Building Homebrew Equipment (3 page)

A hose counterflow chiller coiled up and ready for action

Directions

1. Cut off 8” from each end of the hose and save for Step 9.

2. Insert a ½″-long copper pipe into each end of the copper tees and solder them in place.

3. Drill a
⅜
″-diameter hole in the end of each copper end-cap. (
Hint:
Start with a
⅛
″ drill and work up to a
⅜
″ drill.)

4. Place an end-cap on one end of the long leg of the tees and solder into place.

5. Uncoil the copper tubing and feed it through the garden hose.

6. Place a hose clamp on both ends of the hose.

7. Feed the end of the copper tubing through the tee assembly and onto the hose, then tighten clamp. Repeat for other end.

8. Solder the
⅜
″ tubing to the end-caps to seal.

9. Attach the hose ends to the short legs of the tees with hose clamps.

10. Wind the hose and tubing assembly into a coil around a large cylinder, such as your brewpot.

11. Secure the coils together with wire or zip ties.

12. To sanitize the chiller before using it for the first time, run a very hot solution of 75 percent water and 25 percent vinegar through the copper tubing.

Making a mash tun means you are now going to make all-grain beers. Making all-grain beers does take more time, but we think it is well worth the control you gain when you produce your own malt sugars (instead of purchasing them in the form of liquid or powder extract). Three different mash tuns are presented here, and all three can be adapted for lautering and sparging as well.

The most important consideration when designing and building a mash and lauter tun is the ability of the vessel to hold hot (up to 180?F) liquid. A mash tun must be large enough and sturdy enough to hold at least 6 gallons of liquid. It should also be insulated; if it is not insulated, it should be made of an appropriate material that will allow you to apply direct heat to maintain the right mash temperature. The mash tuns described here can also be used as lauter tuns with the addition of a sparge water sprayer and a false bottom. See page 16 for false bottom tips, see page 19 for sprayer tips.

Large, chest-style picnic coolers make ideal mash tuns because they are well insulated and inexpensive. For a 5-gallon setup, look for a 34-quart cooler (about $10 to $15). The next size up is usually the 48-quart cooler, which will handle 10- or 15-gallon batches without a problem. Although 48-quart coolers are larger than you’d really want when doing 5-gallon batches (they may give you a shallow grain bed), quite a few homebrewers use that size without a problem. For very large batches, 60- or 80-quart coolers are reasonable. One consideration when choosing a cooler is its resistance to heat. If you can find a brand that claims to withstand 170?F temperatures, you’re ahead of the game. If not, you’re still okay. Most of them don’t warp too badly, and even if they do, they’ll still hold heat well enough to mash — and besides, they’re cheap. Building a new one every year or so is no big deal.

Once you have the cooler, you may need to drill out a drainage plug if it doesn’t already have one. Because we’re using
½
″ diameter CPVC pipe for this project, drill a
⅝
″-diameter hole (the outer diameter of a
½
″-diameter CPVC pipe). Although the drainage hole in a cooler is usually on the side, having the hole in the bottom is actually a bit more workable in many situations. Next, you’ll have to build a drainage manifold to lay in the bottom of the cooler.

1. Measure the length of the cooler bed. Subtract 4” and cut four lengths of CPVC tubing to that length.

2. Measure the width. Subtract 4” and divide by three. Cut six lengths of CPVC tubing to that length. Cut one of these lengths in half. Now use a hacksaw and cut thin slots in all the pipes, about one-third of the way through. Assemble the manifold as shown in the illustration on page 13.

3. You can glue the manifold together, but it will be easier to clean if you make it easy to disassemble. One idea that works well is to permanently glue the two end units together, and then just piece together the four long rods when it’s time to brew.

One other idea that seems to work well is to replace the CPVC with copper pipe, which is readily available at most plumbing supply stores and is fairly inexpensive and easy to work with.

You could add a valve to the manifold outlet if you wish, but a simple and less expensive approach is to use a length of vinyl hose
a hose clamp, and a pinch-cock-type (siphon) clamp. Push a length of hose over the outlet tube and secure it with the hose clamp. Feed the hose through the siphon clamp. This will be your valve. By closing and opening this clamp, you can adjust the flow of your runoff. If you wish to use a valve, CPVC ball valves are available for about $3 to $5. Compression fittings with gaskets are also available for CPVC tubes, and if your cooler does not already have a drain plug in the wall, consider using one of these. Before drilling through the wall, remember that you could also go through the bottom rather than the side.

The large, cylindrical water coolers that you often see on the back of construction trucks or on the sidelines of pro football games make ideal mashing vessels. They are available in sizes that are large enough for home mashing, and they are well insulated. The brand most often used by homebrewers is the Gott cooler, which is made by Rubbermaid.

This cooler is known to withstand the heat of a mash without warping, as often happens with cheaper coolers. The 10-gallon size is the one you’ll want; it usually runs about $50 at outdoor or construction supply stores, although it can be found at discount warehouses for as little as $30.

An easy way to use the cooler is to put a vegetable steamer in the bottom of the cooler and then set the grains on that. We’ve found this works acceptably well, but it does tend to let a lot of grains through. Another idea is to get a colander that’s smaller than the circumference of the cooler and set it upside down in the bottom of the cooler. You may want to rig some kind of drainage device, such as the JSP EasyMasher (available
from Jack Schmidling Productions), to go inside the colander. Phil’s Phalse Bottom (available from Listermann Manufacturing) is an excellent choice for use as a drainage system with the Gott coolers, and this is the method that we recommend. The Phil’s Phalse Bottom is simply a heavy plastic cone with perforations. It’s available at many homebrew supply shops.

Round water coolers make great mash tuns. You can use a vegetable steamer as a false bottom or, better yet, a colander.

You can also build a manifold, much like that described in the picnic cooler mash tun directions.

With the Gott cooler masher, you will need to install a valve of some kind. The push-button spigot is inadequate (unless you want to hold in the button for the hour or so that a sparge might take).

Modified kegs, if not the most commonly used mash tun, are probably the most talked about and respected. Kegs are sturdy and inexpensive, and they work well. You can apply heat directly to them, and you can modify them with false bottoms and valves to make sparging simple. They are also easy to clean.

The first thing you will need is a legally obtained keg. Do not think that paying the deposit for a full half-barrel, consuming the contents, and then keeping the keg is a legal means of acquiring one. It is not. Instead, you will need to talk to the distributors in your area. Sometimes they are willing to help, and sometimes they’ll barely give you the time of day. Other sources are salvage yards and scrap-metal dealers. Before you begin to modify your own keg, you will need an assortment of gear.

Note:
You are working with stainless steel, which is tough stuff. The basic rule when working with it is, the slower, the better.

A modified keg with false bottom makes a long-lasting mash tun.