Any Manifold McGyvers Out there?

[noahdawson90]

Today, I mentioned to my dad that I am taking the steps into all grain brewing. He asked what kind of equipment went into it, and I had my shopping list in my pocket (literally). He's in the home stretch of finishing a complete home remodel, and had a lot of stuff that I can foresee being able to use to convert one of my old coolers into my mash tun. I'd like to think that it's everything I'd need for a very bare-bones mash tun. I was gifted the following (lucky me that he enjoys my beer almost as much as I do)! :cross:

-about 3/4 of a roll of 1/2" copper tubing (appears to be about 30 feet)
-(4) half inch T-Fittings
-(1) 90 degree half inch fitting

and last but not least, THIS thing, which is where the majority of my concern lies. I need to figure out how to actually mount it in a watertight fashion to the cooler itself. The piece of copper on the opposite side of the faucet is also a half inch, so it all fits perfectly. I know people typically use ball valves, but I have hose that is rated for mashing temps as well, which fits around the "liquid out" perfectly (with a clamp) when I remove the nut.

Any ideas out there on how to get this setup working? Seems like a lot of teflon tape..

Also, being that the SOFT copper pipe came in a big roll, how imperative is it that I actually use 90 degree angles in the corners? Why not just make a big oval of the copper connected to a single T-fitting connected to my valve? Seems like that would be the ticket. I'm not super knowledgable about efficiency, but does having anything "squared off" to a proper 90 degrees in the corners actually produce more efficient wort?

Cheers!
-Noah

 

[billl]

For the valve part, I doubt you'll be able to make that watertight. You want a threaded pipe stub where you can put a nut and washer on each side and tighten them down.

For the manifold, a circle would be fine. If you are planning on batch sparging, the shape doesn't matter at all. If you are fly sparging, a design where the area enclosed by the circle is the same as the area outside the circle will optimize your efficiency.

 

[acidrain]

Be careful using chrome plated parts instead of stainless... the wort will actually remove chrome over time down to the base metal, and chrome is typically chrome over NICKEL over copper. Somewhere along the line nickel is dissolved into wort, and that's bad.