Making my cool box mash tun/sparger

Road Runner · Post by **Road Runner** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 5:56 pm

I doubt Andy will remain a virgin with his 22mm copper tubing for too long. Soon it's cherry will be popped & it'll look as haggered as mine then.

Vossy1 · Post by **Vossy1** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 6:05 pm

Post by **Andy** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:15 pm

This bank holiday w/e should see my copper cherry popped.

Road Runner · Post by **Road Runner** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 10:49 pm

Yep, I plan to have another brew this w/e too. Got my Coniston Bluebird underway at last, just over a week ago. Just checked gravity, down to 1.009 so bang on target. Actually 2 points under recipe target, so not complaining.

Not sure what to do this w/e. I have stacks of odd left over bits, so might just make something up, chuck it in & make a mystery brew.

Vossy1 · Post by **Vossy1** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 11:09 pm

If you do the odds and sods let us know how you get on....sounds quite interesting

agentgonzo · Post by **agentgonzo** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 10:47 am

I've just aquired a cool box mash tun, and am wondering about sparging. A 7.5 inch rotating sparging arm is suggested, but wouldn't that mean that there are some areas of the tun that wouldn't be sprinkled by the sparger? And if the sparger was powerful enough to sprinkle the whole area, wouldn't there be a lot of sparge water that hit the sides and miss a lot of the grain?

Would a fixed plastic manifold be better?

PieOPah · Post by **PieOPah** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 10:58 am

The idea is to very slowly trickle water onto the grain bed. With this in mind, you want about an inch of water above the surface. This will mean that you are slowly adding to the water whilst draining off. So, the are covered isn't really that important as it will still get all the grain. It just needs to be really gentle so not to disturb the grain bed.

Hope that makes more sense than it sounds to me....

Bigster · Post by **Bigster** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 12:02 pm

Makes sense - Now my manifold is sorted I find I need to turn the tap right down as the sparge water cant keep up with the flow

PieOPah · Post by **PieOPah** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 12:32 pm

I have even heard that some people get a piece of tinfoil with lots of holes. They rest this ontop of the grain bed and trickle water onto it.

Post by **Andy** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 1:30 pm

QUOTE (PieOPah @ Aug 25 2006, 12:32 PM) I have even heard that some people get a piece of tinfoil with lots of holes. They rest this ontop of the grain bed and trickle water onto it.
I tried that when recirculating first runnings, now I use a small plate and pour the runnings over the surface of the plate to diffuse the wort flow back into the tun.

PeterESB · Post by **PeterESB** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 3:21 pm

Sorry for the bad news boys, but have none of you read this http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixD-1.html

:stun

:blink: I have the printed version of this book, it is most excellent.

Vossy1 · Post by **Vossy1** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 6:22 pm

Can't do it by the book...you wouldn't make any mistakes...how can you learn if you don't make mistakes...

and besides weve got to give all the forum members something to laugh...sorry, talk, about

B)

Vossy1 · Post by **Vossy1** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 8:39 pm

In the process of testing the mash tun's insulative qualities and its doing very well.

I started with a temp of 66 deg c an hour and a half ago. It dropped to 65 deg c in the first 10 minutes but has remained there ever since... nice.
That's just the tun, no blankets or anything

All ready for the 1st ag brew now apart from the thermometer.

It wasn't t'ill I tried to get the strike temp to 75 deg c that I realised the thermo only goes to 70 deg c

EDIT

Dropped to 63 deg c now, 3 hours later, 3 deg drop,...quite happy with that B)

Bigster · Post by **Bigster** » Tue Aug 29, 2006 11:21 am

QUOTE Give these guys a call for cheap kettles elements

exserve limited
08705 143099

pt no

k/s20 10 amp kettle element
k/s33 10 amp kettle lead

Just phoned these guys quoting this info and it was if I was speaking a foreign language ( well I suppose bristolian could be classified). No such part number blah blah, go away. Very helpful.

Any one ordered one recently if so have they got new part numbers? :huh:

Also going to add it to my budget barrel to create a HLT - any recommendations where hole is drilled as the plastic is very thick on bottom half of barrel. Thinner bit half way up for badge.

:beer

Bigster · Post by **Bigster** » Tue Aug 29, 2006 2:37 pm

QUOTE btw...how are you going to get an element into your barrel through the 2" hole Bigsy?

Going to cut the thread off, drill a few holes and get my jigsaw going. After trying to cut a bread roll this morning and almost slicing the end of my thumb off not feeling too confident

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Making my cool box mash tun/sparger