braided stainless for mash/lauter tun

I'm working on getting my AG equipment set up for first use, and thought that I was doing the right thing by going to HD and buying one of the short braided stainless plumbing hoses to use in the bottom of my cooler. Turns out you really have to pay attention though when buying one of these - the one that I got ended up not being made of stainless - when I actually read the label, it is "engineered polymer braid". Didn't realize this though until I already cut the ends off and saw that it was a fraying mess of silver-painted thread like material instead of a nice stainless braid. Pretty sure that I don't want to use it in my tun.

So now I am wondering, do I hunt down an actual stainless one (can't be that hard) or go with a slotted pipe system instead? I take my mistake as a sign that maybe the braided hose covering system isn't the best out there.

Hey Pokey. Like you I am also trying to get my stuff together with AG equipment. Very hard huh. I bought Phil's masher for the water cooler. It did not fit the one cooler I had gotton and I have been having a terrible time finding fittings for it. Played with the first cooler enough to screw it up. So now with the masher on hand I went and found out that it fits in well. Just fighting with fittings now. Think I am going to buy the bulkhead fitting at Northern. I recall they have the sainless screen too... its on the bottom (actually the bulkhead fitting I am thinking of getting is on that page too) http://www.northernbrewer.com/weldless.html
Not sure if this is what you got on your hands now, but I would call to make sure it is SS. Then again there does not seem like a reason to cut this....

I think that I am in the same place with you as the fittings go - NB is pricey, but seems easier than trying to find all of the stainless parts on your own.

Sounds like you are planning on going with a false bottom. I was going a different route that I have seen others here talking about - you buy a short plumbing hose (like a toilet supply line) with a braided stainless outer covering. Cut off the fittings on the ends and pull out the poly line that is inside. Then just use the stainless braided piece as the "filter" mechanism in the bottom of the tun. Problem is that the one I bought wasn't stainless.

From what I have read, I don't really want to go with the false bottom method - slotted pipe and the above mentioned braid hose seem to get better reviews. Just wondering before I make another purchase if folks really think that one is better than the other.

I moved from stainless braid to slotted copper and have gotten less stuck sparges (admittedly, my stainless braid was too flimsy and I tended to knock it about while stirring my mash). My efficiency went up when I switched to it, but I also started milling my own grain and can't say which factor had what effect, if any. The copper pipe seems more sturdy to me and seems like it would be better for fly sparging than the stainless braid, though I do batch sparge. The stainless braid is a little faster to knock out, however, and plenty of people have great results with it.

Why don't you try "The hop stopper". It would work well for you application and a vendor member here sells it. Look in the vendors section.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=3209

I thought that the Hop Stopper was more of a kettle thing vs. something for a mash tun? Was actually thinking of getting one at some point for my keg kettle, but the homebrew budget is running a little dry right now, and the Hop Stopper ain't cheap. Someday....

Yeah Pokey I have been on the fittings for weeks. Been to about four places and got at least a dozen people involved to figure it out with me. It is a royal pain in the A**. You know I normally love the challenge of making things myself. Really enjoy the process you know... but a simple thing like to get some fittings to work together has been just a B*tch and a half I am just at the point where I'm saying screw it... I just want the thing to work now. I had inicially bought the Igloo extream and screwed it up (made the hole bigger cause I thought it would solve the problems... made things worst). With the Extream the coller gets narrower as it gets to the bottom which gave Phils's Masher problems. So now I have a Rubbermaid 5 G water cooler (Phils works PERFECTLY IN IT). I was actually going to make a slotted pipe manifold, but when I saw that folks used Phil's without too many problems and that it was only 20, I thought I would be able to get going a bit faster by just getting Phil's. I was also looking at the Ice Cube cooler, but was concerned because I can only do partial mashes right now as I dont have a large pot yet. I managed to seal off the hole on the extream. Going to use it as a HWT (drill a hole and put a bung in with a hose). Thankfully, Walmart has these coolers for real cheap (Extream was 20 and Rubermaid was 18).

I am thankful to find from reading here and elsewhere that this challange at finding fittings to work is pretty universal.

pokey said:

I thought that the Hop Stopper was more of a kettle thing vs. something for a mash tun? Was actually thinking of getting one at some point for my keg kettle, but the homebrew budget is running a little dry right now, and the Hop Stopper ain't cheap. Someday....

Click to expand...

Wow... yeah... could get a nice big brewpot to do full mashes for $90.... looks like a Phil's Masher... whats the differenece?

The 'sump channel' in the Coleman extreme is what sold me on it, although it did take a little bit of creative soldering and pipe fittings to get the manifold right. The nice thing is that with that channel you have very little deadspace in the tun.