Stainless steel mesh

[DyerNeedOfBeer]

I'm looking to make a strainer / false bottom and have considered using a stainless steel mesh. I have found the materials on the internet but only in large (expensive) volumes. Anyone know a source for this material? I have tried Lowes and a couple of other small town hardware stores with no success Anyone ever found this on the web for sale? The stuff I was looking at was quite rigid with holes (squares) about 1/8 inch. I guess a preforated s.s. plate would work too. I have found false bottoms for sale many places but kinda wanted to make a custom one for my application. If you have any ideas on where to get this material please reply.

Thanks

 

[D-brewmeister]

My mash tun uses the stainless steel braid from a faucet water supply hose, and it has worked flawlesly so far. I just cut off the fittings at either end of the hose, pulled out the rubber hose inside, and clamped the steel braid to the outlet pipe of my mashtun. Never had a stuck sparge so far, and I have even let the grain bed settle down onto the bottom of the tun durring a sparge and had no problems. A fairly cheap do it yourselfer sort of job.

 

[DyerNeedOfBeer]

The application here would not be a mash tun but for the boiling kettle. The strainer would filter the hops out with the drain point being below this 'screen'. What you are referring to would be too fine for this application... I believe...

 

[hawktrap74]

have you thought of a window screen all you would have to do is boil it for a while to get any residue off. plus you can modify it ant way you would like.

 

[George]

Have you checked out www.morebeer.com? They've got various sizes of screens in prices from $20-$75. This is more expensive than the braided hose, but is an option.
The holes on these are 3/32 in, just a little smaller than what you had in mind.

 

[joncro55]

Just happened to stumble upon this forum as I was searching for Stainless Steel wire mesh or screen, and I though it might help you guys out if I throw a source out there.

I just bought some cut pieces of fine wire mesh from

http://www.bwire.com/

After days and days of searching, I went with them because of their reputation and they had a very competitive price. Just and FYI for anyone out there that might be searching for this stuff like I was.

Happy Brewing.

 

[audger]

mcaster.com
grainger.com

mcmaster sells 12" round sections of ss. screen, grainger sells 12x12" squares. they also sell perforated steel sheets, which are more study then regular wire screen and are what most false bottoms you can buy are made out of.

 

[HawkATP]

I saw some $7 stainless steel splatter screens in the cooking section at Home Goods the other day. Figured those would be good as a false bottom.

 

[damnitbeavis]

My mash tun uses the stainless steel braid from a faucet water supply hose, and it has worked flawlesly so far. I just cut off the fittings at either end of the hose, pulled out the rubber hose inside, and clamped the steel braid to the outlet pipe of my mashtun. Never had a stuck sparge so far, and I have even let the grain bed settle down onto the bottom of the tun durring a sparge and had no problems. A fairly cheap do it yourselfer sort of job.

I like this idea as well, another option that works well is a slotted (or drilled) copper manifold, a side benefit being that it would also be easy to plumb. My original Boil kettle was a converted keg, and I used a few feet of copper coil permanently plumbed into the bottom with lots of holes drilled into the side facing the bottom of the kettle. It worked great for filtering out whole hops, and caught most of the trub in the hops as well.

 

[joncro55]

Could also try perforated metal here?

 

[Homercidal]

Window Screen usually comes as plastic or Aluminum. I have looked into Stainless and it's pretty expensive.

 

[airving]

I bought a 12x24 piece of 304 stainless mesh from amazon... I believe it was sourced from smallparts.com, but free shipping from amazon makes me happy.

Regardless, they had a wide variety of mesh sizes and wire thicknesses. I got 9x9, .032 wire, 51% open area, and if I were to do it again, I'd probably get a slightly tighter mesh / lower open area %. The wire is beefy enough for me, though.

 

[kerant]

I bought a 12x24 piece of 304 stainless mesh from amazon... I believe it was sourced from smallparts.com, but free shipping from amazon makes me happy.

Regardless, they had a wide variety of mesh sizes and wire thicknesses. I got 9x9, .032 wire, 51% open area, and if I were to do it again, I'd probably get a slightly tighter mesh / lower open area %. The wire is beefy enough for me, though.

I looked at the site but couldn't tell; does the mesh come framed?

 

[airving]

No - it doesn't. In my case, it came flat (12"x24") not rolled or otherwise deformed, in a heavy guage clear plastic sleeve with a label affixed to the plastic. The mesh itself was cleanly cut on three sides, and it was obvious that the other edge was the edge of the larger original piece. And of course, amazon packaging being what it is, that came in a box by itself with wadded up brown paper to hold it in place. At least I recycle.

 

[dutchoven]

I would look for a metal supplier in your area. I was able to pick up my perforated stainless for cheap. Here's my false bottom build: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/one-jig-cut-kegs-false-bottoms-233804/.

 

[fifelee]

Order Stainless 304 Perforated Sheet in Small Quantities at OnlineMetals.com

 

[outside92129]

decent deals on ebay.