Braid to Stainless false bottom

[Lil' Sparky]

What kind of beers are you doing 3-4 step mashes? Might want to look into decoction mashes instead of infusion steps.

 

[Bobby_M]

It's certainly more of a pain to mash in one vessel and lauter in another. The commercial brewers do it because they need to have each vessel highly specialized, but for homebrewers it's nice to combine both functions into one vessel for simplicity. You may decide you want to mash in a kettle to do step mashing, but if that's not why you're doing it, a cooler based MLT would be as simple as it gets.

edit; I was too slow. Sparky makes a good point. Are you step mashing for some purpose? There is no problem holding a solid temp in a cooler.

 

[FlyGuy]

I step mash in my cooler MLT all the time. I worked up a simple little steam injection system from an old pressure cooker that cost very little and works fabulously (see my sig).

Regardless, if you have stuff lying around that you can use, go for it. At least then if you find it doesn't work well enough, or isn't convenient enough for you, you can feel confident that the 'upgrades' are worth it.

Cheers!

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

The step mashing was in certain beers with low modified malts. I wanted the freedom to be able to do whatever mash method I want in one mash tun. I may not have needed to do it but I'll never really know the difference unless I try it. I do decoction mashes sometimes too. I wanted one mash tun that could do it all...so a pot seemed appropriate since I already have that.

 

[Bobby_M]

Ok, how about plumbing in a lautering device into the pot?

 

[Lil' Sparky]

Excellent point. That's basically what several of us do with sanke keg MLTs that we direct-fire. Here's mine.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

I saw some of those on here and they do look pretty cool.

But they look like a big project to build and buying the stuff doesn't look cheap.

And I still don't see what the big deal is about lifting a bucket and gently pouring the pot into a bucket. It just seems like such a trivial step to go to bunch of trouble to avoid. Takes a few seconds.

I promise I'm not trying to be difficult guys and I really appreciate the input. Maybe it's that over the last 12 years or so...on other DIY-type sites like guitar-tube-amp-building or even just guitar player/gear sites...that there's no shortage of either bad info or not-applicable info or exaggerations/etc. So I now instinctively take anything on the net with a pound of salt...maybe two pounds. I'm not saying you guys aren't right and I'm sure it works for you but I'm just not 100% convinced it's what is best for me.

Like plumbing a lauter into my mash pot...my first thought was; "Why would I go to all the trouble to do that when I can just lift a bucket?" I'll be brewing probably less than once a month if that. As you can probably tell...I don't really want a bunch of specialty, single-purpose equipment around if I can help it. Plain ole buckets and pots are multi-purpose.

 

[gwood]

I saw some of those on here and they do look pretty cool.

But they look like a big project to build and buying the stuff doesn't look cheap.

And I still don't see what the big deal is about lifting a bucket and gently pouring the pot into a bucket. It just seems like such a trivial step to go to bunch of trouble to avoid. Takes a few seconds.

I promise I'm not trying to be difficult guys and I really appreciate the input. Maybe it's that over the last 12 years or so...on other DIY-type sites like guitar-tube-amp-building or even just guitar player/gear sites...that there's no shortage of either bad info or not-applicable info or exaggerations/etc. So I now instinctively take anything on the net with a pound of salt...maybe two pounds. I'm not saying you guys aren't right and I'm sure it works for you but I'm just not 100% convinced it's what is best for me.

Like plumbing a lauter into my mash pot...my first thought was; "Why would I go to all the trouble to do that when I can just lift a bucket?" I'll be brewing probably less than once a month if that. As you can probably tell...I don't really want a bunch of specialty, single-purpose equipment around if I can help it. Plain ole buckets and pots are multi-purpose.

You make a good point with regards to simplicity. One thing that I've learned so far in terms of the process of developing brewing equipment is that I should plan for the future. I can't tell you how many times I've done things three times over only to find that I should've just gone ahead and invested a bit of money to make something that will stand the test of time, that's why I'm slowly converting kegs for both a mashtun and a boil kettle.

If you think you'll be brewing for a long time to come the investment will be worth it.

 

[Kugster]

I already have a pot and a stove and that's all I ever needed to mash...and this paddleball set...that's it...that's all I need.

PS - that last part was a movie reference...not me being a smartass.

.

You forgot your chair...NOW that's all you need...and that pencil!:cross:

Here's a question, has anyone stepped up to a 1" braid? I read in Palmer's book, the 1" braid will not collapse under the weight of the grain.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

If you think you'll be brewing for a long time to come the investment will be worth it.

Haha...thing is I dunno! I already bailed on homebrewing once back in 2000 or so...and that was when I actually drank beer. I can't remember the last time I had a beer (scotch on the other hand...). Of course, if I had homebrew around I'd def be drinking more beer.

