Cake Pan Fly Sparge Strainer

[DemonEagle]

I’m new to home brewing with just three brews done so far. I jumped right into the deep end of the pool with all grain brewing. I read a lot about the subject before buying my equipment and doing my first brew. One of my biggest concerns was disturbing the grain bed while fly sparging. After giving it some thought I came up with this Cake Pan Strainer. So far it seems to work really well and was pretty darn cheap and simple to make.

As you can see in the picture it’s a 9” cake pan that I have drilled a number of random very small holes with a drill bit in the bottom of the pan. I then added 3 carriage bolts through the sides of the pan that are long enough to reach the lip of my mash tun cooler to support it.

Its nothing really special but it works and it’s simple.

When I vorlauf I pour the wort though a larger strainer that I put in the cake pan sparge strainer. This keeps any debris from clogging the small holes in the cake pan. When sparging with clean water the added strainer is not needed.

 

[Mdsutton]

Great idea and inexpensive!

 

[samperry007]

I would reconsider your nonstick pan, in favor of a plain Aluminum one.

http://www2.allblues.org/aroundthehouse/articles/80/1/How-Toxic-Is-Teflon

 

[GrogNerd]

I would reconsider not reading the article

it appears that problems with non-stick pans occur only after overheating. Lab tests recently conducted by Consumer Reports showed that when new and aged pans were heated to 400 degrees, no significant emissions of PFOA occurred.

If you use non-stick pans, you should be able to cook meat or eggs just fine if you heat the pan to medium (300 to 400 degrees) and then reduce it to low (200 to 300 degrees). DuPont does not recommend heating Teflon pans higher than 500 degrees.

sparge temperatures are within tolerance

 

[DemonEagle]

I would reconsider your nonstick pan, in favor of a plain Aluminum one.

http://www2.allblues.org/aroundthehouse/articles/80/1/How-Toxic-Is-Teflon

Thanks for the heads up but even after reading that I'm not overly concerned.

There are cake pans without a non-stick surface available if any one else was to make one and had a concern about the non-stick surface.

 

[Sheldon]

Simply brilliant!! Well played my friend.

 

[matt99004]

I did the same thing with the bottom half of a broiler pan. Let's here it for thrift stores! Works great.

 

[alien]

I would reconsider your nonstick pan, in favor of a plain Aluminum one.

http://www2.allblues.org/aroundthehouse/articles/80/1/How-Toxic-Is-Teflon

Go home! Teflon is perfectly safe unless you incinerate it. At 500°F I think most people's brewing apparatus would be in pretty bad shape whether or not it contained any Teflon.

The sparge tin looks great.

 

[FalconsBrew]

That looks awesome! Out of curiousity, what size drill bit did you use? Also, how long are those carriage bolts? It appears you are using a 10 gal igloo mash tun? If so, thats the same one I use.

 

[DemonEagle]

That looks awesome! Out of curiousity, what size drill bit did you use? Also, how long are those carriage bolts? It appears you are using a 10 gal igloo mash tun? If so, thats the same one I use.

Thanks.....I don't remember the drill bit and bolt size but I'll check when I get home and respond.

And yes it is a 10 gal mash tun.

 

[FalconsBrew]

Thanks.....I don't remember the drill bit and bolt size but I'll check when I get home and respond.

And yes it is a 10 gal mash tun.

wow, just noticed you are in Dville! I'm just down the road. I live in Villa rica in Fairfield

 

[GrogNerd]

wow, just noticed you are in Dville! I'm just down the road. I live in Villa rica in Fairfield

ha! Dville and my first thought was Doraville

Touch of country in the city

 

[DemonEagle]

wow, just noticed you are in Dville! I'm just down the road. I live in Villa rica in Fairfield

Howdy neighbor

 

[feinbera]

Dang, that's genius!

I'm a batch-sparger, but I do worry about grain bed disturbance during vorlauf, and your solution looks a damn sight better than mine:



What sort of bits did you use to drill the drain and bolt holes?

