Braid to Stainless false bottom

[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!!

 

[redman67]

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?

 

[redman67]

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.