PICO False Bottom for Keggle & BIAB Brewing

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pshankstar

BIAB Homebrewer & Coffee Roaster
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I really enjoy moving to BIAB from extract and I feel I have made great strides in my home brewing adventure to date! :) I mainly brew IPAs and Pale Ales, so hops are my friend and I use them often. Well maybe not as often as I would like since I still have over 7 pounds in my chest freezer. Anyhow back to my questions...

I am interested in purchasing a false bottom for my keggle. My thoughts were it would help keep the hop particles from getting stuck in my ball valve. Is this correct? I'm sure some will make it's way through, but I thought a false bottom would really help prevent clogging and minimize the amount of hop particles that make it into the fermenter. I know it will help with the whole cone hops I use for sure.
The other benefit I see is it would keep my Wilser BIAB off the bottom, so I could heat up the kettle if needed. Is this correct? Would it prevent me from burning my bag? I would pull some of the water from the bottom and pour it back over the top to help circulate the water since the water on the bottom would heat up much faster.
Lastly, does anyone have the PICO False Bottom from Adventures in Home Brewing? If so, does it sit above your drain valve in your keggle? I have drain valve installed at the lowest point on the side of the kettle before the bottom curves in. I like that it sits higher from the bottom, for I hope it clears my drain valve. I would like to not have to bother installing a pickup tube if possible.

Thanks in advance everyone! :mug:
 
I have one in my mash tun, but mine is a bottom drain. So, I can't speak to the whole drain below the false bottom bit.
I can say that there was a ton of space below mine. There was enough space under it to make it almost impossible to do a 5 gallon batch without adding several extra gallons of water to the mash. For 10 gallon batches, it is less of an issue.
I ended up grinding off the corners of the supports to get the false bottom to sit lower in the mash tun.
 
As mentioned above, a false bottom will create a dead space below the mash and may make smaller batches difficult.

It is my opinion that for simple BIAB, all that's needed is a heat source, a bag and a kettle. If you need to make an adjustment and raise the temp a few degrees, then heat gently and stir continuously.

Unless recirculating with a pump, adding a false bottom can be ineffective. The wort below the false bottom will heat up, but the mash will remain at temp as it can be difficult to distribute the heat.

I would forego a false bottom and insulate to preserve heat if possible. If you need bump up the temp, heat gently and STIR continuously. Jmo

Keggles can be tricky for BIAB if the top opening is minimal. I have tried to compensate for this issue by putting a taper on Keggle bags that are narrower at the bottom.View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1481132793.469137.jpg
 
Thanks guys! I guess my biggest question is, will this false bottom help prevent my drain valve from clogging after the boil with all the hop particles? I'm sure it will do wonders with whole cone hops. If the valve is already below the false bottom then I am good and don't need to rig up a pickup tube. I find that after brewing that it's a 50/50 chance my ball valve will get clogged with hops and I would like to minimize that if possible. So that is where I thought this might be a solution.

The other thoughts were with bumping up the mash temps if needed, but that hasn't been too much of an issue so far.
 
Pico style bottoms aren't cheap. There are far cheaper options for eliminating clogs from whole hops. Bags, screens, even a stainless scrub pad will work.
 
I agree with that @20grit, but here are my concerns with those recommendations.

Bags - Built a hop spider, works great to keep the particles out. Problems, gets in the way of the wort chiller (like to add a lot of whirlpooling/steeping hops at the end of the boil. Can't easily move the chiller around with the spider. I felt like it was more of a pain then just tossing in the hops. If I place the hops in a bag and clip it to the side, I feel like the hops do not make enough contact with the boiling wort. Maybe it's just me over thinking it, but who knows???

Stainless Steel Scrub Pad - Gets clogged with lots of hop particles. I do mainly IPAs and Pale Ales and have given up on this one...

Not sure about the screens you mention, but I figure those would be like a false bottom. The PICO false bottom is on sale at AIH for $70 shipped. It seems like the cheapest False Bottom solution currently. Yes, these other items listed above are cheaper but I feel like if it would work to help filter out the hop pellets and cones then it might be worth the $70.
 
As far as screens go, it would be something like the hopstopper from the electric brewery. Most are going to hook onto a diptube, though.
 
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