Today I started building my mash tun, building a manifold, sparge arm and adding a Brewmometer. Coleman Xtreme 36-quart Cooler: Here's the mockup of the manifold: I also have the sparge arm going, which will be close to a mirror of the manifold. I figured if the manifold and sparge arm were close in design, it would be easier to match flow in with flow out; of course the head height will make a difference. I'm really pleased how the project is going thus far. The manifold is very tight, almost surgical how it fits. I'll keep every one posted of progress. Next is to cut slots into the manifold and solder some of the connections. I'm not soldering the whole manifold as I want to be able to disassembly for cleaning.
Looks good. The length looks a little too long though. Palmer writes about this in his book, How to Brew, not sure if it is part of the online book. I don't think you want the manifold touching the edge or you will increase the chance of the fluid running down the side of the tun instead of through the grain bed. There is a whole chapter where he did studies with a fluid dynamics expert.
I'm using Palmer as a reference. There won't be slots in the ends. Palmer's recommends that wall spacing should be half the pipe span so that you get a balanced flow. As you wrote, this prevents the fluid just running down the wall without flowing through the grain bed. Palmer recommends that the "transverse tubes in the rectangular tun should not be slotted to prevent channeling."
I used to have a manifold like that in a 48 qt Coleman, then I realized that a toilet braid would get me 75% efficiency when batch sparging... To each their own I suppose.
Well for me it's not just about the extra efficiency. It's about doing things with your hands and the enjoyment of the build. I love seeing the design that's in your head come to life.
I don't think I'll ever go to fly sparging (or a manifold)...floating the bed consistently just seems like one more thing to have to get right/close to perfect.
Good looking project and I understand the pride factor, but For What It's Worth . . . I don't find fly sparging all that critical. I use a simple flexible hose and just distribute the sparge water gently across the top, usually more than an inch of head-water. At the rate of 1qt/min (or less), this doesn't disturb the grain bed. My guess is your Brewmometer will look nice but I find mash temps vary a lot on location. I'm a vigorous stirrer, but it's common to have a temp of 153 in the middle and 150 on the edge, also top to bottom will vary. Your gauge will report a temp, but I would feel naked without taking a lot of spot temps with a hand held thermo. YMMV.
That looks awesome! I just picked up all the hardware at home depot and found a 10 gallon cooler on homebrewfinder for 39$ + free shipping so the entire build under 70$! This will be my first attempt at all grain.
That’s a good point. I figured it’d reach equilibrium and give me a good reading. So the question would be, how fast does it equalize. Think I’ll have to make a circulation system . . . just kidding. Sounds like I should consider omitting the Brewmometer. Thanks for the input!
Looks like you got sorta the same cooler (company at least). I went much simpler and fugal. Force thermo-plastic hose through the hole, put a plastic valve on. For the inside a simple bazooka ie braided hose ~10" long and do a Denny Conn type batch sparge. Roughly two choices sparge arm for up to ~5% gain in efficiency, or simple low cost batch. Unfortunately you are pretty committed with the copper piping. Saw a guy doing AG with identical manifold teaching AG. A few pieces of gain, maybe ~8 got through or past the manifold floating on wort, that does not happen at all on braid. Plus negligible vorloff Plus lighter equipment.
