$5.00 False Bottom Plan

bferullo said:

NOt sure I follow.. I must be missing something simple.

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Sorry... I was thinking of something else... See above. I edited my post.

Its cool...appreciate the effort. Spikebrewing.com sells a FB that includes the tubing. theirs is silicone. I just assume it will crush under say 10+ lbs of grain.

Well, if the grain is stirred and then allowed to settle, it would settle around that silicone tube and not crush it. If you put a brick on the tube, yes it will crush - because it is not supported underneath. But here, you really don't have too much weight pressing down on the tube itself.

Here is my attempt. To recap:

12.5inch - ish aluminum pizza pan (I think its Pizzacraft brand) found for 5 bucks at Homegoods

Same parts as above, but used silicone tubing I had in place of the braided tubing.

Hopfeully it works!!!

The bottom looks great! I've found in my 5 gallon cooler I'm limited to about 8.5lbs of grain, so I'm planning a 10 gallon version of this FB using a stainless steel pan and copper 1/2" tubing held in place with compression fittings or possibly some sort of quick disconnects. The pan I have now, however, has worked so well I'll still use it for lower gravity brews.

Thanks!!

I will find out tonight. I am brewing a batch that has a grist of 12.8 lbs. My overall deadspace was about 1/2 gallon.

Tonight is a Rye based beer so I hope not to have a stuck sparge. My buddy bought the ingredients, so I hope my fabrication doesn't screw up his brew.

Sidenote, I had someone tell me that using aluminum was a bad idea based on ionization. Now as a chemist, I don't think that really applies to the false bottom. Also people use aluminum boil kettles all the time.

Next time around I will be getting a stainless steel plate and have a buddy with a drill press makes the holes, but until then...I hope this works!!!

bferullo said:

Thanks!!

I will find out tonight. I am brewing a batch that has a grist of 12.8 lbs. My overall deadspace was about 1/2 gallon.

Tonight is a Rye based beer so I hope not to have a stuck sparge. My buddy bought the ingredients, so I hope my fabrication doesn't screw up his brew.

Sidenote, I had someone tell me that using aluminum was a bad idea based on ionization. Now as a chemist, I don't think that really applies to the false bottom. Also people use aluminum boil kettles all the time.

Next time around I will be getting a stainless steel plate and have a buddy with a drill press makes the holes, but until then...I hope this works!!!

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When I was doing my research I saw the aluminum vs. no-aluminum arguments, but as I didn't know if this project was even going to work I decided to go the cheap route. I also use an aluminum brew pot and I haven't had any problems with the material over the past 10 brews I've done with this setup. For me, the SS is more for aesthetics than anything. The only thing I've had to replace (and only once) so far is the 3-4" of braided tubing from the dip tube as the heat from the mash has loosened the seal around the PEX elbow. Other than that I've been really happy with how well this has performed for the price.

Well, the rye beer was a total flop. I ended up with a horruble stuck sparge that was there no recovering from. I ended up using a kitchen collander and scooping ut the spend grains. It was a disaster. At first I thought it was the rye, but I am thinking something went wrong with the false bottom. There was a large grain stuck in the silicone tubing. So, grain got through. Oh well live and learn. Its not enough for me to give up on my cheap creation yet.

bferullo said:

Well, the rye beer was a total flop. I ended up with a horruble stuck sparge that was there no recovering from. I ended up using a kitchen collander and scooping ut the spend grains. It was a disaster. At first I thought it was the rye, but I am thinking something went wrong with the false bottom. There was a large grain stuck in the silicone tubing. So, grain got through. Oh well live and learn. Its not enough for me to give up on my cheap creation yet.

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Because aluminum pans are so light it may have floated up a bit when you put the hot liquor in the tun, allowing the grain to get through. If your tubing is pretty flexible (and more so when it's hot) that may have been the issue. The thick walled braided tubing I use is rigid even when hot so it holds the false bottom down snugly. When sparging I'll have about 1/2 a tsp of grain come through and that's it. Also (silly question, I know) did you drain it slowly when sparging?

