Thermos mash tun

[youreds91]

Following on from the other thread about the manifold, I've noticed that my £2.50 car boot Thermos cool box has a chamfered base....





Will this cause a problem with the tap higher up?
I have 2 options, higher tap & do some angles on the joints of the manifold, or put the tap on the angle... see below my plans for the tap..


what do the collected brains here think?

CD

[Garth]

even if the tap is higher up, as long as the connections to it are sealed it will actually draw liquid from the bottom in a siphon effect, my boiler has the tap quite a way up the side but I get a reduced loss because of this effect, it will draw liquid from below it to a certain extent.

[Hogarth]

What Garth said. A tap on the angle would be a pain in the butt.

[jonnyv]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but to obtain a syphon effect you'd need to connect a piece of tubing to the tap to ensure the bottom of the tube is below the level of the manifold inside...?

[youreds91]

Thanks for putting my mind at rest, thought it was £2.50 down the pan. Look out for construction pics soon.
Just a question on what Garth said..

even if the tap is higher up, as long as the connections to it are sealed

I'm going to use the plastic pipe as shown pushed into spare Yorkshre fittings I have (no soldering obviously). Sealing would be pointless as the pipe will be full of slots anyway. Or do you mean sealed down to the manifold? In which case I have a length of copper I can use for the pipe up to the tap which can be unslotted, joining the plastic/yorkshire slotted manifold like this one.

Can't wait for the brew day gents

CD

[Garth]

yep, sealed down to the manifold

Correct me if I'm wrong, but to obtain a syphon effect you'd need to connect a piece of tubing to the tap to ensure the bottom of the tube is below the level of the manifold inside...?

true, but I use a pipe on most taps when running off, also if HSA exists, it eliminates that as well....

my boiler and old mash tun always drained well below the tap outlet

[youreds91]

Good evening, construction has commenced, but a bit of a hitch...

Tap connection all soldered, a bit blurred but I'm not going back in the garage, I've put a nice offset in it too with my spring pipe bender...



Holesaw ready for action..



This was when I realised I had a hitch, the holesaw went in up to its spuds before it saw daylight, the foam (no polystyrene) insulation is almost 50mm thick! There's no way I can use the barrel tap..



Any suggestions for a tap? I was thinking of robbing one of the old bathroom taps which are due for renewal & taking the end off it with the angle grinder. Not sure if SWMBO would approve as the new taps have been purchased for a year

CD

[youreds91]

true, but I use a pipe on most taps when running off, also if HSA exists, it eliminates that as well....

HSA?

[Garth]

Hot side aeration, allowing the warm wort to come in contact with excess air when say transferring from one vessel to another

I've never noticed it but if present supposedly has a detrimental effect on the taste, maybe I don't know what I'm actually looking for...

[jonnyv]

I believe that some attribute quick oxidation of beer to HSA.

I myself don't worry about it as I've not experienced it (but then again, I probably couldn't tell anyway). I've been told it doesn't exist so therefore I don't go to great lengths to avoid oxygenating pre-boil wort.

[Vossy1]

I think you're going to have to change your tap design youreds91.
You might want to think about going the tank connecter route to secure to the bulkhead, 15mm copper pipe to a ball valve on the outside of the tun.

Or, cut the copper pipe on your existing tap and fit into the compression end of the tank connector.

You can always backfill around the 15mm copper pipe with expanding foam, to make the tap set up more rigid.

[Hogarth]

You could make room for the drum tap by cutting away more of the blue case and the polysterene. You'd lose some insulation but you could make up for it in various ways.

[jonnyv]

I did what Hogarth has suggested - drilled two holes in my coolbox mash tun. On larger one on the outer skin/insulation, and a 25mm one for the inner skin - that way the backnut is screwing against one piece of plastic, as opposed to two pieces with insulation in between (not very sturdy/sealable in my case).

The loss in insulation is negligable.

Edit: Hmm actually, I'm not sure a drum tap would work in this case as the downward part of the tap is not 5cm from the thread

[Vossy1]

I did what Hogarth has suggested - drilled two holes in my coolbox mash tun. On larger one on the outer skin/insulation, and a 25mm one for the inner ski

Looking at the picture, the inner skin is still visible, meaning it is of smaller diameter to the main hole.
Either way the tap shank doesn't look to be 50mm long and that doesn't even allow for clearance for turning the tap,

[Hogarth]

Yeah, the tap/tank connector should definitely screw onto a single wall. I was suggesting cutting away enough of the outer wall to allow for tap, fingers, downspout etc. During the mash itself you could stuff a bit of loose insulation in the gap to keep it toasty. Not ideal, I know, just a thought.

Alternatively you could not bother with a tap at all:



Perhaps that's not so handy for fly sparging, though.