best false bottom for 10gal cooler?

[andrew300]

I have a 10gal cooler and false bottom from Northern Brewer. It seems like 50percent of the time I have trouble draining the first runnings and the sparge water. At first, I thought it was a stuck sparge from the wheat beer and then I thought it was too fine of crush. I measured and adjusted my mill to .045" and everything was fine for the next few batches. Well my last 2 batches have done the same thing! I open the valve slowly for the runoff and I do not get a drop of liquid. So my thought is that the valve is getting clogged because I stuck my spoon down and was messing with the tube and it spits out grain and the liquid flows like normal. Anyways it's very annoying and I am wondering if my false bottom does not fit right or there is not enough room under it. Anyone have any suggestions for a fix or can recommend a better fitting false bottom?

 

[BendBrewer]

I put the False Bottom in my kettle and used a copper manifold in the MLT. Have never had a stuck sparge with the manifold.

 

[Snowhere]

I am using AHS false bottom and I have the gap on my BC set at .028"! I have only done 3 batches with it yet and so far, no problem with spargeing. I just mix up my grain bed when I mash out for 10 minutes with 180f water, and then I start sparging and never touch the bed again. How are you sparging? Are you opening the valve too much? I keep my flow at a moderate to slow flow and it works good. I ended with a efficiency of 84% on the porter I brewed this weekend.

I had heard people complaining about NB's false bottoms before I bought mine. I believe it was cheaper from AHS too, only about $35.

 

[andrew300]

I open the valve very slowly, but like I said nothing comes out and sometimes it works perfectly. This problem is on my first runnings as well as when I sparge.

 

[Northcalais40]

I have the same issue with a home made FB. I was getting grist through the FB which was clogging, so I added a braid to the collection point. The braid seems to get clogged as well, but since I fly sparge, it slows down the flow with out stopping it and I get good efficiency. When it does stop altogether, I blow into the drain tube and it unclogs. I think I'll be adding more braid or rice hulls under the FB. Sounds stupid I know, but the Stainless for the FB cost only $12.