We did drain slowly, but I think you may be right abou the floating bottom. Gonna have to get a stainless steel one and have a buddy with a drill press drill it for me.

My brewing buddy thinks maybe the 1/8 inch holes are too big? Any thoughts on that?

bferullo said:

We did drain slowly, but I think you may be right abou the floating bottom. Gonna have to get a stainless steel one and have a buddy with a drill press drill it for me.

My brewing buddy thinks maybe the 1/8 inch holes are too big? Any thoughts on that?

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I used 1/8" holes on mine with 1/2" offsets per the article I based the design on here: http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/library/backissues/issue3.4/palmer_figs.html
I haven't had an issue with the holes getting plugged on mine after pulling it out when I brew (I check it each time to be sure). While doing researched I read many people have an issue with light false bottoms like these floating and causing stuck sparges, that's why I thought it may have been the prime suspect of your issues during your rye brew. An easy way to test that would be to heat 2-3 gallons of water to mash temps, put it in your mash tun, wait 10 minutes or so and check to see if your tubing is flexing too much when it heats up. If so, rigid braided tubing, PVC with some sort of rubber insert to maintain a good seal or copper tubing with compression fittings should solve the problem. Or you could find some sort of brass, copper or SS weights (such as a couple large SS washers where the PEX elbow meets the pan in your dead space) to solve the issue as well.

thanks for your input. with a some tweaking I hope to fix it.

bferullo said:

We did drain slowly, but I think you may be right abou the floating bottom. Gonna have to get a stainless steel one and have a buddy with a drill press drill it for me.

My brewing buddy thinks maybe the 1/8 inch holes are too big? Any thoughts on that?

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You want to stay below .100" 1/8" is .125. I drilled over 1,000 holes with #40 drill. That is .098".
Try to add as many holes as you can stand to drill. It is a long process, but well worth it.

I made one of these tonight.

I couldn't find a pizza pan locally that wasn't coated...so I started poking around at work for something I could use. I ended up finding an aluminum (LianLi) computer case that was in the junk pile. I took the two removable sides.



Traced out my 11" circle
Cut using a jig saw
Drew my grid on with pencil
Drilled my 1/8 holes and my center hole
I sanded it down to remove any burrs
Fitted my elbow and tubing



Thanks OP!!!

That looks fantastic! I hadn't thought of using an old computer case, but that turned out really well.

Be careful. I used aluminum and its lighter than SS, so it ended up floating when i added the water. Hence I ended up with stuck sparge due to grains getting under it. Although, this is only one of my many theories as to what screwed up that brew day. It was a BAD brew session.

bferullo said:

Be careful. I used aluminum and its lighter than SS, so it ended up floating when i added the water. Hence I ended up with stuck sparge due to grains getting under it. Although, this is only one of my many theories as to what screwed up that brew day. It was a BAD brew session.

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Rye is crazy sticky. You need to stir very well and perhaps go with a thinner mash (i.e., > 1.5 quarts per # of grain). My house beer is a rye IPA, so I'm using it all the time. I use a "Jaybird" false bottom. It's the greatest thing.

BTW, aluminum doesn't float (sp. gravity ~ 2.7). Must have had some trapped air under it.

Ok, makes sense. Was just going off what others have suggested. Like I said lots of things went wrong the first time I used my aluminum bottom. How would one avoid air being trapped?

I made one of these false bottoms using the microwave splatter screen and used it for the first time last weekend. It worked flawlessly and I got great efficiency hit my numbers spot on. I had to do a little modifying due to the fact that I only have a 5 gal igloo cooler, but nothing that was a big issue. I am hoping to brew again this weekend and will try to take some pictures to share what I did with mine. Thanks to all in the thread for the valuable information.

So, it was the Rye. Just brewed with my "$5.00" FB this past weekend. Had great results. Only missed my estimated OG my 3 points. NO stuck sparges!!!

There is an update on the OP with a 12" stainless steel version I made for a 10 gallon Igloo cooler.

Update on OP with performance notes using new 10gal mash tun and 12" S/S pizza pan. Happy New Year!

