Mashtun - anyone ever use mesh for anchor bolts?

[bonzombiekitty]

After a recent disaster of a brew day, I decided to do some redesign on my mashtun.

There was a basic change, like going from a 3/8th" valve to a 1/2. That alone is looking like it will work a whole lot better as it fits much better in my cooler, so it'll have a much cleaner seal.

The other change I want to make is improving the drainage to the valve. The steel mesh (a water supply line with the inner tube removed) I was using just didn't hold its shape and I can't see how it would do well at allowing liquid to flow through it.

I was originally going to just build a simple ribbing for it. But my future father in law showed me some stainless steel mesh tubes that he uses for anchor bolts (something like this ). It's nice and rigid, so it won't collapse, and the screen isn't as tight as the mesh I currently have, but tighter than the than a mesh kitchen strainer. I'm guessing it'll work pretty well.

Anyone use these before? Did it work well?

 

[photinus]

I'd guess it would work. I have a false bottom in my keggle and the holes in it are much larger then that (or the stainless mesh you previously used) so I would imagine it should do fine. I guess it just depends on how finely you mill your grain?

 

[nicadrick]

You might try finding a stainless spring that will fit in the braid to support the weight of the mash. Otherwise, you could go with the slotted manifold.

 

[Bobby_M]

Are you sure they are stainless?

 

[bonzombiekitty]

Are you sure they are stainless?

The ones in the link, I dunno - I swear the specifications on it said they were when I looked at it on Friday, but it doesn't mention it now.

But the ones in the link aren't the ones I've got. According to my future father in law, the ones he gave me are stainless steel. I'll give them a try and see how they work. If they start to rust, then I'll go back to the original plan. I was just curious if someone had used them before. I don't want two disaster brew days in a row.

 

[Bithead]

The product spec page at hilti.com says they're zinc plated.

 

[bonzombiekitty]

The product spec page at hilti.com says they're zinc plated.

Yeah, but that's not what I'm using. It just looks like it.

Edit: I think this is the one http://www.simpsonanchors.com/catalog/adhesives/accs/screens.html - the ones I have have the little tab on it.

 

[Bithead]

If they're SS, mesh is fine enough and you can attach it at the bulkhead then I'd use it.

 

[Dog House Brew]

I just went copper manifold. Didin't like the mesh. Like hte manifold and was cheap.

 

[bonzombiekitty]

I just went copper manifold. Didin't like the mesh. Like hte manifold and was cheap.

I'm not too much of a fan of the standard water line ss mesh either given the issues I encountered with it.

Hence the experimenting with this stuff or ribbing the mesh. Looking at this screen tube, I'm hopeful I'll get the best of both worlds. Rigid enough to not collapse and keep a clear path to the valve as well as not moving around and get tangled up when stirring the mash; holes small enough to keep the grains out but large enough to keep the stickier mashes from clogging up; and enough holes to allow plenty of water into the channel.

I am going to connect 4 of these tubes together into a manifold. I'm just short one tube - which I'll hopefully get this weekend, with a brew day the following weekend.

 

[Bithead]

Please let us know how it works out. Pics and construction notes are a plus.

 

[bonzombiekitty]

Please let us know how it works out. Pics and construction notes are a plus.

I'll post pics of what I can from this point on when I get the chance to do so. Some of it has already been assembled. I've (well, my FFIL) already soldered together the some copper pipes and couplers to create a U bend and a T.

We also connected two of the three tubes together via a copper pipe coupler, and attached the third tube to a coupler in anticpation for the final tube. This was not an easy task. Copper and SS do not want to solder together. We had to get just the right temperature to melt the solder, but not so hot that it just runs right off the screen. We tried to solder the tubes to the U bend we made, but we failed pretty miserably at that. I might give that one more go after cleaning the couplings better. If push comes to shove, I'll just flare the ends of the tubing and use some SS clamps.

 

[bonzombiekitty]

So I put it all together and gave it a shot, sorry for the lack of pictures.

It's put together as such:

- 2 mesh lines made by joining one 12" mesh with one mesh trimmed from the closed end to about 6" via a copper pipe coupler (joined open end to open end).
----- One of these is nice and soldered together, but I failed at soldering the second set so I flared the ends and used some compression clamps to make it stay put. Steel mesh and copper do not want to solder together easily.
- 1 copper U made by joining two elbow joints ~ 3 inches in width.
- 1 copper T made by joining two elbow joints with a T-joint ~3 inches in width.

I was able to solder one of the mesh lines into the copper U, but failed at the second side. I hooked up the lines to the copper T by flaring the ends and using a compression clamp. There was no need to clamp the second line to the U because the setup just makes it stay in place, which is all it needs to do on that end, since both lines have their closed ends there, it could really fall off for all I care.

The whole set up slides nicely onto the brass nipple inside the mash tun.

Everything flowed nicely out of it, and I didn't have any real issues. The only issue I ran into was that it allowed the really finely ground grain through. But that's ok with me, as I can just drain the wort through a grain bag to catch the few bits that make it through. I think the stuff that makes it through is either from the where the setup connects to the nipple (I just slide it over so there may be a bit of a gap there) or where I made slits in the mesh to be able to flare the ends, which can be fixed with a bit of silicone.

Overall, it doesn't look pretty, but it seems to do the job well. Granted, I started with a very thin mash (was doing some step mashing as an experiment), it drained out very nicely, even towards the end. Whereas before, once most of the water drained it would be a very slow trickle even though the water level was well above the valve and it'd take >5 minutes to get that last gallon out, now it drained very quickly and smoothly until the water level got to the level of the valve.

Minus the issue of the small bits of grain getting through, which again, is easily taken care of these tubes seem to work really well. Given the ones I linked to earlier have little tabs on the end, you could likely just join two together with a compression clamp and maybe a dab of silicon if you wanted to keep it simpler and cheaper (~$12) than the setup I made.