False bottom, manifold, s/s tube... What about s/s ball bearings?

[kennett_brew]

Currently looking at the plus/minus for false bottoms, manifolds and stainless steel braided tubes and thought...

Biggest thing that impacts flow and efficiency is how evenly you extract the liquid from the MLT....

What if I were to use stainless steel beads? or glass for that matter to create an even filter bed... Similar to a sand pool filter...

Anyone ever try it?

kb

 

[Lucky_Chicken]

interesting... haven't heard of anyone trying it but my concern would be them getting clogged with grain, or getting stirred into the grain.

 

[Bobby_M]

Cleaning nightmare.

 

[tasq]

Cleaning nightmare.

Agreed!

 

[kennett_brew]

interesting... haven't heard of anyone trying it but my concern would be them getting clogged with grain, or getting stirred into the grain.

interesting.. the getting stirred into the grain is something I hadn't thought of...

pop'em into a bag possibly.. Just attempting to come up with a way to ensure the grain bed is uniformly circulating to avoid channeling, etc.....

hmmmmm

 

[dedhedjed]

don't try to reinvent the wheel. commercial breweries use false bottoms for a reason...

 

[kennett_brew]

don't try to reinvent the wheel. commercial breweries use false bottoms for a reason...

haha.. It's inner MacGyver in me... Can't help it!

 

[mikelikesit2000]

cleaning nightmare.

+1

 

[matho]

a guy is australia proved you could make a filter bed out of gravel so i can't see why your idea wouldn't work

 

[BargainFittings]

Why not try it if you are willing? If it works for you and is sustainable then why not?
Everything has been tried I'm sure..... branches, hay, rice hulls, barley hulls, metal lathe, stainless mesh braids, screens, manifolds, false bottoms and?????

EDIT: As long as its something you want to do and try and report back to share the results its all in fun right?

 

[kennett_brew]

Why not try it if you are willing? If it works for you and is sustainable then why not?
Everything has been tried I'm sure..... branches, hay, rice hulls, barley hulls, metal lathe, stainless mesh braids, screens, manifolds, false bottoms and?????

EDIT: As long as its something you want to do and try and report back to share the results its all in fun right?

ha! no worries there.. I will def be trying it... The MLT I am planning on using is the 52qt cooler... I've only seen manifolds and tubes...

Exactly! worst case I prove myself wrong... Wasn't it Edison who said he found over a 1,000 ways not to make a light bulb?

 

[Bobby_M]

Yeah, but if that analogy is going to stand, we already have the light bulb. It's called a false bottom. Just how are you going to clean grain chunks out of 800 ball bearings?

 

[Bruwsomtin]

Sabco false bottom all the way!

 

[BargainFittings]

ha! no worries there.. I will def be trying it... The MLT I am planning on using is the 52qt cooler... I've only seen manifolds and tubes...

Exactly! worst case I prove myself wrong... Wasn't it Edison who said he found over a 1,000 ways not to make a light bulb?

Awesome.

I look forward to a post on this. I've personally moved to a point of least resistance and use screens or false bottoms for mashing but this idea still appeals to me on a very basic "what if" level!

 

[zazbnf]

I find this idea very interesting, I will be following this thread to see how things work out.

Just how are you going to clean grain chunks out of 800 ball bearings?

I have one of these I use when reloading. While not it's intended purpose, I bet it would be just the thing for seperating/cleaning grain from the ball bearings. Crank it and spray with a garden hose.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/972948/frankford-arsenal-quick-n-ez-rotary-media-separator

 

[kennett_brew]

Yeah, but if that analogy is going to stand, we already have the light bulb. It's called a false bottom. Just how are you going to clean grain chunks out of 800 ball bearings?

I am purely working through this as we all are typing. The size of the s/s balls would be 1/4 to 1/2 inch in diameter... Possibly a wire mesh?

Issue I have is that I'll be using a rectangle cooler, not round so manifolds or tubes are the only options I've seen other than a custom false bottom...

