copper manifold with steel braid

I currently have a copper pipe manifold in my cooler mash tun. I notice that I still get some grain bits in my boil kettle even after I do a couple of gallons of vorlauf. The slits in the manifold were made with a hacksaw, so I don't think they are too wide. To remedy this issue I decided I would try to cover the outside of my manifold with stainless steel braid. I found some 3/4" stainless braid on a washing machine supply line and it fits perfectly over my copper pipe manifold. Any one else try this? Is this overkill? I figure I should get the benefits of improved wort clearing from the braid along with the rigid strength of copper pipe.

I put a fine nylon mesh bag around my manifold - it doesn't affect run off speed at all. My last brew I only returned 2 pints before the run off was gin clear.

Good to hear. I just finished putting the braid over my manifold. Gonna secure it in place with hose clamps. I tested it with water and it seems to flow just fine. Can't wait to use it on my next batch.

slarkin712 said:

I currently have a copper pipe manifold in my cooler mash tun. I notice that I still get some grain bits in my boil kettle even after I do a couple of gallons of vorlauf. The slits in the manifold were made with a hacksaw, so I don't think they are too wide. To remedy this issue I decided I would try to cover the outside of my manifold with stainless steel braid. I found some 3/4" stainless braid on a washing machine supply line and it fits perfectly over my copper pipe manifold. Any one else try this? Is this overkill? I figure I should get the benefits of improved wort clearing from the braid along with the rigid strength of copper pipe.

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I too have a copper manifold with slits made with a hacksaw. I get very few grain bits after 2 qts or so of vorlauf. Out of curiosity, are your slits on the top or bottom of your manifold?

On the bottom. I crush my grain pretty fine, so that might have something to do with it.

slarkin712 said:

On the bottom. I crush my grain pretty fine, so that might have something to do with it.

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It could. How much grain are you talking about? I get about 1/2 teaspoon during the first 2 qts of vorlauf then almost nothing after that.

Is it overkill? Yeah, pretty much. I'm not gonna fault you though. I run a similar system. I have a copper manifold with 1/4" holes around the bottom covered with large stainless braid.

slarkin712 said:

I currently have a copper pipe manifold in my cooler mash tun. I notice that I still get some grain bits in my boil kettle even after I do a couple of gallons of vorlauf. The slits in the manifold were made with a hacksaw, so I don't think they are too wide. To remedy this issue I decided I would try to cover the outside of my manifold with stainless steel braid. I found some 3/4" stainless braid on a washing machine supply line and it fits perfectly over my copper pipe manifold. Any one else try this? Is this overkill? I figure I should get the benefits of improved wort clearing from the braid along with the rigid strength of copper pipe.

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I did this. SS braid from some kind of supply line over slotted copper pipe.
Works great. Nothing big gets through.
Improved my flow rate which was what I wanted since I recirculate the mash.

SS hose clamps with a SS screw are hard to find at the big box hardware store.
I got mine from brewhardware.com

bob352 said:

SS hose clamps with a SS screw are hard to find at the big box hardware store.
I got mine from brewhardware.com

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I bought some from Lowes that said stainless steel on the package. So, there's a chance that they don't have stainless steel screws? Is there a way to tell?

slarkin712 said:

I bought some from Lowes that said stainless steel on the package. So, there's a chance that they don't have stainless steel screws? Is there a way to tell?

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No clue other than try them out and see if they corrode.

Here's a picture of what I did if anyone was interested. The screws on my clamps corroded after one mash. The finish came off the screws and they are black now. What is this black metal and should I be concerned?

If it is just to hold the braid in place you could always use some copper wire twisted over the ends.

I've brewed with the stainless braid 6 or seven times. I had 4 successful uses with the braid over the manifold. A couple of brew days ago something weird happened. I Usually do 2 5.5 gallon batches in a brew session. So I mash and sparge one batch, empty the tun and then start the next batch mashing so that it will be ready for sparging when the first batch is done cooling. On this day I mashed and sparged the first batch with no problems. I mashed in the second batch and started to drain the mash tun after the boil kettle was cleaned after the first batch. I got really slow flow during vorlauf (also I batch sparge if that matters). I though that maybe I had a stuck sparge. I've never had one, but there is a first time for everything.