I'm gonna try the buckets...I guess 1/8" holes it is. I'm sure you guys are thinking; "He'll come around soon enough." and you're probably right. But at least I'll be able to say I learned from personal experience and that's worth a lot to me.

 

[gwood]

Haha...thing is I dunno! I already bailed on homebrewing once back in 2000 or so...and that was when I actually drank beer. I can't remember the last time I had a beer (scotch on the other hand...). Of course, if I had homebrew around I'd def be drinking more beer.

I'm gonna try the buckets...I guess 1/8" holes it is. I'm sure you guys are thinking; "He'll come around soon enough." and you're probably right. But at least I'll be able to say I learned from personal experience and that's worth a lot to me.

Do what suits your needs best, there's no "right" answer. If you are looking to keep it SUPER simple and still make great beer you don't even need the buckets, you could just mash in a grain bag.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/

I've done this method with two large (and very cheap) stock pots and did it all grain, you could do it with buckets too. I got 70% first time through with it.

 

[funkswing]

I know this post is almost two years old, but its new to me!

About those Zapap (?) buckets for a lauter tun. I made one of those when I first started homebrewing, but I don't think I ever used it for an actual brew. But I will tell you what......I sit on that bucket with 500 holes drilled into it just about every day. Don't know if it was worth drilling all those holes tho.....

 

[BigJoeBrews]

A SS braid should run you about $3 - $5 so it is worth a shot, especially if you are batch sparging. They are surprisingly hard to get stuck, as long as you buy a real SS braid (and not a plastic one). They are easy to put together -- see the link in my signature for some ideas (please note that I use a piece of tubing inside my braid but no longer advocate doing this because so many people do this wrong and end up with a stuck mash).

How do people do this wrong? I am beating the crap out of my SS braid and I'm thinking of putting something inside to help strengthen it. I read a suggestion to twist a SS wire into a spring and insert into braid. Anybody use this, or have a good suggestion?
I was thinking of getting a false bottom, but now everybody has me talked out of it...
I use my mash tun as a cold water reservoir when I am chilling my wort. It gets filled with 20lbs of ice, water, and a pond pump. Pump the ice water through an immersion chiller with a whirlpool. I think I've crushed it with the ice, and maybe with hitting it with the spoon during mashing?
Either way, I was thinking of getting a false bottom and using some silicone tubing to attach it to a barb on the side of my 10 Gallon round. This way, I can easily remove it for "Icing". Do you think the silicone tube will stay on without any fittings? will the grain crush the tube? Any ideas welcomed...

 

[gifty74]

Trying to fire this thread up again because it applies directly to my setup. I went from a cooler to mashing in keggle with this false bottom...

Sits nice and flat on the bottom of the keggle, and we use a hose clamp on top and bottom to keep it securely down. This is the 3rd batch in a row now, since using it, that we've had super slow, almost stuck, mashes. We use a pump to recirculate during the mash (direct fired) and it starts off strong and we can run the pump at pretty much wide open. However, after a few minutes of recirc it begins to slow. It gets so slow it's really slowing down brew day. I'm guessing that the holes are getting clogged with grain. So, I'm not having luck with that setup at all. We thought about going with a larger dip tube than the one supplied with it, but I'm really thinking its the holes getting plugged. Maybe one with smaller holes? I'm now looking for alternatives as we tried little tweaks for 3 batches and nothing has worked.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

When you run the pump at full speed, it compacts the mash and turns it into a block of concrete. Slow the pump down and make sure the water to grain ratio is a little thinner to help w/ recirculation. No need to have it recirc at full speed.

 

[gifty74]

I guess we could try that. Although, I'm still afraid it would compact and slow again over time. I can't have a sparge like that again. Took forever!!

 

[user 51917]

I have been using the cpvc manifold with hack saw slits facing the bottom of the tun and it works great and cheap too
I get eff. in the high 80's and vorlouf clear in no time

 

[gifty74]

Is that in a keggle (keg kettle) or cooler?

 

[user 51917]

so far in a cooler 48 Qt rectangle
I am in the process of building a keg M/LT and will be using a manifold of cooper for that
I have a E-Herms system and have had no problems with stuck mashes as of yet I also get little to no particles in the wort even during the vorlouf

 

[gifty74]

Same scenario here. I had the same, 48qt Igloo square, with CPVC manifold. Works great, never once had a stuck sparge or slow runoff. Could always run as fast as I wanted. Now I go to the false bottom pictured above and having all kinds of problems. I'm think of the same, making a copper manifold with slits on the bottom like my CPVC manifold. Can't work any worse.