Cannibalizing parts and brewing

For some time now I've been having some issues with the manifold in my MLT and the kettle. Nothing major, just little annoying things. Today it was 50° and I got the urge to go Monster Garage on my system.

I have a Bazooka T in my MLT but the pickup tube is a ~3/8" stainless steel pickup tube from an old MoreBeer Sankey adapter. I had a rubber grommet between the tube and the Bazooka T, but it still moved freely and I started worrying that at some point the T would get bumped by the mash paddle, allowing grain to get inside the T and pickup tube.

Simultaneously, I was losing prime when getting to the bottom of my kettle, leaving sometimes a quart of wort! I had the HopStopper in the kettle...worked great at first but after two years it wasn't performing like it used to. I noticed that the HopStopper had a copper pickup tube so...

I removed 'em both. Used a piece of copper tubing to basically work as an adapter between the 1/2" opening on the Bazooka T and the 3/8" pickup tube. Cut and soldered (lead-free, of course).



When I took apart the HopStopper, I found small bits of dried gunk in the creases and the bottom rusting. :Eek:

I hit the point of no-return when I took a pair of tin snips to the HopStopper:

 

So I basically took the screen (that didn't have any rust) and wrapped it around the pickup tube in the kettle, crimped it with a bench vice and lineman's pliers (taking direction from the HopStopper's construction), and put a worm gear clamp on it to keep it on the pickup tube.





I placed it in the kettle, angled to the side.

 

When the mash was done, it was time to test it out and pump to the kettle.



At the end of the day, both did well



At this point it was almost done...I tipped the kettle up a little and the pump nearly sucked it dry, no trub or hop debris in the line!

I was going to post this in the DIY forum, but I already DIY'ed it. More of a re-Do It Yourself.

Cheers!

 

Well done Keith. l look forward to trying that brew at one of our meetings.

 

Thanks bro. With any luck you'll be able to try it at the May meeting...it's a Pilsner.

 

Nice re-purpose! Like the pic of wort going into kettle through pickup tube with reworked hopstopper screen.

Just picked up a new (to me) Polarware 15g kettle myself and really like your SS pickup you put the screen on. Did you make or buy?

 

Thanks!

That was kinda a left over part from a MoreBeer Sanke adapter kit I used to use in the mash tun. They sell just the tube now too: Stainless Pick up tube for Sanke Keg Mash Setup | MoreBeer