Wort Loss in MashTun?

[GABrewboy]

I am curious to know what amount of wort you guys/gals are leaving behind in your mashtun after you have sparged? I am not talking grain absorption, I am talking deadspace in your coolers? Reason I ask is I just built my manifold and measured my water loss/deadspace and I put 3 gallons in and I yielded 2.2 gallons. So I lost .8 gallons to deadspace! Is that bad, good or about normal?

Thanks

 

[rdwj]

That seems pretty high to me. Is the manifold touching the bottom?

 

[GABrewboy]

I have it about .25 inches from the bottom since the original drain plug on this cooler was a little further up from the bottom......but you can't put your finger under it, so it's very very near to being on the bottom.

 

[rdwj]

I have it about .25 inches from the bottom since the original drain plug on this cooler was a little further up from the bottom......but you can't put your finger under it, so it's very very near to being on the bottom.

A 1/4" along the entire bottom is going to give you quite a bit of waste. What are the inside dimensions? With the length and width, we can figure out the volume you can expect to lose.

You should be able to customize your manifold to fit on the bottom if you made it yourself - is it copper? I recently built one for a friend that used a 45 elbow to help get it a lower to the bottom.

 

[GABrewboy]

Well I have a 48qt cooler! I used the white pvc pipe like I saw in a few pictures....was this not what I needed to use?

 

[rdwj]

You can use CPVC, but I think that regular PVC is a no-no. It's not rated for the heat it needs to take.

Just the quarts isn't enough to figure out loss. It could be tall and narrow and short and fat. That would change the loss drastically.

 

[Bobby_M]

I love my SS braid. I made a small dip tube that the braid goes over and my loss is a 1/2 cup.

 

[GABrewboy]

CPVC is which pipe? What I bought is what they use for piping in homes for water lines.....so I guess that would be CPVC? I guess maybe I should go try something different then since there is just no way to get this thing any lower to the bottom as I tried an elbow and every angle, but it just didn't work.

 

[GABrewboy]

I am going to go back to the drawing board and use copper this time to make my manifold so I can bend it to make sure it will sit on the bottom of the cooler. Now my question is, what size copper tubing do you recommend I use and you use the soft copper correct?

Thanks

 

[rdwj]

I used 1/2" rigid.

 

[GABrewboy]

Thanks!! Rigid is the hard stuff correct?

 

[rdwj]

Thanks!! Rigid is the hard stuff correct?

Yes, the stuff that comes in sticks - not coils.

looks like this

 

[AleHole]

I love my SS braid. I made a small dip tube that the braid goes over and my loss is a 1/2 cup.

Same here. Keep It Simple

 

[Willie3]

See I do fly sparging and I don't worry about deadspace because I have more than enough water to cover me until I find that the run off is at 1010 or when I reached my desired water level.

I assume most here Batch Sparge and that dead space is associated with that technique specifically.

Am I on track? Should I worry about deadspace? When I am finished sparging, I still have a Gott cooler full of grains and water.

My efficiency has been a constant 74.5% so I must be doing it correctly.

- WW

 

[GABrewboy]

Great!! I will keep it simple......my question is can this stuff be bent pretty easily as I need to make sort of an S to get from my spigot to the bottom of the cooler.

 

[Willie3]

It can be bent relatively easily. You just dont want to kink it.

- WW

 

[cweston]

Great!! I will keep it simple......my question is can this stuff be bent pretty easily as I need to make sort of an S to get from my spigot to the bottom of the cooler.

If the height difference between the spigot and the cooler bottom is small (less than a couple inches), the easiest solution is probably to run a line from the spigot, down to the level of the bottom of the cooler (using 2 45° elbows) and into a T in the manifold on the far side of the cooler form the spigot.

 

[BierMuncher]

I am going to go back to the drawing board and use copper this time to make my manifold so I can bend it to make sure it will sit on the bottom of the cooler. Now my question is, what size copper tubing do you recommend I use and you use the soft copper correct?

Thanks

1/2 inch copper pile (plumbing type). Lots of slits and face then to the bottom. Don't sweat the joints (you want it to leak). The mesh paint strainer solved all my stuck sparge rpoblems.

 

[GABrewboy]

If the height difference between the spigot and the cooler bottom is small (less than a couple inches), the easiest solution is probably to run a line from the spigot, down to the level of the bottom of the cooler (using 2 45° elbows) and into a T in the manifold on the far side of the cooler form the spigot.

Okay, well I am trying to visualize this!! Are you talking about like the next post up did? Run it all the way across the cooler to the other side? My spigot as only about 1/2" from the bottom of the cooler, which makes for a difficult task because an elbow is too large for that area since an elbow is like 2"+ long.

 

[Bobby_M]

See I do fly sparging and I don't worry about deadspace because I have more than enough water to cover me until I find that the run off is at 1010 or when I reached my desired water level.

I assume most here Batch Sparge and that dead space is associated with that technique specifically.

Am I on track? Should I worry about deadspace? When I am finished sparging, I still have a Gott cooler full of grains and water.

My efficiency has been a constant 74.5% so I must be doing it correctly.

- WW

I don't think you have a problem. Of course, the wort sitting in that dead space *COULD* be really sweet high gravity stuff even at the point where you're runnings are down in the 1.010 area. But, you're able to get decent efficiency so who cares.

 

[Cheesefood]

You should be able to customize your manifold to fit on the bottom if you made it yourself - is it copper? I recently built one for a friend that used a 45 elbow to help get it a lower to the bottom.

You don't need to protect my identity. But thanks.

I need to cut more slots in it before I brew again, but the elbow works great and gets it right where it should be.

 

[AleHole]

Here is my setup. easy to make and very cheap. I lose maybe 1/2 cup of wort.

 

[Buford]

My efficiency was poor until I started tipping the tun to drain at the very bottom, setting back upright for a moment, and tipping again repeatedly to get the last of the wort out. I have a 1" diameter SS braid loop, and there was a decent amount of dead space beneath the bulkhead. Tipping to drain the braid and then setting it back up straight allows wort to soak into the now empty braid and tipping it drains since the wort takes the path of least resistance which is out the spigot. I had over a quart of lost wort on the first batch but I probably only leave about 1/2 cup now with this method.

EDIT: I batch sparge, this wouldn't work so well with fly sparging.

 

[BierMuncher]

1/2 inch copper pile (plumbing type). Lots of slits and face then to the bottom. Don't sweat the joints (you want it to leak). The mesh paint strainer solved all my stuck sparge rpoblems.

View attachment 1174
These slits are actually sitting on the bottom of the cooler. If I leave behind a half pint, it's a lot. That bend in the copper is the key to getting a manifold flush.

 

[GABrewboy]

Thanks so much everyone!!! I will be making a trip to my local homedepot in about an hour to get my supplies for the copper manifold.....

wish me luck on my building skills!!!!