6 cups of water left in 10 gal cooler MLT

[jtkratzer]

I converted a 10 gallon Rubbermaid cooler last week and attached a 30" stainless braid supply hose to the barb on the inside of the cooler after cutting holes in the hose and reinserting it into the braid. After letting the cooler sit to test for leaks, I ran the water out through the ball valve and I was left with about 6 cups of liquid on the bottom. Seems like it would be a lot of wort to waste.

Other than going to a false bottom and dip tube, what's the solution to leaving less liquid behind?

 

[BendBrewer]

A copper manifold. It will suck your MLT dry. It likes that.

 

[IrregularPulse]

Do you have a hose on the output of your tun? If not, Put a nipple on the output of then tun, than attach some tubing to that nipple that hangs at least lower then the cooler bottom. Retest.

 

[jtkratzer]

Do you have a hose on the output of your tun? If not, Put a nipple on the output of then tun, than attach some tubing to that nipple that hangs at least lower then the cooler bottom. Retest.

Yes, the first time I ran water through it was with a hose on the nipple on the outside draining into a pot.

 

[BendBrewer]

Yes, the first time I ran water through it was with a hose on the nipple on the outside draining into a pot.

Did the hose run into the liquid in the pot creating a siphon?

I had the braid in my cooler at first. Would tilt the damn thing to drain all the wort. Now that I use a manifold, all that went away. Still need a siphon if not pumping though.

 

[jtkratzer]

A copper manifold. It will suck your MLT dry. It likes that.

I'll try the Google machine to find a manifold for a round cooler. Is that going to be cheaper than a false bottom with a dip tube?

 

[jtkratzer]

Did the hose run into the liquid in the pot creating a siphon?

I had the braid in my cooler at first. Would tilt the damn thing to drain all the wort. Now that I use a manifold, all that went away. Still need a siphon if not pumping though.

I'm assuming it was siphoning until the water level dipped below the level of the holes in the hose and the siphon was lost due to the introduction of air into the line.

 

[BendBrewer]

I'll try the Google machine to find a manifold for a round cooler. Is that going to be cheaper than a false bottom with a dip tube?

I think I spent 8 bucks building mine. It looks a lot like this:

 

[runningweird]

remember that a mash is a thick thing, unlike water. when you run a mash all the available liquid will likely be pulled out leaving some behind absorbed into the grain.( why sparge is good). sparging washes the excess sugars out meaning you get higher efficiency from your grain mash. what's left in the mash tun matters less than the gravity of the liquid you are pulling out. as long as you get your pre boil gravity and volume it doesn't really matter.

I started with the stainless steel braid, after two stuck mashes I went and bought a false bottom from brew masters. works great, would never go back.

 

[jtkratzer]

I'll have to look into the copper option as Brewmasters Warehouse is out of the false bottoms and others I've seen are over $60.

 

[broadbill]

You might also want to take the hose back out of the braid. Even with holes in it, you are greatly diminishing the surface area in which the wort can pass through. Unless you specifically know you will have issues with the grain crushing the braid, you are better off leaving the hose out of there.

 

[weirdboy]

I stick a shoe or two under the opposite side of the MLT when I am draining it.

It is a braid so it doesn't create a siphon. You have to give the wort a little help getting to the valve.

 

[jtkratzer]

You might also want to take the hose back out of the braid. Even with holes in it, you are greatly diminishing the surface area in which the wort can pass through. Unless you specifically know you will have issues with the grain crushing the braid, you are better off leaving the hose out of there.

Interesting. I read that people were experiencing crushed braids and stuck sparges as a result and they were putting hose back in to keep it from crushing.

I think I like the manifold I idea better, but I haven't even tried mashing with it yet to try it out the way it currently is set up.

 

[Flomaster]

Get a length of solid copper wire and strip it bare. Wrap it around some thing smaller than the braided SS and insert that into SS braid. Or if you can get some rigid SS wire instead that would be better


-= Jason =-

 

[broadbill]

Interesting. I read that people were experiencing crushed braids and stuck sparges as a result and they were putting hose back in to keep it from crushing.

I think I like the manifold I idea better, but I haven't even tried mashing with it yet to try it out the way it currently is set up.

I use a braid and never had a problem with it.

 

[astropunk]

As soon as air is allowed to enter braid, the siphon is broken. With a braid, the air comes in as soon as the wort level drops below the top of the braid, leaving a lot of wort behind. If you use a manifold with the open holes or slits facing down, then the wort level drops much further before air enters the system and stops the siphon.

Im not saying manifolds are better, but you will get less wort wasted if you somehow blocked air from entering through the top of the braid.

 

[Flomaster]

Take clear tubing and cut the bottom section out of it. Slide the braid SS back over attach tubing and SS braid like normal = WINNING

-= Jason =-

 

[Northcalais40]

make a short vinyl dip tube from the barb inside the tun to the center bottom. It'll be about 6" long and curved down. Put a heavy brass T on it and either two short braids or one loop 12" long. This set up drains all but 12 oz. in my tun. No problems with collapsing using a braid by itself.