaller one for mashing.

Just my 2c.

 

[EricS]

Looking at your pictures I would like to point out a few things.
First off to get the center tubes to run straight just cut a little off the "T" fittings.
But the main thing I feel I NEED to point out is the layout of the manifold. Do not cut slits in the outer tubes. This will cause channeling along the walls. Also pleas read This... Then you will understand what I'm talking about.

Yeah, I read that a few times and my understanding was the most efficient system is a balanced one. With a larger cooler and a lower grainbed you need more pieces of copper pulling the wort out; hence a bazooka tube was never an option for me. The layout for the manifold spacing is 2 inches and following Palmer I divided that by 2 to get the 1 inch spacing between the outside tube and the cooler wall. I do plan on cutting slits in all tubes, I will calculate my efficiency at the end and if it sucks I can always remove the two outside pipes. I am not sweating any of the joints so I can try different configurations to see what gets the best efficiency.
This is my first time putting together an AG system so I realize that there is a learning curve and I guess with trial and error hopefully I will find something that works for me.

Thanks for the input, always appreciated.

 

[FSR402]

It seems like you are going to have a hard time keeping a 5 gallon batch at a consistant temperature in that large of a cooler. Even if you are doing a big beer, you are not going to even fill that thing half full. In addition to the shallow grainbed that I think FSR402 is refering to.

You might be better off using that cooler for something else an getting a smaller one for mashing.

Just my 2c.

He will not have any problem with that if he preheats it well.
I use a 80qt and it works just fine when I do a 5 gal batch. Even better for a 10.

But to preheat it I use 5 gal at 180* and I let it sit until my strike water is ready (about 15 minutes).

His grain bed wont be that thin really. The base of these things are not as big as you think. They are just long and tall..

 

[Sean]

sounds like it will work fine then, and a lot of versitility with that much capacity.:rockin:

 

[ColoradoXJ13]

I just built one of those for big 10-gallon batches, I will still use my 10 gallon gott for 5-gallon and small 10-gallon batches. USed it last weekend and it worked great, I have a giant SS braid in a big loop though.

 

[SuperiorBrew]

Yeah, I read that a few times and my understanding was the most efficient system is a balanced one. With a larger cooler and a lower grainbed you need more pieces of copper pulling the wort out; hence a bazooka tube was never an option for me. The layout for the manifold spacing is 2 inches and following Palmer I divided that by 2 to get the 1 inch spacing between the outside tube and the cooler wall. I do plan on cutting slits in all tubes, I will calculate my efficiency at the end and if it sucks I can always remove the two outside pipes. I am not sweating any of the joints so I can try different configurations to see what gets the best efficiency.
This is my first time putting together an AG system so I realize that there is a learning curve and I guess with trial and error hopefully I will find something that works for me.

Thanks for the input, always appreciated.

I don't see any problem with channeling, you followed Palmer's suggestions. I would straighten out the center two runs so you get more of a uniform flow.

I did 5 gallon batches in this one all the time and averaged 85% efficiency with it.

Outer pipes are not slotted, just used to center and hold it firmly in place.

 

[67coupe390]

He will not have any problem with that if he preheats it well.
I use a 80qt and it works just fine when I do a 5 gal batch. Even better for a 10.

But to preheat it I use 5 gal at 180* and I let it sit until my strike water is ready (about 15 minutes).

His grain bed wont be that thin really. The base of these things are not as big as you think. They are just long and tall..

Same here I use an 80 quart cooer and preheat it. Works good!!!

 

[Wade E]

Do you solder this or leave it to come apart to clean it? I have to make 1 soon.

 

[EricS]

No soldering for me, I wanted to be able to take it completely apart for cleaning. Once it is pushed down in location it seems to be pretty solid.

I have more pictures from what I did today, as soon as I get a chance tonight I will post them. But first I have to reboot the dam servers at work.

 

[EricS]

Went and picked up some cheapo ball valves and hose bibs. One for the Mash Tun and one for the hot water tank.


Here is my band saw setup with a backing so all cuts are same distance into pipe. You can see that I also put my 1" measurements on the blocking.


1st piece of copper with the cuts made.


Installed all cut copper into the manifold.


Attached the ballvalve to the bulkhead. I tested it with a couple gallons of hot water and it HELD!!! Opened drain and it only left behind a very minimal amount.

 

[EricS]

Now on to making the sparge arm.

