After this I really don't want to spend any more money on equipment for a long while. I'd rather just buy ingredients and brew beer.
Upgrade 1: Improved Manifold for the 5-gallon MLT
While the hose-braid that I have been using as a lautering manifold has worked reasonably well, it seemed to have a tendency to get compressed or deformed during the mash, with the result that it essential got all clogged and would not allow wort through. So I decided to build a PVC manifold like the one described at this post. Fortunately, someone posted the plans for a version of this manifold that would fit into a 5-gallon cooler like mine. Note that like the second upgrade, this requires a 1/2" bulkhead to work.
There were two main annoyances here. First was getting the bulkhead installed so that it didn't leak, but now it seems that I've done it correctly, using a similar method to my previous 3/8" bulkhead - neoprene washers, stainless washers, and O-rings, very tightly pushed up against the wall of the cooler by the ball valve on the outside and the CPVC fitting on the inside.
The second annoyance was finding the 1/2" CPVC pipe at Home Depot, which seemed to be out of it at the closest location, so I had to drive to another location which ate up a lot of time.
Once I had the pipe, sawing pieces to the appropriate lengths and fitting them together and slotting them was pretty easy, using a pipe saw I picked up for $8 at Home Depot. Fortunately, the lengths of the pieces do not need to be completely accurate. Once I had assembled the octagon, I tested to make sure it fit underneath the bulkhead assembly. It did, however, the bulkhead could not connect to the manifold using a straight piece of pipe. So I connect a short piece of pipe to the elbow on the octagon and to the bulkhead, then fit a piece of 1/2" ID high-temp tubing around each piece.
The sawing created a lot of CPVC sawdust. I tried as best I could to clean it out of the pipes but pushing a dowel through each segment. Note that I also sanded off the markings on the outside of the pipe and use nail polish remover to get rid of the stickers and glue that were attached to a few of the T-joints, since I didn't want those things to get into my beer. Voila!
I plant to test it out on my next beer, which will be an IPA. I've heard that this type of manifold gets better efficiency, even when batch sparging, than the hose braid I used to have.
Upgrade 2: Large Mash Tun for Big Beers of 5-Gallon Batches
Additionally, if I want to do mashes with more than about 12 pounds of grain, or do a "normal" five gallon batch, I'll will need a bigger mash tun. I don't plan to start regularly doing 5 gallons at a time, but if I either brew with other people, or plan to do sours or other beers that take a really long time to mature, it might make sense to just do 5 gallons instead of 3 at a time. Fortunately, I swapped another person in the homebrew club for an 8-gallon kettle, and my parents had a large 10-gallon cooler lying around, so I didn't have to buy too much stuff to do this upgrade - just the bulkhead assembly, a 1/2" coupler, and a screen mesh. The only difficulty here was getting the bulkhead to be leak-free.
In the future, this MLT could be upgraded to a CPVC manifold, since the pipe came only in 10' lengths.
Upgrade 3: Better Chiller
My DIY wort chiller works decently, but I've never been able to get it to be leak-free. Since the end of the copper tubing doesn't extend much outside the kettle, if it leaks, the leaking water can easily end up in the wort. Not good. Additionally, it tends to cool the wort near the coil much more quickly than the wort in the center of the pot. Basically, I didn't want to have to deal with these issues, the leaking especially, or get a soldering iron etc... to try to fix it. So I bought a "Wasp" chiller from Jaded Brewing, which I hope will work well. I got the recirculating arm option, in case I ever get a pump and build a recirculating Jamil-O-Chiller.
Again, I plan to use the chiller on my next beer.
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