False Bottom out of Baker's Secret Pizza Pan

[Bob-MTL]

So here is my take on a DIY false bottom for the 5 gallons Rubbermaid cooler. After looking at the options, I decided to go with the Baker's Secret Pizza Pan, which can be bought for about 12$ (CAN) and is made of aluminium. I choose it because the holes were already made, it's made of aluminium, and cheap.

Before I go on, I found after my project was finished, that the hole sizes for the grid should be no more than 2mm, and that this pizza pan has 3mm holes. So yeah, lesson learned here.

That aside, doing it took me about 2 hours.



So here goes the pictures...

 

[bigluth]

So, excuse me for my ignorance here, but what's the significance of the grid holes? Is there grain getting under the bottom or something else entirely?

 

[mbobhat]

So, excuse me for my ignorance here, but what's the significance of the grid holes? Is there grain getting under the bottom or something else entirely?

Separates the wort from the grain above. There is space under the grid holes that the wort hose goes to, that is the false bottom

 

[Bob-MTL]

The result:

Short answer: Good, if seal is well made. 8)


Long answer:


So after the mash was done, I started pulling the mash and quickly figured out that huge husks was passing through and was stock at the ball bearing valve, slowing down the flow up to an halt. It was easy though to simply open the valve to let the husk go and then reduce the flow again.

Now, theses husks are way bigger than the 3mm holes of the pan, meaning that they don't come from them, but from the lack of seal from the side of the bottom. Because I am fairly bad at manual task, this seal was poorly made and will require a lot more love before the next attempt.

The picture show what went through, with about 5 gallons of water and 3 pounds of grain.

As for efficiency, I got an increase of my O.G. of 5 points (1.045 -> 1.050), but the main point is more that I was able to mix without the doubt of my previous tubing going vertical and creating a tunnel and ruining my O.G. (which happened 2 batch ago, ended up with a 1.035 batch).

The flow was never an issue. At full trottle, it can go a lot faster than 1 quart/minute.


Conclusion: Once the seal is tigh, this will be a very good false bottom.