 

[DemonEagle]

That looks awesome! Out of curiousity, what size drill bit did you use? Also, how long are those carriage bolts? It appears you are using a 10 gal igloo mash tun? If so, thats the same one I use.

Ok here are the sizes you asked for.

9" Cake Pan

5/64" Drill bit for drain holes

2.5"x1/4" Carriage bolts with 2 nuts each

My mash tun is a 10 gal Rubbermaid drink cooler The outer lip to outer lip measurement is 13.5". The carriage bolts are just barely long enough to reach but fit snugly.

I hope that helps.
.

 

[FalconsBrew]

Thank you kind sir!i actually stopped by Home Depot and got some carriage bolts. I guesstimated and got 4 in. Bolts. Figured it would be better to be long than short

 

[DemonEagle]

Thank you kind sir!i actually stopped by Home Depot and got some carriage bolts. I guesstimated and got 4 in. Bolts. Figured it would be better to be long than short

Your welcome....You got that right, too long is better and its nothing a hacksaw can't fix...

 

[nu2brewing]

I can't see the photo of you project. Interested.

 

[DemonEagle]

I can't see the photo of you project. Interested.

There is a pic on the first page or if you can't see that here is a link to an image http://www.rgtproductions.net/ForumPics/Sparge-Pan.jpg

If you still can't see it PM me an email address and I'll send it to you.

 

[JonM]

I do the same thing with a stainless steel colander. Its little handles rest perfectly On the rim of the MLT, so no mods necessary.

 

[DemonEagle]

I do the same thing with a stainless steel colander. Its little handles rest perfectly On the rim of the MLT, so no mods necessary.

I had considered using a colander but I was concerned about the hole size and the rounded shape of the colander. I was worried that when using the low volume of water during spargeing that the water might form a single stream from the center of the bottom of the colander.

The flat bottom of the cake pan and smaller size of the holes ensures a wide, even and gentle distribution of the sparge water.

That's what is great about this hobby. Many different ways to accomplish the same goal of great beer.

 

[feinbera]

Well, finally got around to building and using one of these for volaufing while batch sparging, it's great!



My little addition to the original design was to add some pegboard hooks and plumber's tape, so that it could be suspended just above the level of the mash, which I've never gotten all the way to the top of my 10-gallon cooler. It's not really clear from the pic, but, the plumber's tape isn't actually bolted to the pan; I'm just using very short bolts to hold the ends in a "J" shape which hooks under the rim, so it's easy to disassemble and clean.

I went with a 3/32" drill bit, and put holes every half-inch or so in a hexagonal pattern -- this was a mistake! If I had it to do over again, I'd space the holes farther apart and/or use a slimmer bit, because unless I pour slowly enough that the wort is only just barely covering the bottom of the pan, it flows through way too quickly and ends up disturbing the grain bed anyway.

Also, a reason to go aluminum that has nothing to do with teflon poisoning -- the metal underneath the non-stick coating may well not be stainless, and it's a serious bummer to see the pan you just spent four hours drilling 200+ holes in start rusting before you've even used it once. Eh, fuggit, a little iron oxide never killed anybody...

 

[mforsman]

I went with a SS Deep Dish Pizza Pan that fits perfectly in the top of a 10g orange cooler.

 

[johnsnownw]

Thanks for the information. Here's what I ended up with:



Everything is SS except the carriage bolts themselves, as the place I bought everything from didn't have the length I needed. I'll replace them eventually.

Entire build cost $15.

 

[bristela]

Just came up with a very simple bodge for this independently using a tea strainer. This seemed like the best place for it.

Thanks for the information. Here's what I ended up with:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/833/96947610201251094105261.jpg/

Everything is SS except the carriage bolts themselves, as the place I bought everything from didn't have the length I needed. I'll replace them eventually.

Entire build cost $15.

 

[Hopper5000]

I recently purchased a 12.75" pizza pan that has holes in it already that works great. I just put some wire on the end so I could pull it out easily.