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Following on from marceldesailly's quick-and-easy guide[/url:ljp93f8o] to building a mash tun, today Adeptus gives us a more thorough walk through of the equipment and procedures involved in his article[/url:ljp93f8o].

Both are good articles well done lads <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->

This is something I've been putting off, sticking to my braided hose setup, but I really need to do something. I've had a few slow run offs, and the odd stuck mash.
I got a stuck mash on Saturday, and a quick blow back up the tap solved it. I brewed again on Sunday (Christmas is coming!) and it stuck again, and this time even Louis Armstrong wouldn't have budged it (Neither beer had any wheat or oats).
I quickly emptied my sparge water from the kettle, and carefully tipped the mash in; lo and behold the hop strainer did the trick for sparging.

I wonder would a hop strainer in the picnic cooler do the job? Or should I stop being lazy and just make a manifold?

Are you still using the rolled up splatter guard approach like I am? I find this normally works well but effiency is pretty poor as a lot of wort gets left behind. Recently I brewed a wit and had my first stuck runoff. I ended up having to tip the grain into a fermenter fitted with a grain bag and using that as a lauter tun. I noticed the remaining grainbed was a lot drier after using this approach.

I imagine a hop strainer would work to an extent, but again I presume it would leave a lot of wort behind as it's only exposed to a small amount of the grainbed. I've been putting off building a manifold but Barry's article is an excellent 'how to' and might be the encouragement I need to look at this again.

I used your patented cigar for a couple of brews, then went back to using the braided hose.
My concern over the hop strainer was that the holes were so large that a lot of crud would get through. But after a quick vorlauf it ran pretty clear. The grainbed seemed drier as well.
My Burco is narrow and tall, so that probably helped, but I defenitely got more into the kettle than I have been. Hit my targets spot on too.
The picnic cooler arrangement had a definite dead space below the tap, whereas the hop strainer runs pretty much along the bottom. Thinking about it, the strainer doesn't have too much less surface area than my braided hose.

I haven't used any of the other manifolds, but the copper one in my ready made Hop and Grape mash tun works brilliantly. I've never had a stuck mash and it drains dry. I imagine the manifold in the article works similarly well.