Mash tun deadspace in a cooler with dome fasle bottom

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HopHead73

Brewmaster at Jbyrd Brewing, Hophead
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So I have been using the stainless steel braided hose in my mash tun, which is a 10gallon Rubbermaid cooler, with great success. My deadspace was less then .25gallons and it filtered the mash just fine.

Now I got a great deal on a domed false bottom from Kegworks, $6.04 which included shipping!
It's only a .5" high and doing some math it would seem that the deadspace should only be .27gallons, yet I just filled it up and let it drained and it left .5gallon in the cooler.

Does this seem right to other that have used the domed false bottom in a cooler?

Would soldering a small length of copper pipe to the hole on the bottom so it reaches down to the bottom of the cooler sound like a good idea so it will suck up as much wort as possible?
 
Did you just open the ball valve on your tun and let it drain, or did you hook up a few feet of tubing to the ball valve for the siphon effect?

Cheers!
 
Would soldering a small length of copper pipe to the hole on the bottom so it reaches down to the bottom of the cooler sound like a good idea so it will suck up as much wort as possible?

I have a right angle fitting on my FB which goes through the hole in the middle - it's 3/8 barb on the top side and 1/2 MIP on the bottom. I removed the nut on the bottom side and replaced it with a sawed off piece of 1/2 SS coupling. I sawed the coupling in two pieces, about 60%/40%, but can't remember which piece I used. The coupling comes down to within about 1/8 inch of the bottom of the cooler. I used teflon tape on the right angle MIP threads for a good seal. And like day_trippr said, you need a piece of tubing on the output to keep the siphon going - I also like to keep the output end of that tubing submerged when I get down close to the end just to make sure no air gets in from the outside to break the siphon.
 
So I have been using the stainless steel braided hose in my mash tun, which is a 10gallon Rubbermaid cooler, with great success. My deadspace was less then .25gallons and it filtered the mash just fine.

Classic fixing something that aint broke example. :mug::mug:

Please report back on the performance of the FB versus the braid as this will be a true comparison rather than the usual hearsay..."mine is better" commentary....thanks and cheers!
 
Thanks for the help guys.
I had a brain fart and totally forgot about the tubing to keep the siphon going.
Even with that though I feel as if the deadspace would still be more then my liking, so I'm definitely going to try soldering on a piece of copper pipe to the bottom as a little dip tube to get those last few liters of wort out.
So I guess I'll still be using my stainless steel braid for tomorrow's brew session though, and yes it ain't broke, but how could I pass up a pricing screw up on Amazon for a false bottom. They accidentally listed it for 2cents and $6.02 for shipping, so the whole thing only cost me $6.04!

I'll report back once I get the false bottom up and running and I compare my results against the SS braid.

:mug:Brew for All :mug:
 
....but how could I pass up a pricing screw up on Amazon for a false bottom. They accidentally listed it for 2cents and $6.02 for shipping, so the whole thing only cost me $6.04!

Oh yea, I understand how that works, also as the price goes down I buy in greater quantity irregardless of need! So how many hundred did you buy?
 
Oh yea, I understand how that works, also as the price goes down I buy in greater quantity irregardless of need! So how many hundred did you buy?

I put in for 10 and they would only ship me 1 hahaha
They changed the price in a matter of a few minutes, but honored 1 order for all who ordered at the low price.
Check out the twitter account @homebrewfinds, they are always finding great deals like this. (Also has a website, www.homebrewfinds.com)
 
Classic fixing something that aint broke expample. :mug::mug:

Please report back on the performance of the FB versus the braid as this will be a true comparison rather than the usual hearsay..."mine is better" commentary....thanks and cheers!

I agree with this. Just plan on an extra quart of equipment losses and you're all set! If you are hell bent on getting that quart back and do the solder thing...make sure you use a lead free solder and flux!
 
Thanks for the help guys.
I had a brain fart and totally forgot about the tubing to keep the siphon going.
Even with that though I feel as if the deadspace would still be more then my liking, so I'm definitely going to try soldering on a piece of copper pipe to the bottom as a little dip tube to get those last few liters of wort out.
So I guess I'll still be using my stainless steel braid for tomorrow's brew session though, and yes it ain't broke, but how could I pass up a pricing screw up on Amazon for a false bottom. They accidentally listed it for 2cents and $6.02 for shipping, so the whole thing only cost me $6.04!