I loved this idea and I went with it. I found a pizza pan that says "steel" construction from Walmart. Any idea if this would be safe in a mash tun? I trimmed it down to size and it fits perfectly into the 10 gal rubbermaid. Here's a picture.

Polarbeer said:

I loved this idea and I went with it. I found a pizza pan that says "steel" construction from Walmart. Any idea if this would be safe in a mash tun? I trimmed it down to size and it fits perfectly into the 10 gal rubbermaid. Here's a picture.

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It's a pizza pan so it's food grade, give it a shot.

I bought a perforated pizza pan online and it works great. I bought some three inch long stainless steel bolts with washers and nuts to raise it off the bottom, it works.

Polarbeer said:

I loved this idea and I went with it. I found a pizza pan that says "steel" construction from Walmart. Any idea if this would be safe in a mash tun? I trimmed it down to size and it fits perfectly into the 10 gal rubbermaid. Here's a picture.

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That's basically the same thing I used in my 10 gallon Igloo mash tun and it has worked without a hitch. The hardest part is getting all of the barbs off of the bottom of it after you drill but with some patience and elbow grease it's good to go.

Instead of drilling I wonder if an awl could punch a hole that would work (providing it's thin enough stainless/aluminium). Use a piece of wood as a backer. Might go quicker...

Awesome, well I'm gonna go for it because it was only $0.98 at Walmart. zzARzz how did you get the barbs off the bottom? I might just get pliers for the big ones and leave the little ones.

Dude this is great. I added the SS 12" to my wishlist on amazon yesterday and it was $14 bucks. Looked at it today and it dropped to $8.56 with free second day shipping cuz of my Prime membership. I had been debating getting the FB from Jaybird for my 10G rubbermaid but i think this just saved me a ton of money.

Also for the barb issue, try a dremel sanding tool, thats what im gonna use. It worked great for the sharp edges on my keggle cuts.

One question though... how does it hold up with large grain bills? Any issue with bending?

Pratzie said:

Dude this is great. I added the SS 12" to my wishlist on amazon yesterday and it was $14 bucks. Looked at it today and it dropped to $8.56 with free second day shipping cuz of my Prime membership. I had been debating getting the FB from Jaybird for my 10G rubbermaid but i think this just saved me a ton of money.

Also for the barb issue, try a dremel sanding tool, thats what im gonna use. It worked great for the sharp edges on my keggle cuts.

One question though... how does it hold up with large grain bills? Any issue with bending?

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I had 14 lbs of mash + water on my S/S 10 gallon one and it's still straight as an arrow. You could make some feet for it as others have done but I've had mine hollow for 10 + brews and it hasn't had an issue yet. For anything larger than a 10 gallon, though, 3 or 4 S/S feet w/ S/S screws may be a wise precaution.

Polarbeer said:

Awesome, well I'm gonna go for it because it was only $0.98 at Walmart. zzARzz how did you get the barbs off the bottom? I might just get pliers for the big ones and leave the little ones.

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I used a grill cleaning tool with a scraper on one end and a metal brush on the other. The scraper got the big pieces off and the brush got the smaller stuff. Only took a few minutes to get it pretty clean.

stamandster said:

Instead of drilling I wonder if an awl could punch a hole that would work (providing it's thin enough stainless/aluminium). Use a piece of wood as a backer. Might go quicker...

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I thought about that initially, but the punch I have is angled so I was worried about the holes either being too big or of different sizes that may have caused channeling while sparging. I figured the drill, while it takes a lot longer, keeps everything uniform.

