First AG, Mash Tun question

[madirish]

Ready to brew my first AG tomorrow morning, and have a mash tun question. I have a 10 gallon round igloo cooler and a domed stainless false bottom. Do I need to run a braided hose across the bottom of the cooler or just let the wort run out the ball valve? I was wondering if letting the wort run out the side of the cooler directly would result in channeling?

2nd question, since I am making an IPA and will be dry hopping, is it ok to dry hop directly into the primary after 2 weeks? I don't want to transfer to a secondary if I do not need to?

Thanks!

 

[theveganbrewer]

One or the other on the false bottom/hose. You're good to go there.

From Stevorino:
If you are fly sparging -- I would definitely go False Bottom. In short: If you are batch sparging, it literally doesn't matter what you use as long as it will filter out the grains. If you are fly sparging, you want to distribute the suction from the gravity feed/pump as much as possible. For this reason, False bottoms are best because they distribute the suction across the entire bottom of your vessel.

In Short:

If you are batch sparging: You'll get the same results regardless
If you are fly sparging (or plan to soon): Go False Bottom, it's the best and most efficient way to fly sparge.

From me, on the IPA, yes, you can dry hop directly into primary. I prefer to work backwards from bottling/keg date to choose when to dry hop. You want to plan it out so you can get the beer off the hops the day it's ready to go into bottle/keg. Age the beer out as long as you want, then dry hop, consume. Fresh is best for the IPA. I find it best to go 3 weeks before dry hopping to let yeast naturally drop out before adding dry hops. The less yeast in there the better, it won't mess with the hop oils. If you want and have the ability, you can drop the beer to 60-62 degrees after a few weeks to drop the yeast out almost completely and then dry hop. Ideal aroma that way.

 

[madirish]

Thanks very much!!