copper manifold question

[KayaBrew]

I see that a lot of people (including Palmer) cut slits in their copper manifolds, my question is, why not drill holes instead?

 

[smakudwn]

I found it easier to just cut the holes. if you have a drill press and make a jig to hold it still it would prolly be just as good to drill the holes

 

[david_42]

Main advantage of slits is you get more flow opening per cut.

 

[bradsul]

I used a drill press and drilled mine. You need a lot of holes to get decent flow but once you have them all they work extremely well. I wouldn't want to do it with a hand drill and if I ever make another manifold I will go with slits I think.

 

[mandoman]

i drill with hand drill. it is a pita but it's what I have available. pretty quick, really, given the size of it. I routinely get 80% plus efficiency in my 48 qt with copper manifold drilled and just finished my new 165 qt with similar manifold and drilled holes.

 

[jimba009]

I ended up using ye ol hacksaw on mine recently. For those that have drilled, are the holes all of the way around the tube? How do you have them oriented?

 

[bradsul]

I drilled 3 rows of 1mm holes on the bottom. If you put them on the top you will break the syphon too early and leave a lot of wort behind.

 

[Homercidal]

I am lucky and have access to a CNC Mill at work. I mounted the pipe in a vise and drilled a row of holes automatically. Then adjust the pipe for next pass and let it rip. 4-5 rows of holes, 1/8" apart, next row over between the previous holes, and next to it.

Then I filed the tear-out, reamed the holes inside for tearout, dremeled the tear-out in each hole, and finally sanded the outside to a clean finish. A bit of work, but not bad when it's all done and said.

If I didn't have a CNC Mill available, it would be a toss up on whether or not I'd use a drill press and drill each one manually.

 

[HomebrewJeff]

I prefer smaller holes than the larger slots (man, that sounds dirty!) as I found I get clearer wort, faster. It seems with the slits from a hacksaw or dremel, it allows quite a bit of grain material through. I vorlauf 2-3 cups and it's clear.

Regarding flow, I never drain the tun full throttle anyway, so it's worked well for me.

 

[avibayer]

I drilled holes all around, and ended up not getting any flow. Any ideas why? holes were roughly 5mm apart.

 

[bierbrauer]

I had that happen to me on a Sierra Nevada Clone with over 11 lbs of grain in a 5 gal cooler tun. Before and since then I have not had a problem. My theory is that when first opening the valve to start the flow you have to keep one hand on the valve and go very slow until reaching the desired flow rate. If it starts too fast then it creates a suction which pulls all the flour and very small particles quickly through the husks towards the bottom and your holes/slots. This stops the flow completely.

 

[bradsul]

I drilled holes all around, and ended up not getting any flow. Any ideas why? holes were roughly 5mm apart.

Did you drill the holes in the top of the manifold? That would probably be your problem, you only want the holes on the bottom so they don't clog up immediately with flour and husks. Your syphon will also break at the top level of the pipe instead of the bottom which will leave a lot of sweet, sweet goodness in the tun.

As suggested try starting the drain more slowly to avoid creating a large suction that will clog up the holes.

 

[avibayer]

Awesome. Thanks for the advice bierbrauer. Yesterday I was doing an 10.5 lb recipe. palmer's american amber recipe. My friend and i noticed it would flow real well sometimes and not at all others. Blowing in it sometimes worked and then got clogged. The whole lautering process was slow and tedious. Then magic, during the sparge, the flow was great. I hope that the rate i open the valve will help.

Bradsul, the holes i have are on the bottom. But this is my first manifold, and was my first all grain batch. Would adding more holes help the flow rate, and prevent stuck sparge?

 

[bradsul]

More holes will definitely improve your flow rate. The more holes you have the less likely that they'll all get plugged up as well. My own manifold has 3 rows of holes on the bottom and I can drain the tun pretty quickly if I want to do. Try adding another row of holes and see how that improves your flow. You can keep adding rows until you hit a flow rate you like.

There is a tipping point though where you'll have too much suction created by all the flow and you'll get stuck so I wouldn't try and push it too much.

 

[avibayer]

more holes fixed it. works like a charm now. thanks for all the help.