Small Thoughts for Small Minds

There are several modifications I’ve been meaning to make to my mash tun.

Since I was gone the past two weekends and will be gone next weekend (for work), I took the day off before heading out again. (And Dyson took the day off from "school" to hang out with me.)

I’ve recently purchased a low speed gearmotor (just under 10 RPM) to use for a mash-mixer. But I wasn’t sure what kind of mixing blade to use. I settled on an aluminum fan blade from a car. (eBay, of course.)

It took some work to couple them together. I used a copper pipe as a shaft extension. First I had to hog out the center hub on the fan blade. Then, I needed a "sleeve" to take up the space between the copper pipe and the motor shaft. For the sleeve, I used a thin-walled brass tube (left over from the time when I build an Uilleann pipe (Irish bagpipe) for Kel, which has been put into storage, of course…)

For a lid, I chose a premade circular bar table (I guess). It’s made of soft pine, so if it works, I’ll have to treat it somehow…

Here it is (in temporary/testing form):

If it works, the capacitor will be mounted (somehow) in my brewing control cabinet.

Then, I wanted to take out the existing floatswitch and put the return manifold in its place. (For one, I didn’t like the position of the floatswitch, and for two, the manifold (as I built it previously) was too heavy to be mounted to the lid.)

This is probably the heaviest damned manifold in the history of brewing"

I have a LOT of stainless steel fittings. Might as well use them…

Here it is mounted in the mash tun:

One of the concerns that I had with the mash-mixer was stability. (Especially after I bent the fins up trying to hog out the hub…) So, I replaced the elbow fitting in the center with a tee, used a 1/2" to 3/8" bushing, and then a 3/8" NPT to 1/4" hose barb. The copper tube shaft extension of the mash-mixer fits loosely over the hose barb, to keep it from "wandering".

(Sorry for the bad picture - my camera’s not that good at closeups - especially in low light conditions…)

Here’s the stuff in place. There is a 1 1/2" "observation" hole in front of the motor, and the float switch in back of the motor (the SS elbow).

One problem is the big gap between the lid (board) and the rim of the mash tun (inside the keg):

(The copper pipe is for the mash-mixer. The SS nipple is for the float switch, which I can raise depending on the batch.)

If everything works, I’ll put some insulation above the lip and below the lid around the outside.

Here’s what it looks like inside:

The blades will rotate counter-clockwise. This will bring the grist down the outer edges and back up the middle. We’ll see if it helps with the stuck mash that I had last batch…

Hopefully, I’ll actually have a free day to brew so I can test it…