I'll report back once I get the false bottom up and running and I compare my results against the SS braid.

:mug:Brew for All :mug:

LOL...I read it totally differently, I thought he was saying that an extra quart of losses isn't really a problem rather then braid to FB upgrade is fixing what's not broke. At any rate, I still feel the same as my above post. I wouldn't do anything other then adjust my recipe. A quart of beer isn't a big loss.
 
LOL...I read it totally differently, I thought he was saying that an extra quart of losses isn't really a problem rather then braid to FB upgrade is fixing what's not broke. At any rate, I still feel the same as my above post. I wouldn't do anything other then adjust my recipe. A quart of beer isn't a big loss.

I would agree it's not earth shattering, but why wouldn't you want to fine tune your system if within your means (financially or capability)? If your crush is too course, would you "adjust your recipe to account for a reduced efficiency, or take the time to adjust the mill rollers to get a crush to best suite your system? About 90% of the equipment that most of use have is not a "need to have" to simply make beer. We all adjust our set up to meet our own wants, and sometimes even our needs.......
 
I would agree it's not earth shattering, but why wouldn't you want to fine tune your system if within your means (financially or capability)? If your crush is too course, would you "adjust your recipe to account for a reduced efficiency, or take the time to adjust the mill rollers to get a crush to best suite your system? About 90% of the equipment that most of use have is not a "need to have" to simply make beer. We all adjust our set up to meet our own wants, and sometimes even our needs.......

To each their own. He'll likely recover half of that lost quart, so you tell me, is that a good use of time or would he be better off dialing in his crush? That grainbed absorbs literally GALLONS of water, so he could also lightly push on the top of the grainbed when the tun is almost empty and regain that one pint of preboil wort as well.

If that's not what you'd do..or anyone else.... then just move on. I'm not interested in debating something so minor TBH. I think it's not broke, so I wouldn't fix it. Simple as that.
 
I wouldn't do anything other then adjust my recipe. A quart of beer isn't a big loss.

There is some truth here, although it is not really a "quart" of beer, in reality it is a quart of final runnings from the tun, which are typically low gravity and not a heartbreaker to lose IMO.

I used a Coleman 48 qt years ago that had a ton of dead space, but I would double batch sparge and the final runnings were very low gravity...it worked fine.
 
Thanks for the help guys.
I had a brain fart and totally forgot about the tubing to keep the siphon going.

:mug:Brew for All :mug:

It sounds weird, but that will make an enormous difference. With a domed false bottom, and NO diptube under it, I have less than a cup or two of wort left when the tubing is hooked up.

A nice thing about a false bottom is you can choose fly sparging or batch sparging, or go back and forth (I still do!).
 
I see a lot of people talking about losing a quart of the last runnings, but I'd be more interested in the effect it's having on extraction rate.

It's been awhile since I did the research and built my mash tun (I use a manifold), but I do remember that channeling was more of a concern with SS screens than with a filtration system that is designed specifically for the shape of your mash tun.

I'm not sure how big a difference a false bottom will make over a SS screen, but there is going to be some gain in efficiency because the grain to left and right of a bazooka tube won't have as much water flowing past and dissolving sugars.

What I'm talking about is going to be marginal, but channeling will cut down on the efficiency of your mash, and it will be worse with fly sparging + bazooka tube.

I think the false bottom is a good upgrade.

Nice find at that price.
 
To each their own. He'll likely recover half of that lost quart, so you tell me, is that a good use of time or would he be better off dialing in his crush? That grainbed absorbs literally GALLONS of water, so he could also lightly push on the top of the grainbed when the tun is almost empty and regain that one pint of preboil wort as well.

If that's not what you'd do..or anyone else.... then just move on. I'm not interested in debating something so minor TBH. I think it's not broke, so I wouldn't fix it. Simple as that.

hmmm.. ok - have moved on.
 
There is some truth here, although it is not really a "quart" of beer, in reality it is a quart of final runnings from the tun, which are typically low gravity and not a heartbreaker to lose IMO.

I used a Coleman 48 qt years ago that had a ton of dead space, but I would double batch sparge and the final runnings were very low gravity...it worked fine.

Thanks for the correction. I did later reason out that he'd probably only lose a pint of preboil wort, but the fact that it's mostly low gravity runnings is pertinent and makes it even less of a concern.
 

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