I am currently mashing in a plastic cooler with the standard bulkhead from bargainfittings. The problem I am having is that the hole in my cooler is about an inch off the bottom, so there is a considerable amount of dead space at the bottom of the mash tun resulting on some un-used wort. Any ideas on how I can limit this problem? I have been switching back and forth between a manifold (Had some problems with it) and a SS braid. I would like to switch to a bazooka screen.
Reducing dead space in cooler MLT?
- Thread starter moxie
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you can attach some sort of solid tube or fittings or whatever to the bulkhead to drop down closer to the bottom of the cooler before you attach your braid or bazooka.
Of just fill the bottom of the thing with marbles.
Of just fill the bottom of the thing with marbles.
you can attach some sort of solid tube or fittings or whatever to the bulkhead to drop down closer to the bottom of the cooler before you attach your braid or bazooka.
Of just fill the bottom of the thing with marbles.
I would be interested to see a photo of this type of tube/fitting. Anybody got an example of this to show off? Sounds pretty straight forward to me, but it would be helpful to see it.
Sheldon
Well-Known Member
I like the marbles, or pebbles/small rocks
This isn't my picture, but you can see what this person did with their manifold.
You are looking at the BOTTOM of the manifold:
You can see that the copper tube that will be attached to the bulk head drops down at an angle before attaching to the rest of the manifold.
The next picture I drew just as an example of how you would do the same thing with a bazooka or braid. You might have to solder some copper together or buy threaded brass pipe fittings to do it, but it's basically just a drop-down tube to the filtering device.
You are looking at the BOTTOM of the manifold:
You can see that the copper tube that will be attached to the bulk head drops down at an angle before attaching to the rest of the manifold.
The next picture I drew just as an example of how you would do the same thing with a bazooka or braid. You might have to solder some copper together or buy threaded brass pipe fittings to do it, but it's basically just a drop-down tube to the filtering device.
I used a coleman cooler for a while that had the drain valve above the bottom of the cooler. Sure the cooler had considerable dead space below the bulkhead, but one must realize that this is also mostly grain w/ some wort. Easiest solution is just to tip the cooler for a full drain. This will also give you an indication of how much you are leaving behind. After using this set up for a while I kind of felt that after a double batch sparge, the sugars left behind because of excess "dead space" were not that significant. YMMV and RDWHAHB
I use a ss braid that sits pretty well on the bottom, but I still have some extra wort left over, so I just tip it. Here's a little contraption I made for holding the mash tun, to make tipping a little easier/safer.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cooler-mash-tun-tipper-211570/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cooler-mash-tun-tipper-211570/