Just finished up the holes earlier. Used my DeWalt drill and alternated two 1/8" bits with drill oil and after about an hour I got them all done. Gonna take the dremel to it tomorrow or Sunday when I get time and then head to Lowes to get the elbow and tubing. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Pratzie said:

Just finished up the holes earlier. Used my DeWalt drill and alternated two 1/8" bits with drill oil and after about an hour I got them all done. Gonna take the dremel to it tomorrow or Sunday when I get time and then head to Lowes to get the elbow and tubing. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

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Certainly post pictures of it if you can when it's done. With as easy as this is I don't think I could ever justify spending as much as is wanted for a pre-made false bottom. I got through about 3 episodes of South Park in the amount of time it took me to make mine

So glad I found this thread! I am for sure doing this. Going to pick up the following off of amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel-Pizza-Pan-Diameter/dp/B002UG7QVI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374276111&sr=8-1&keywords=stainless+steel+pizza+pan

Based on the reviews, I am loving the possibility of this being a great false bottom:
"...the lip is a good 1 1/2 inches and the graduation makes this a one use pan..."

...not for me it doesn't. Sounds awesome!

12 bucks for the SS Pizza Pan + another 5 bucks for other hardware to hook it all up = totally kick ass false bottom for under 20 bucks!

Polarbeer said:

I loved this idea and I went with it. I found a pizza pan that says "steel" construction from Walmart. Any idea if this would be safe in a mash tun? I trimmed it down to size and it fits perfectly into the 10 gal rubbermaid. Here's a picture.

Click to expand...

hyperboarder said:

It's a pizza pan so it's food grade, give it a shot.

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"Food grade" is not a good measure for this (ab)use. In the short run it may hold up, but since your mash is sour (pH of around 5.2) it will degrade (dissolve) the tin coating on the pan and then attack the steel. Aluminum won't fare any better.

Using a SS pan is the only way to keep it from becoming part of your beer.

The burrs can be removed by spinning a slightly larger drill bit in the burr-side of the holes. A very, very slow running drill can help if you don't want to do it by hand, just watch out it doesn't "catch" and make a bigger hole. Dremel tools are useful too.

bluelimbo said:

So glad I found this thread! I am for sure doing this. Going to pick up the following off of amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel-Pizza-Pan-Diameter/dp/B002UG7QVI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374276111&sr=8-1&keywords=stainless+steel+pizza+pan

Based on the reviews, I am loving the possibility of this being a great false bottom:
"...the lip is a good 1 1/2 inches and the graduation makes this a one use pan..."

...not for me it doesn't. Sounds awesome!

12 bucks for the SS Pizza Pan + another 5 bucks for other hardware to hook it all up = totally kick ass false bottom for under 20 bucks!

Click to expand...

That's the same pan I used for my 10 gallon cooler and it has worked really well. I did a blonde ale last week and with the addition of some rice hulls (my first time using them) the false bottom performed flawlessly with an 85% efficiency.

One note, though, I'll get about a pinch of grist that comes out during the sparge, but I clip a mesh strainer to the side of my brew pot and set the flow tube from the MLT in the strainer to catch anything that gets through. Other than that the only thing I do is change the dip tube about every 5 brews since the braided vinyl tubing tends to get hard and brittle, but eventually I'm going to make a SS dip tube with compression fittings which I'll post when I get around to it.

I'm glad you like the design and happy brewing!

IslandLizard said:

"Food grade" is not a good measure for this (ab)use. In the short run it may hold up, but since your mash is sour (pH of around 5.2) it will degrade (dissolve) the tin coating on the pan and then attack the steel. Aluminum won't fare any better.

Using a SS pan is the only way to keep it from becoming part of your beer.

The burrs can be removed by spinning a slightly larger drill bit in the burr-side of the holes. A very, very slow running drill can help if you don't want to do it by hand, just watch out it doesn't "catch" and make a bigger hole. Dremel tools are useful too.

Click to expand...

When I made the first iteration of this false bottom I used an anodized aluminum pan for my 5 gal MLT since I didn't know if this was going to work or not and it was really cheap, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it held up without any signs of corrosion or weird flavors in the beer.

Having had some experience with it now, however, I would agree with your recommendation of going with a SS pan rather than aluminum or coated steel, especially for MLTs of 10 gallons +.

http://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Ste...dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

Gave ya some props on Amazon and posted the link. Just got an email, it helped someone decide to purchase it already lol

That's funny. I'm glad this silly little DIY project has been so helpful. Thanks for the props!