HomebrewandBeer.com forum

Gday all.

Going to knock up my mashtun today. I have an old 55lt square willow esky.
Couple of questions. (ok 3 then)
1.How much room to leave sparge piping from floor/bottom.?
2.PVC 20mm ok for pipework and spacing slots 10mm ok ?
3.False bottom is this cruicial. ?

Cheers Wrighty.

G'day Wrighty,

I use a copper manifold in my mashtun, but mine's only a 25 litre job (only just big enough).
My manifold sits completely flat on the bottom of the mashtun, with the slots facing downwards.

I think PVC pipe might be OK, I think others have used it. However, personally I think 20 mil is too big. It will be too hard to get an efficient syphon working to get full drain & sparge, without leaving possibly a significant amount behind. I'd go no bigger than ½", or 12 mm. Face the slots downwards, and spacing them 10 mm part is perfect.

A false bottom is not needed when you use a manifold; they are alternative methods, rather than complimentary ones.

I'd suggest you have a read of John Palmer's How to Brew. The appendices have a whole section on building mashtuns and the alternatives for draining.
http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixD.html

Here's a couple of pics of my set-up.

Thanks Warra,
Nice pics ,ive got plenty of copper pipe.Use it at work regular ,thats why i like the idea of the pvc so i dont think im at work.

G'day Warra, I have been searching for your pics again for last few days and just found them again. I have a question, did you use a hacksaw to cut ypur slots, or a thin cut off wheel (grinder)? I bought the copper, soldered which was fun, and only need to cut slots to finish off the job. I'm glad I didn't take any short cuts as it looks awesome. One more question, what did you clean your manifold with before you put it to use?
Cheers

I used a hacksaw, as I don't own an angle grinder. It took a bit of time, but I'm retired so it was no issue.

After use, all I do is to thoroughly rinse the manifold with a strong hose to dislodge any residual grain bits, then just air dry it ready for my next batch.
My manifold can be dismantled, but in 60 batches I've never done it!

Thanks mate. Mine can be dismantled as well. Hacksaw tonight.
Cheers

Warra it looks like you have set your sparge manifold up from the bottom of the esky
With the slots down
If I may suggest there is a good chance of particulate pick up that way
Also from your picture it appears that the exit point is higher than the manifold
This could be where the extract loss is or do you angle your esky up to maximise run off
Cheers speedie

interesting

thnkx rotten your a gem
ps never read any of palmers books but
dave line ,greg noonan ,charlie papazain,dave miller,ted goldammer,jim koch,randy mosher,george fix ,eric warner
,darryl richman,ray daniels,jim parker,david sututa,horst dornburcsh,geoff larson,fal allenand dick cantwell,micheal j lewis,pierre rajotte,jean-xavier guinard,
dave miller and heaven forget terry foster of pale ale
never read any books in my short brew life
sorry must have missed it!

speedie wrote:Warra it looks like you have set your sparge manifold up from the bottom of the esky
With the slots down
If I may suggest there is a good chance of particulate pick up that way
Also from your picture it appears that the exit point is higher than the manifold
This could be where the extract loss is or do you angle your esky up to maximise run off
Cheers speedie

My first manifold had the slots up. It was a bastard ti stir. It was like having a cheese grater on the bottom of the tun.
I turned them down with no noticable difference to the run off

speedie wrote:Warra it looks like you have set your sparge manifold up from the bottom of the esky
With the slots down
If I may suggest there is a good chance of particulate pick up that way
Also from your picture it appears that the exit point is higher than the manifold
This could be where the extract loss is or do you angle your esky up to maximise run off
Cheers speedie

My manifold sits flat on the bottom of the mash tun, with the slots facing down.
Yes, the exit point is a couple of cm higher than the bottom of the mashtun, but it syphons out nicely anyway. I have a relatively small diameter tube on the end of my tap to run into the bottom of the kettle, and that helps the syphon action. If I tilt the tun up at the end to drain towards the outlet, I have virtually no liqiud left to drain, other than what stays behind in the grains themselves.
My efficiency seems to be better that the average HB outcome, so I don't think I'm losing anything. I don't think I have any "extract loss" from my system, and I've never complained about my efficiency.
I have no trouble ending up with clear wort post boil, and certainly my beers fall clear in the bottle. Even my hefeweizens do a good imitation eventually of a kristalweizen (if they last long enough).

Nah. You're doing it wrong.

Bum wrote:Nah. You're doing it wrong.

I know I must be. I haven't yet figured how to get 400 litres from a 25 litre mashtun, but I keep working on it. LOL.

no disrespect here but try doing 16 brews youall get ya 400 litres

speedie wrote:no disrespect here but try doing 16 brews youall get ya 400 litres

Do you ever speak English?

I'd rather drink and enjoy brewing 16 of my brews than drink 1 glass of your contrived, contradicted bullshit.