Brewing Master

Question:

PP Here’s some advice for constructing the copper tube array in the bottom of PP your Gott cooler, for extracting the sweet wort from the draff. It looks lik <snip ascii drawing of copper manifold PP front valve that turns 180 degrees in the horizontal plane. The biggest tric PP here is the interfacing between the spigot and the copper tube array. Use not a problem, see below. PP the way into the spigot, and needed only about 2.5" to do so. You will need PP to increase the size of the hole in the Gott cooler, after taking out the This invalidates the warranty and isn’t necessary, see instructions below. How to make a bulkhead penetration in a Gott cooler Materials needed: (1) 3/8"OD brass close nipple (2) rubber garden hose washers (2) 3/8"ID stainless steel washers (2) 3/8"ID X 1/2"OD brass reducers (for the plumbing impared- a close nipple is a piece of brass pipe that is totally threaded so that you can screw parts, like the reducers above, on from either end- standard in any hardware store) I could not find 3/8" stainless washers, but I did find 1/4" stainless washers, which I drilled/ground out to 3/8". Proceedure: 1.  Remove the installed spigot from the Gott cooler     by loosening the plastic nut inside. Do *not* remove     the white rubber washer. 2.  Assemble the parts above in the following order on     the close nipple:         3/8"ID X 1/2"OD brass reducer         3/8"ID stainless steel washer         rubber garden hose washer         wall of Gott cooler         rubber garden hose washer         3/8"ID stainless steel washer         3/8"ID X 1/2"OD brass reducer 3.  Tighten the reducers until you get a snug fit. This will make     the fitting water-tight.     With this assembled you can attach a standard brass or     stainless 1/2" ball valve to the outside, and a 1/2" copper     threaded-to-braze fitting on the inside, to which you can     attach your copper manifold.  This method does not invalidate     the (excellent) standard 6-year Gott warranty (no cutting), and     costs less than $5 to prepare. Cheers, Chuck    Chuck Wettergreen    One beer at a sitting is OK. Two beers, maybe.    Geneva, Illinois     line of recreational drinking.  Ann Landers  * RM 1.3 00946 *

Response:

: I typically like to brew 2 – 3 gallon batches.  I wouldn’t think that a : large cooler would be efficient or necessary (the 80 or so quart : variety), would it?  What if a made a lauter tun out of a 10 – 20 qt. : cooler?  Does the shape of the cooler influence the runoff quality? : Judging from the conical/cylinder shapes used in most breweries, a : similar shaped cooler would be best. No, an 80-quart cooler is definitely NOT what you want for a 2-3 gallon batch. That’s far too big with a high surface area that would give you a very shallow grain bed. I’ve recently done some modifications on a 34-quart Rubbermaid cooler, and it works well for the 10-11 pounds of grain that I’ll use in a 5-gallon batch. This is probably the biggest cooler that you should consider, and even that size would probably be too big to give you a decently deep grain bed. Cheers! —Mark Stevens   Brewery info server for homebrewers: <URL:http://alpha.rollanet.org/

Response:

Here’s some advice for constructing the copper tube array in the bottom of your Gott cooler, for extracting the sweet wort from the draff. It looks like:

[ great description deleted] phil schniter

I typically like to brew 2 – 3 gallon batches.  I wouldn’t think that a large cooler would be efficient or necessary (the 80 or so quart variety), would it?  What if a made a lauter tun out of a 10 – 20 qt. cooler?  Does the shape of the cooler influence the runoff quality? Judging from the conical/cylinder shapes used in most breweries, a similar shaped cooler would be best. Any thoughts? Tony. —          * * *   <—- "This is the Universe… Big, isn’t it?"            *                        –badII–

Response:

Here’s some advice for constructing the copper tube array in the bottom of your Gott cooler, for extracting the sweet wort from the draff. It looks like:   |             |   the dotted vertical and horizontal lines   |   |     |   |   contain ~1/32" slits made with a jigsaw/hacksaw   |   |     |   |   spaced 1/4 – 3/8" apart. the tubes in the middle   |   |     |   |   are capped on their ends.   |   |     |   |   |   |     |   |   |   |     |   |          | The copper pipe was labeled "1/2" in the hardware store. All the copper T intersections, corners, and caps are common items that are made to fit on the 1/2" pipe. Dont solder them together, since you want to be able to take the thing apart to clean it. The spigot is the standard one used for most brew equipment: clear nylon, red front valve that turns 180 degrees in the horizontal plane. The biggest trick here is the interfacing between the spigot and the copper tube array. Use what is known as 5/8" nylon tubing, which perfectly fits OVER the 1/2" copper pipe, and perfectly fits INSIDE the inside edge of the spigot. I jammed it all the way into the spigot, and needed only about 2.5" to do so. You will need to increase the size of the hole in the Gott cooler, after taking out the "spigot" that came with it. I did this with an x-acto knife, and it only took about 5 minutes. Be careful, though, you dont want to make it too big. And one last thing: this spigot typically comes with one white rubber gasket. I got another one, so that there is a seal on both sides. Now, how big to make this thing: make it so that it fits snugly into the bottom of your Gott cooler. You dont want it coming apart or moving around when you are stirring the contents of the mash/lauter tun. Mine has a nice snug fit; you can turn the whole thing upside down and it wont come out, but it is removable for cleaning. If you get the same cooler as me, you will need a little more than 48" total pipe to use for all the sections. You can clean the new copper tubing after you have constructed it with trisodium phosphate, and a little brush that fits down the inside of the copper tubing. good luck, phil schniter

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