The tun still has a bunch of wort in it - the top of the grain bed was still under wort. I blew some air into the ball valve thinking this would clear the stuck sparge. I saw lots of bubbles emerge from the top of the wort. I started to vorlauf and the same thing happened. Just a slow trickle of wort came out of the tubing connected to my ball valve. So I try to suck the wort out of the tubing to try to get it going. it does get some wort flowing, but as soon as I stop sucking the flow drops off again. The wort inside the tun was not gelatinous or anything either. I checked the pH 15 minutes into the mash and it was 5.3, so all that was fine. So, I took my mash paddle and ran it across the manifold think it would clear it up, but that seemed to slow the flow even more.
I had a pump I had been planning on integrating into my setup eventually, so I got that out and set it up to help drain the tun. This didn't work well either. After the pump was primed with the slow flowing wort it would pull air into the tubing and cavitate. I added some of my sparge water thinking it would flow right through, but no help. I had a 5 gallon paint strainer bag, so I just poured my mash into that inside a bucket. I sparged this way as well. The beer came out fine in the end, but I couldn't figure out what happened to my manifold. I cleaned the tun and installed the mainfold and couldn't find anything wrong with it. I filled the tun with 3 - 4 gallons of water and let it drain. This worked fine.
I wrote that off as an act of god, but I took my bulkhead apart and made sure there were no leaks. I reinstalled it and sealed everything up and water tested it again and it ran fine.
So I brewed a single batch with the mash tun a few weeks later. I was wary that it may get stuck again, so I had my 5 gallon paint strainer setup ready. I went to vorlauf and the exact same thing happened again. This is with a completely different grain bill containing no wheat or adjuncts. I condition my malt, so my crush looks very good, nice and fluffy and full of intact husks. I finished this batch with the paint strainer bag and the beer turned out fine.
Two weeks ago I brewed a single batch again. I knew the mash tun would stick again, so I tried something different. I borrowed a BIAB bag from a buddy and line my mash tun with it. This worked, but was a hassle because it didn't fit my tun very well. I went to vorlauf and it worked like it used to with no sticking. I completed the sparge in the tun with the BIAB bag as well.
So something in the grain, not the viscous wort, is causing the mash to stick. I have no clue what is causing this. Anyone have any thoughts? My last resort will be to remove the stainless braid and go back to my original set up with the copper manifold slots exposed. This is pain though, as the copper is soldered together in certain spots that make getting the braid off nearly impossible.

You do not need jubilee clips to fix braid to copper. Why not go all copper and cut hacksaw slots half way through the copper - that is what I use - and I put a fine nylon bag over the manifold also - it does not affect flow rate but gives me very clear runnings after around 4 to 6 pints

I have slots cut in the copper underneath the braid. This worked for me, but I wanted to get a little better filtering, so I added the braid on top of the slots. I have the worm clamps on to cover up the ends of the braid, not to keep it on. The ends of the braid are slightly frayed, and pointy, so the clamps keep me from sticking myself on the frays. I'll have to give the nylon bag a try. Do you just use a paint strainer bag?

You can buy nylon bags for straining hops etc in home brew shops - but any nylon bag ok - as another poster said bind a bit of copper wire over the frayed ends but this will make sterilising more critical. The "worm clamps" are probably steel with maybe nickel plating and as soon as you tighten them you will destroy some plating exposing bare steel.

Ok, thanks. I'm still confused as to why I'm getting stuck mashes. I'll give the nylon bag a try, as I expect this will work like when I used a BIAB bag in my tun.

I separate liquor from the mash using gravity AND a clamp on the tube to restrict flow. You must have had too high a flow rate and sucked your grain bed into a hard mass that effectively blocked the process - I think....

slarkin712 said:

Ok, thanks. I'm still confused as to why I'm getting stuck mashes. I'll give the nylon bag a try, as I expect this will work like when I used a BIAB bag in my tun.

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I believe you are getting stuck mashes because the braid over the copper manifold is "overkill" IMHO.

The available filter area of the braid is limited to only the area above and directly adjacent to the slit in the copper. Anytime you start to filter more precisely, you risk a stuck sparge.

FWIW, and it is just my opinion, the few pieces of grain that may sneak through your manifold mean nothing, it will all settle out in time. Putting tubing inside a braid often leads to a stuck sparge. It seems one or the other works fine, but a combination of both, is often too restrictive and results in a stuck mash.

If you are batch sparging, try one simple 6-8" length of braid without anything inside, and I think it will sparge clean and run well.