My bandsaw had a groove in the table that fit the cpvc perfect, all I had to do was hold it down with some c-clamps to keep it stable while drilling. I drilled two rows spaced 1" apart. The idea was to have two inner pipes running the length that sprinkled water on the grain bed in two directions each. (Who knows if this will actually work but thought it would be pretty cool if it did.)


Completed sparge arm rests on a ledge about half way down the cooler. The only pipes drilled are the center ones. The outer ones are just to keep it all stable. And yes I realize the holes are pointed upwards. My thoughts with this is that the water will have to fill up the pipes completely before exiting the holes therefore you are getting a more even distribution instead of more coming out in the area closest to the inlet. When the grainbed is higher or I need more room I will suspend the sparge arm by string.



Upnext is to install the thermometer and the ball valve on my hot water tank.

 

[Mustangj]

Sweet setup...:rockin:

 

[FSR402]

Installed all cut copper into the manifold.
View attachment 4959

A little bit of advice on this. Looking at this picture I would solder all the "T"s and the 90*'s on the top (the ones on the far end from the B-valve. Then on the B-valve end I would solder the 90's and "t"s but leave the center one lose so that you can rotate it up and out to get it in and out.
It will still be easy to take a part and put back together and to clean it. But you wont have so many lose pieces to deal with.
Other then that it looks great. I've been thinking of building a sparge setup like that too. But I keep telling myself that my brew days are long enough and I don't need to add the extra time of fly sparging.

 

[Wade E]

Looks awesome what holds the sparge up up, is the cooler slowly tapering in towards the bottom to hold it in place?

 

[EricS]

Looks awesome what holds the sparge up up, is the cooler slowly tapering in towards the bottom to hold it in place?

If you look at the earlier pictures with out the sparge are you can see a ridge about half way down. The sparge arm fits right on it and if I need to raise it up I will just suspend it by some string.

 

[Wade E]

Very cool. How much longer does fly sparging take?

 

[FSR402]

Very cool. How much longer does fly sparging take?

I can batch sparge twice and be done in 20 minutes. Fly sparge takes 60-90 minutes.

 

[Wade E]

Thanks FSR, I think Ill stick to Batch for now.

 

[ColoradoXJ13]

FYI, I know these are not on sale at Wal-Mart anymore, and I don't know what they retail for normally there, but there are a pile of these at my local Safeway on sale for $44.95 or so.

 

[67coupe390]

Thanks FSR, I think Ill stick to Batch for now.

Thats 40+ mins. to sit and enjoy more beer!!!!

 

[bigben]

Hey EricS, did you just get the regular Kewler Kit bulkhead, or did you have to get the XL version?

 

[EricS]

Bigben, I just got the regular KewlerKit bulkhead, the LHBS did not have the XL in stock. It seemed to work fine though. When installing make sure and read the instructions on the correct way to tighten otherwise you will ruin the o ring.

 

[EricS]

Finally got some time to post these. This was from 2 weekends ago, brew buddies and mine 1st AG. Brew buddy has same type of setup.


Our setup for the day, two hot water tanks up top and our Mash Tuns below. He was doing Ed Wort's Haus Pale Ale, and I was doing Yooper's Anchor Steam Clone.


Adding the Grain and mixing with my gheto home made paddle.


Vorlauf


Fly sparging in action.


Starting the boil. His is in the background, mine is in the front. The pot in the middle is our Frankenbrew.... Don't ask....

 

[newbrewnut]

EricS,
Question on your Sparge arm, Why did you go with CPVC rather than copper?
It seems to me that copper is actually cheaper than CPVC. Thanks for all of the pictures, they are helping me out setting up my MLT.

 

[EricS]

Not sure where you are buying your copper or cpvc from but the cpvc was a lot cheaper. A bag of 10 cpvc elbows was around $1.50, copper elbows were about $.70 each. Good luck on buidling your mash tun. If you have any questions about mine don't hesitate to ask.

 

[newbrewnut]

Not sure where you are buying your copper or cpvc from but the cpvc was a lot cheaper. A bag of 10 cpvc elbows was around $1.50, copper elbows were about $.70 each. Good luck on buidling your mash tun. If you have any questions about mine don't hesitate to ask.

I am looking at McMaster, The CPVC seems to be more expensive from what i can tell. Just to verify, you are using 3/4" tubing, correct? Thanks again for doing my dirty work.

 

[EricS]

I used 1/2 inch for all copper and cpvc. If you have a Menards in your area, check out their prices.

 

[jacko623]

How much copper piping did you buy?