Mash tun

[KalvinKlein]

Need help with parts from mash tun. I just bought a 10+ gallon cooler from home depot, and I'm trying to find the parts to turn it into a mash tun. I saw a build on here and go most of the parts off of it, but I don't want a female barb inside for a mesh tube, I want to put on a detachable copper octogon. So I'm not sure what fitting I need to go through the cooler so I can do that and also screw on a ball valve on the outside.

 

[djsethall]

360 degrees divided by 8 equals 45 degrees. So if you ant an octogon, you'll need 8 45 degree copper fittings plus a tee to connect it to your output valve.

 

[KalvinKlein]

thank you, but what is the fitting that fits through the cooler? Is it threaded on both sides or something?

 

[rudu81]

You can always go with the octagon style design in this method as well.

This is nothing but personal preference of course lol. I have used the braid, it works fine. I've build several manifolds and design or shape isn't that critical when it comes to efficiency (assuming you are batch sparging). Manifold doesn't get better efficiency than braid or vice versa despite what you might think. If you batch sparging then your braid/manifold is nothing more than an over rated filter. I say "over rated" because its your grain bed that should actually be doing the filtering. The braid or manifold is more of less just there to hold back the husks and chunks.

Basically, as long as you aren't getting stuck sparges be happy and use whatever works for you.

 

[brewstaedt]

I used a compression tee for attaching mesh tube per Palmer.

 

[tele_powder]

I used a male thread piece to go through the cooler secured on the inside with a plastic nut for attaching faucets to the sink basin and some rubber washers that I cut out if a sheet of rubber that I found next to sink nut at homie depot. I then bought a copper female 1/2 npt to female coupler and that's what the manifold connects to. My next maniford is going to be a soft copper circle. Little pricier materials but less screwing around on the build. If you can build your manifold to fit inside a large reusable grain bag secured with a zip tie you will never got a stuck sparge nor grain in you bk. good luck.

 

[tele_powder]

And buy extra dremel tool cutting disks while your there. Your gonna need them