 

[kennett_brew]

this idea still appeals to me on a very basic "what if" level!

Exactly.. I am sure we all are VERY thankful for that one bored guy, 1,000's of years ago who asked himself, what if I add water to these grains, then let them sit for a while and drink the liquid...

 

[kennett_brew]

By the way.. I really appreciate you all tak'in the time to share your thoughts and comments.. Love this forum!!

 

[AdamCanFly]

You could run water into the ball bearings from the bottom up and put a drain valve a few inches up from the top of the bearings. All of the grain would rinse up and drain out. It would have to be a big valve I guess

 

[kennett_brew]

You could run water into the ball bearings from the bottom up and put a drain valve a few inches up from the top of the bearings. All of the grain would rinse up and drain out. It would have to be a big valve I guess

Sadly, given I am going to use the 52Q rectangular cooler, that's not quite an option without a LOT of modification...

But good thought!

 

[brianj434]

This is exactly what my brother does. He has a 10 gallon round cooler and uses glass marbles. He scrounged up flexible, woven SS mesh some where and just lays it across the top.

To clean it he just dumps the grain into the trash or whatever and when its about 1/2 of the way out (with the cooler on its side) he holds the mesh in place with his mash stirrer,thus retaining the marbles. then he just hoses the whole thing off with the sink sprayer and stirs the marbles around a bit.

His set up gives 100% draining on the bottom of the mash, is easy to clean, wicked cheap and on top of that, the marbles retain heat and stabilize the mash more than a false bottom would.

Bronze window screen would work too. I say give it a try for a few bucks what could go wrong. Good luck.

 

[tealio]

I dont think cleaning would be too bad... scoop them up and into another vessel, fill with water and cleaning solution, then scoop out again.

Maybe even throw them all into a zippered brew in a bag.

What amount and cost would it be for stainless ball bearings?

I could see a small accident causing some sort of benny hill soundtrack while chasing hot stainless balls all over the brewery!

 

[kennett_brew]

What amount and cost would it be for stainless ball bearings?

I am still researching the cost aspect. 1/2 s/s bearings are roughly 2 bucks a ball.. but that was just after a quick search...

I could see a small accident causing some sort of benny hill soundtrack while chasing hot stainless balls all over the brewery!

I laughed out loud at that one.... My parents loved Benny Hill.. I grew up watching it...

 

[kennett_brew]

uses glass marbles.

Was wondering if those would work... Worried about the polish, etc on the outside but I bet you can easily clean them off, etc.. Plus, in comparison to S/S, I bet the glass marbles are a fraction of the cost.

 

[zazbnf]

I too was curious about marbles since I have over 18,000 of them I inherited from my father.

When googling I found information about cracking marbles by boiling them but I couldn't find any info about them at mash temps. My concern was glass shards in my beer. I think I would feel safer with stainless bearings but they are considerably more expensive than a manifold.

 

[BargainFittings]

Take LOTS OF PICTURES!

and post them....

That is all.

 

[Supergrump]

Buckyballs come to mind. http://www.getbuckyballs.com/products/#!/buckyballs

 

[kellanv]

Heat/vibration would probably destroy the magnetism of the buckyballs. Interesting ideas all around...

 

[kennett_brew]

Take LOTS OF PICTURES!

and post them....

That is all.

you got it... Although my research is for my own, to be built, basement brewery... I think I will talk my homebrew friends into trying this during our next batch!! (to get the pics and experiment done quicker... )

 

[GregZuk]

Interesting idea, couple things to add.

Bucky balls could be interesting, but the way they stack I could see it creating too large of a hole for the grain to go into. Also I believe you need heat WAY above 175* to demagnetize them.

also on the cost of stainless steel balls, I checked Mcmastercarr.com they have 302 ss balls listed (not bearings but i don't think you need them that smooth)
at 1/4" they are 8.38 for 100
at 3/8" they are 10.60 for 25
at 7/16" they are 11.62 for 25 (largest diameter for best price)
at 1/2" they are 10.83 for 15

hope this helps.

Greg