Introduction: DIY Philander/Lauter Tun With Copper Wort Filtrate

A mash/lauter tun (MLT) is a necessary piece of equipment for complete-grain homebrewing. This is the watercraft that extracts the sweet sugars from the grain and filters the wort from the grain bed, all in the one vessel. This design does away with the expensive stainless mesh false bottom and uses commonly-available copper plumbing parts to make a wort filter rather. This is a project that's been on my name for a spell, and one that's great for extract brewers World Health Organization are looking to save some money by going all-granulate. I lay claim no originality for this design equally it's all o'er the internet already. I'm just hoping to show the process in a clear, footfall-by-step manner.

For this romance/lauter tun, I'm using a 10-gallon (40-liter) Iglu cooler, which is readily available at the most hardware and grocery stores. I'm also exploitation some unstained brand and copper fittings, the quantities of which are shown at the bottom of this page. The clipped lengths of the pieces are fit to the orthodox 10-gallon Iglu cooler linked under, so the lengths English hawthorn need to be adjusted to fit divers coolers.

The video posted above shows the process I followed to build the MLT from scratch, before knowing what dimensions were needed. In this article, I'm going to describe the work assuming the dimensions are known from the starting, which is more aboveboard.

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Supplies

Step 1: Tack together and Install Bulkhead

Start aside aggregation the ball valve, hosepipe barb arranger, and bulkhead fittings together, first wrapper the togs in few wraps of Teflon tape. Remove the spigot that comes with the cooler, which has a impressible nut happening the inside that twists off. The hole left over is slenderly too tiny for the bulkhead fitting, so it inevitably to be big. Use a gradation drill to slightly magnify the golf hole so that the bulkhead fitting passes done.

Next is to insert the bulkhead through the hole. Please note that I get the gasket connected the wrong side of meat of the hole in these photos, as IT should get on the outside of the cooler for a proper seal. I went back and fixed this later after leak testing. You'll want to tighten this up with a wrench also for escape-tightness.

Step 2: Deletion Pig Tube to Length and Dry Fit

Now is time to cut out and get together the wort filter that goes at the bottom of the MLT. This takes the place of the false bottom commonly seen in commercial products. Forgive the crude metaphor, but this works kind of like a septic field, exclusive in reverse. For mine, I use copper tube and fittings to create the filter.

I in use some white-haired 1/2" (15mm) copper tubing that I took out when remodeling my kitchen for this. After cutting the pieces to length, debur and file a slight chamfer on the ends of the cut pipe. Then I dry fit everything together to check that it will fit. With everything put together, mental testing the fit in the cooler.

Step 3: Solder Fittings (Nonmandatory)

This next footmark is optional, but now is time to solder just about of the fittings together. I don't recommend soldering everything, every bit that makes it harder to clean after use. Rather, solder together the ends with all the fittings into one piece to save the cephalalgia of guardianship track of all the fittings, while departure the long tubing pieces loose. Since the filter does not need to be water-tight, there is no need to do much joint preparation besides applying combine. All the solder has to do is hold the pieces conjointly, which it'll do even in a necessitous solder joint that will see no real try engaged.

For this process, I recommend water-soluble flux, which will wash out the filter with simple uncomfortable piss. It's important to solder the joints with the assembly all fit together since this wish keep everything aligned in the last.

Step 4: Cut Slots

After allowing the sink in to cool, mark where the tubes accede the fittings, as this wish be the extent of the slots you cut. Also mark the dormy and downwardly orientation of the filter itself so you know where to cut the ends with the fittings. The slots will get on the bottom of the filter when used, so expect that in mind.

For bleak the slots, I used my table-mounted opening-bandsaw, which is a stack quicker than using a hacksaw. A hacksaw will definitely operate, merely it will deal thirster. I set skyward a intercept block to bring i true I only track fractional the pipe diameter. To sustenance the pipe in the same orientation, use a bench vise-grips pliers, which will registry flat happening the bed of the saw. Space the cuts every 1/8" to 1/4" (3mm to 6mm) or thusly; the spatial arrangement isn't very caviling. For the soldered ends with the fittings, solitary cutting slots in the portions between the golf tee branches.

You will take up extraordinary burrs happening the tubing referable cutting the slots, so remove these happening the outside of the tubes with sandpaper. Besides add a 5-ft duration of 1/2" vinyl tube to the hosepipe barb for emptying the MLT.

Step 5: Leak Test and Clean

Now is time to assemble everything together and coif a leak test. Replete the tank up about intermediate with eager water, and so use OxyClean to clean all the parts. I recommend doing this a a few multiplication to make dependable you wash each the skank taboo. With the cooler occupied with water, check the fittings for leaks.

Step 6: Finished!

Subsequently laundry eveything out, the mash/lauter tun is now finished! I'm looking at forward to doing all-grain beer batches from now happening, which should cut down my beer costs quite a bit.

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