Coleman 70 qt Cooler & SS Braid

Last summer I bought a Coleman Extreme 70qt. mash tun setup. The guy I bought it from had designed the grain filter system. He used plastic plumbing fixtures and tubes with drilled holes.

I used it a few times and found vorlaufing to be a real issue. As I was brewing five gallon batches with a grain bill of oh, maybe 10 to 12 lbs the grain bed stirred no matter how careful I was when recirculating the wort. I thought the grain bed was not deep enough to provide a good natural filter. I gave up and went back to my old and smaller cooler tun that uses a braid.

I would now like to revisit the Coleman and am wondering if I would have better luck using a SS braid? What has your experience been using a braid in the Coleman 70qt? Are you able to clear the wort well enough?

Thanks

How were you vorlaufing? I use a coffee can lid with small holes in it and slowly add the wort back on top of it. If you're just dumping it right into the mash no matter how slow you do it's going to mess with the grain bed.

FSR402 said:

How were you vorlaufing? I use a coffee can lid with small holes in it and slowly add the wort back on top of it. If you're just dumping it right into the mash no matter how slow you do it's going to mess with the grain bed.

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That is an option I had not thought of. I was, "carefully" poring the wort back down the cooler sides.

Gammon N Beer said:

That is an option I had not thought of. I was, "carefully" poring the wort back down the cooler sides.

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Yeah that will not work. I use an 80qt cooler with a 3/4"dia mainifold and I have no porblems. So I would say that the way you are poring it back in is what your problem is.

I use a 70qt Xtreme with a braid and couldn't be happier.

To vorlauf, I put a piece of aluminum foil over the mash and poke holes in it with my thermometer. I then pour the sweet wort back into the mash over the foil.

I have the Coleman 70qt Xtreme, but use a copper manifold. I've been using whatever lid/funnel I had around at the time to be gentle as I could. I was thinking about drilling out some spare copper, capping off one end, and putting an elbow in that I could put my funnel in for the other side, but that would require effort, and I'm lazy...

(Isn't that sort of like fly sparging, but doing it continuously, with a pump, I assume?)