Rubber

No not in the boil.

This has probably been discussed, rehashed many times, but I cannot find it. I built a mash tun from a cooler, and cannot get the last bit of rubber/plastic tube from the inside of the SS mesh casing. Is there a way to do this? I have about 5 inches of tube left inside.

Thoughts, suggestions, is this going to make off flavors?

I have made 7 AG batches with a bucket in a pot of hot water. Double boiler style. But the cooler looks so much easier. No need to change containers to sparge. I intend to continue batch sparging. Thanks in advance.

Beer Quote: "A country that is drinking 80 percent of its beer as light lagers from one of three breweries is in need of a little upheaval." -- CEO Dogfish head Sam Calagione

You want to get that out.You might try soaping the braid where the plastic is and it might slide out easier.Push the braid in and it will expand.

When I did mine, I scrunched up the SS sheathing to cause it to expand around the inner tubing, then gripped the end of the tubing with needle nose pliers and pulled it out while keeping the sheathing scrunched. If you pull the SS sheathing taut, it will grip the plastic pipe more tightly, and defeat your efforts to extract it. It works just like a Chinese FInger Trap

I doubt it will hurt your brew to leave it there.

Blender said:

You want to get that out.You might try soaping the braid where the plastic is and it might slide out easier.Push the braid in and it will expand.

Click to expand...

I put the metal in the vise and pulled, even if I get all of it out, without uncrimping the end, I will still have a bit of tubing in there. It is a 48 inch supply line, so I still have a good amount of sheath exposed. What do you think?

That's what I bought, a 48 inch washing machine supply line. Get it dry. dry dry. Powder it with talcum powder, scrunch and extract. Gentle persuasion works better than force. Or maybe I was just lucky.

Your braid doesn't have to go the full length of the cooler. If you have 3 feet then I would just hack off the part with the plastic and be done with it.

Blender said:

Your braid doesn't have to go the full length of the cooler. If you have 3 feet then I would just hack off the part with the plastic and be done with it.

Click to expand...

I have a 5 - gal rubbermaid, round. The part I cannot get out is the end that is connected to the inlet of the cooler, out into the pot. The main Q is: is the plastic tubing going to ill flavor my brewski?

So I have a manifold in the bottom of my cooler - and to avoid drilling a tap at the bottom I just siphon out of the top of the cooler through vinyl tubing.

Since you are only dealing with the MT (max possible temp 170) - you will basically be exposing wort to 170F tubing - just like me. I've never had any off flavors - the tubing can get a little soft, but it makes no smells and gives off no taste.

Hope that helps yous out - I say forget about it & make some beer.