Building a manifold for a mash tun

i bought one of these:

http://www.fermentationtrap.com/1465.html

to put into one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0X32RR2D4YBGKTQC21K5

...under $100 all told

 

I used to use a bazooka tube w/ my round cooler. It would routinely get clogged when I overstuffed the thing or used a lot of flaked adjunct and definitely when I was making RIS. I've since moved to a rectangular cooler (and now to a giant stainless hot water tub!) but the copper manifold works like a charm, even w/ the valve wide open, even with my red rye that has ~18% rye malt. Use soft copper tubing if you want to use the four quadrant design, but be gentle with it, as it can kink. personally, I wouldn't bother, just make a square, and run the wort off slowly enough to avoid channeling.

 

I bought a 5 foot braided hose made for a dish washer. Cut the ends off, pulled the rubber hose out, folded over one end and clamped it, and attached the other end to my ball valve. works nice.....

 

I don't see how it would increase your mash efficiency. It may decrease the amount of time it takes to collect runoff.
I use the same setup as funkel81. It works fine,and it is a lot less fuss than bending, soldering and drilling copper tubing.
If you do go with the copper be sure to use lead-free solder and flux.

 

What is your sparging method going to be?
Batch? Fly?

 

If you're going to do fly, then you'll want to build some sort of manifold or false bottom. (Bazookas and braids are not ideal for fly sparging.)

Edit: I started out fly sparging, switched to batch, and never looked back. It's so much simpler, and more foolproof from a sparge pH perspective.

 

When and if I move on from BIAB, I'll keep this in mind. Batch sparging does seem a whole lot easier.

 

This.....

Except I went from batch to a fly/continuous sparge and probably won't look back

 

Depending on your set up it may be ideal to just spend the money now on a false bottom setup. I did both batch sparging and fly with it and both worked great for it. I started out due to cash flow, with a rectangle cooler and a stainless braid. The major drawback with the cheap set up is the batch sparging didn't work out so great. I got great efficiency with a split batch sparge compared to the single spare. I find now that the fly sparge is easier and I get great efficiency with out having to run out super slow. I also stopped "mashing out" when I moved to fly. To each his own I prefer to fly, but I have the choice using the false bottom.

 

BTW, cheapest mash tun build ever!

http://cruisenews.net/brewing/infusion/page1.php

 

Currently (and for the foreseeable future) I'm using one of these...

http://brewing.lustreking.com/gear/mashtun.html

Except that mine is 52 quart. Otherwise, I followed those instructions very closely.

 

Agree 100%. I've tried both and batch sparging is worth the small efficiency you lose in the time you gain.

 

I did a more complicated version of that. But it hass a tiny leak.

 

I did the same and am pretty happy with the results. Check out KMart if any of you want that cooler. They've been running online deals - after savings codes I walked out with a 52 quart cooler for $25.

 

Also if you go copper you may wish to leave the joints unsoldered so you can take the whole thing apart to clean it (if needed.) I left mine unsoldered except for one tricky section - it doesn't come apart until you want it to. Good stuff.

 

Me, too, with a slight varation. I stripped some copper wire, coiled it around a pencil, and threaded it into the braided hose just as insurance against it collapsing. Then I put a "t" on my ball valve and clamped the ends of the hose to it to form a circle.