Heating element screen?

I just got my new electric brewing kettle. It's a 15g Blichmann boilermaker with a 4500W heating element in the bottom. I do 5g and 10g boils in it, sometimes extract w/ grains and sometimes all-grain.

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas for a heating element screen? I need something to keep my grain/hop bag off of the heating element, and I thought someone else probably had the same problem before me. The heating element is mounted a bit higher than I had originally thought, so I don't want to block the whole bottom of the kettle off with a false bottom or something. I just need something to go around the heating element to keep it from burning my grain or hop bags. I thought maybe some stainless mesh would work, but I'm open to other ideas.

Any thoughts?

Anyone?

i thought i read somewhere that this is not necessary. the element won't melt the nylon hop bags. please verify before taking my word for this.

The thread I recall said the nylon wasn't an issue - the guy tied a strip around the element for the boil and it came out without damage. But with the grain resting on top of the element, I could see that being a problem.

I'm planning on getting a wire cooling rack for baking and forming that into a U over the element.

sethhobrin said:

i thought i read somewhere that this is not necessary. the element won't melt the nylon hop bags. please verify before taking my word for this.

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Depends on the watt density of the element.

It's easy enough to grab a 12" square piece of SS 2x2mesh from mcmaster. http://www.mcmaster.com/#9322T631
Just bend it into a U shape.

Bobby_M said:

It's easy enough to grab a 12" square piece of SS 2x2mesh from mcmaster. http://www.mcmaster.com/#9322T631
Just bend it into a U shape.

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Do you think that would hold up to the weight of a bag full of grain sitting on it? I was thinking of taking one of the tops to my keggle's, drilling some large holes in it, then using SS bolts for legs.

I ordered some 2x2 stainless mesh (.063" wire diameter) from McMaster. I'll let you know how it works. Thanks for the advice!

I was in Lowe's on Friday and picked up a stainless steel grill topper on clearance for $11 and some change. I cut the ends of it to fit in my keggle & used some SS Eyebolts as standoff's, looks like it will work a treat!