building 5 gal mashton. need help

[sithspitt]

I'm building a new 5 gal rubbermaid mashton. Rather than buying a false bottom, I've opted to use 1/2" copper pipe. Do
i drill holes in bottom, top, or side of pipe, what size holes. and how many?

 

[Chello]

i would drill on the bottom, the smallest holes you can make, and the most you can fit.

Thats what i am going to do when i build my new mash tun.

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

You can drill them wherever, I've got holes drilled in all sides. I used the smallest drill bit I had which was 1/16 or 3/32". This works just fine and the wort clears nicely after 1-2 quarts of vorlauf. Here's mine, it has holes on top which you can see, but also the same amount of holes on the sides and on the bottom.

 

[Yankeehillbrewer]

When I built mine I used a Hacksaw to cut about 1/2 way or a little less through the pipe, and spaced them about 1/2" apart. When I mash, I have the cut side of the manifold facing down. Works well for me.

Mike

 

[z987k]

5 gallons is going to be too small. I'll wager you grow out of it rather quickly.

 

[Jonnio]

5 gallons is going to be too small. I'll wager you grow out of it rather quickly.

a 5 gal mash tun is good up to about 1.065 at about 70% efficiency. That encompasses a lot of beers. The only two I had a hard time with so far have been double bastard (yet to brew, but I already know I will have to mash in a different cooler) and the 09/09/09 barleywine.

I am glad I did a 5 gal first, I can use it for my inside brewing and smaller beers, then when I move up to 10 gal batches I can make another one. It's not like cooler mash tuns are that expensive to make with a stainless braid or DIY manifold.

 

[AnOldUR]

I'm building a new 5 gal rubbermaid mashton. Rather than buying a false bottom, I've opted to use 1/2" copper pipe. Do

i drill holes in bottom, top, or side of pipe, what size holes. and how many?

They normally say bottom, but I have to agree with TwoHeads. That’s a nice clean set-up he has. There are a lot of us using braided strands and they allow filtering from all sides.

And as Jonnio says, there’s something to be said for having a smaller MLT around for small batches. Used my old 3 gallon Igloo a couple of weeks ago.











Edit:
Why does the quote thing split up the message sometimes?