I’m looking to make a false bottom out of perforated SS stock. Anyone know of material thickness and hole size?
Thanks,
Tom
It is all in here. I saw a big sheet of the perforated SS where I worked in the storage rack by the machine shop, no idea what they were going to use it for. I mentioned this because you should be able to buy the material rather than punch all of those holes, unless you are a skilled metal worker. Or just buy a screen from one of the suppliers.
http://brewhardware.com/false-bottoms-filters/152-falsebottom
Mc Master has perforated stock.
I used the following and it works well.
That’s the correct hole size (3/32") and on center spacing (5/32").
Thanks to all that replied. I’m a new brewer making mead and beer. I had an order placed for copper bar stock yesterday with onlinemetals and could have added the perforated metal. So .06" thickness works out to ~ 16 gauge which sounds correct. I had thought that the holes should be ~ 1/8" (.125") so this sounds good also. I’ve looked at websites, videos, etc. about various tuns (also called HLT or MLT?) and pretty much decided on the cylindrical water cooler type; probably 5 gallon as that’s the size of the batches I’m brewing. My plan is to add a dip tube to the ball valve and mount the screen above the valve on stand-offs. That way there is a “smooth” bottom with no valves, pipes in the way when I stir. I may add a thermometer. What do you think?
Thanks again,
Tom
A 5 gallon mash tun will mash about 10lbs of grain, which is a 5% (1.050 OG) beer for a 5 gallon batch. Unless you only make session beers get a 10 gallon mash tun.
A 5-gallon mash tun will accommodate approximately 13lbs of malt with a liquor to grist ratio of 1.25 quarts per pound. I can easily achieve 5.75 gallons of 1.062 wort using 11lbs of grist in my 5-gallon beverage cooler-based mash/lauter tun. I could hit the mid to high-80s with 13lbs of grist and a final kettle liquid volume of 5 gallons with careful sparging.
Trust me, you do not want that much dead space in your mash tun. You’ll risk bed compaction and a stuck sparge any time the liquid in the dead space falls below the bottom of the false bottom, which can happen if you attempt to drain the tun too quickly. Additionally, dead space is wasted space in a cooler-based mash/lauter tun.
I have been using beverage cooler-based mash tuns with false bottoms since 1993. Plumbing above the false bottom is the not a problem in practice because the mash should be floating.
Here’s an internal shot of my current mash/lauter tun (my false bottom has 16% open space):
With that said, a false bottom is a waste of money if you are planning to use what Dave Miller refers to as “infusion rinsing” (a.k.a. batch sparging). Batch sparging and continuous sparging (a.k.a. fly sparging) are different animals with different crush requirements. Denny’s setup allows for a much finer crush than a traditional false bottom-based design. Batch sparging requires a much finer crush than continuous sparging.
sure you can, just barely though. and 1.25 is really thick, not ideal for conversion. why make life harder than it has to be? particularly when you are first getting into all grain. I’ve been happy with my 72 qt coleman for several years now. I can brew 12 gallons of moderate strength or a 5 and 5 partigyle strong beer small beer combo or brew a 5 gallon batch of whatever. batch spargeing allows me to not worry about stuck sparges and be done spargeing in ~25 minutes.
Over all, while a 5 gallon Mash tun might be enough I think the OP would be better off with a larger mash tun.
No, it doesn’t require it. It allows it, but it’s not a requirement.
I guess that I should have qualified that statement. A finer crush is needed to achieve a comparable extraction rate.
Not in my experience.
What is the roller spacing on your mill? What is your average extraction rate in points per pound per gallon (use final kettle liquid volume minus the break and hops for the calculation)?
I have no idea of the roller spacing. I’m making grist, not gaps, so I set it to get a good crush. I can’t recall the last time I figured my ppg. I’ll do it when I brew next and let ya know. Well, maybe not the next time, since I’ve got to brew 8 kits for Brewcraft next week. But after that…
Here we go boys…my first post.
Like the OP, I’ve been tossing around the idea of making a false bottom and found this idea.
Seems simple enough. No need to worry about drilling all sorts of holes, and a pizza pan wont leave much dead space at the bottom either. Ultimately, a false bottom is just there to help filter out the majority of particulates when sparging. Why overcomplicate it? Anybody have any reason to not go this route?
Because using a braid is so much easier?
the holes may be too large, not enough of them and the metal might be too thin to support the weight of the grist but for $10 it’s worth a try:) report back with your results.
As for the OP, if recommend the 10 gallon tun for larger grain bills and more flexibility with the water ratios being used.
Batch sparging is great, I average 80% efficiency and use a false bottom set below the plumbing with a dip tube. Dead space is about a cup of wort.
No offense to Denny’s screen setup, I just never got good runnings no matter how I set it up in a round cooler or the materials used but YMMV:)
What’s your definition of “good runnings”?
No stuck sparge:) yes I know crush has a lot to do with that as well as water/grist and believe me I tried various screens and setups, just happier with the false bottom