Please help me improve my return manifold

A forum for those who boldy recirculate where no man has. .... you know the rest
Post Reply
Matt in Birdham
Drunk as a Skunk
Posts: 764
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2015 10:27 pm

Please help me improve my return manifold

Post by Matt in Birdham » Mon Feb 29, 2016 10:54 pm

Currently in the latter stages of a rig rebuild, and one of the issues I want to get sorted it my herms return manifold. I use a ring of silicon hose with holes drilled, which works brilliantly - here is a pic of it in action in the old tun:

Image

I now have a return port through the side of my cooler, so I don't need to drape hose over the side and can leave the lid closed.
The issue is how to plumb the return manifold from the port hose-barb, in such a way that it can be moved up and down to accommodate different mash volumes. I guess the range would be about 5 inches at most, and the most common position would be an inch or two below the return port. In my first test brew on the rig I had a really short length of silicon hose leading from barb to maifold - about 2 inches - and the manifold was actually suspended above the wort, dripping down into it. Depending on your views on hot side aeration this might be a bad thing, but other than that it worked very well.

Tonight's moment of inspiration was that I could use a longer section of hose and attach to the far end of the manifold (i.e. reverse the manifold), which would give much more play w.r.t. height, and the angle of the T joining the manifold to the hose barb can be adjusted to suit wort level. A further moment of inspiration - a few pints in - was that I could attach floats around the manifold and have it float on top of the wort (the ultimate self-adjusting mechanism), with perhaps a couple of different lengths of tubing on hand (use the most appropriate length for the mash volume).

Image

Anyway, just a couple of ideas. I thought I'd throw it up just in case the hive mind can think of something better. I have polyethylene high density foam block on hand - I have no idea if this is food safe, but it is apparently good up to 100C. A few small collars of this and I'm sure the manifold would float nicely..

Haydnexport
Lost in an Alcoholic Haze
Posts: 637
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2015 2:12 pm

Re: Please help me improve my return manifold

Post by Haydnexport » Wed Mar 02, 2016 9:01 pm

if the lid is on tight then i cant see much of an issue ? I cant see much oxygen getting in as it would only have whats in the deadspace to play with , not that i think its a bad thing, as fly sparging introduces a fair bit of 02 i reckon.

Post Reply