I recently acquired my own mash tun after sharing with a buddy of mine for the past year. it’s an identical setup to his (10 gallon round igloo & stainless steel false bottom), with the exception that I opted for a high temp hose for mine and he has a reinforced braided hose in his. we used his setup dozens of times without issue. all four times I’ve used my setup, I’ve had a stuck mash.
I typically brew with a bit of rye (10% overall at most), but that was on the old and the new system. my buddy thinks maybe my hose is getting crushed under the mash, but I don’t think that’s it. I’m noticing a LOT of grains under the false bottom when I clean up afterwards. I don’t know how it’s getting under there, unless the more flexible hose is allowing the bottom to flap?
mashing out and even dumping my sparge into the tank hasn’t been enough to loosen it up, I’ve had to dump the entire mash tun in my boil kettle and strain through the bazooka tube. I’m sure this isn’t as efficient for straining and I’m getting the smaller particulates into the boil.
huh, I am confused, you have a false bottom AND a hose? my coleman has the SS braid and that’s it. I brewed a big beer with mostly wheat and it sort of stuck, but the nice thing about batch sparging is you just stir it up and wait 5 minutes before re-vourlaufing and move on.
where is the hose in relation to the false bottom? could also be a crush issue I suppose, have you also started using a different mill for your grain?
I assume your false bottom is the kind where a pipe elbow passes through so that the lower end is under the false bottom? and the hose you’re talking about goes from the other end of the elbow to the spigot outlet of your cooler?
What sometimes happens with that kind of setup is that the weight of the grain causes the false bottom to flex slightly such that the lower end of that elbow seals against the bottom of the cooler stopping the flow. If it is flexing, maybe that’s also what’s allowing grain underneath. Maybe, since you got your setup after your buddy, your false bottom uses cheaper/thinner stainless so his works and yours doesn’t.
Maybe next time, try putting some sort of shim under the elbow so that it can’t seal to the bottom?
the hose is just a 5" silicone tube connecting the 90 to the ball valve. the false bottom is identical to my buddy’s, very sturdy. I’ll try the shim, maybe that will keep the dome from flapping around.
It could be the hose. The silicone high-temp hose is pretty soft, especially when hot, so it might be getting crushed flat under the weight of the grain, or letting the false bottom move around too much. The braided hose is a lot stiffer, so it eliminates that problem.
I have the same domed false bottom and have never had a stuck mash with this setup. No modifications necessary. I would bet its your hose. If you can pinch it closed with your thumb and index finger offset(not right under each other but about an inch apart along length of hose) it is too soft.
Tom could be right on the flexing. You can get a large resolved force on the False Bottom with just a little pressure differential. The elbow may bottom out on the bottom of the cooler. I have an old Listerman Phalse bottom made of plastic. Those had horizontal holes drilled through the elbow at right angles so you would maintain flow when the plastic was hot in the mash, under pressure, and bottomed out on the elbow that extends under he false bottom. Hope you understand what I mean.
If it is your hose, I used this trick to keep mine from flattening under the mash… I bought a lenght of copper wire, wrapped it tightly around a thin object, (a dip tube, or a bic pen works) and insert the coiled wire into the hose. No more squished hose!
that’s what I did-I used a couple of feet of 10 gauge romex wrapped around a diptube and inserted into a stainless mesh-there was no way to close it off.
Seeing the picture maybe not, but you can add a single one to the center, near elbow, to keep it off of the bottom.
I like the idea of putting wire in the hose to keep it open, or swapping to a more rigid hose. if your high temp hose is anything like mine, it gets super flexible when it is hot. Trying to run off the wort will probably create enough suction to suck it flat.
I had a false bottom like that once, only plastic. I found that I had to hold it down with a long spoon or a weight to keep it securley on the bottom of the mash tun otherwise grain would get under it and render it ineffective. Could that be what is happening to yours?
I checked with the LHBS, they didn’t have reinforced tubing in the right size. they did suggest I reinforce the silicone tubing I have with something, so I used a bit of stainless steel dip tube (I only needed a couple inches and had a scrap). I’m sure it will reduce my flow a bit, but reduced flow is better than no flow. I also made a minor adjustment on the false bottom, I noticed I could move the bottom nut a bit. we’ll see this weekend if it works.
All those ideas above are good ones. I especially like the homebrewer’s “intraluminal stents” that y’all created for the hoses–brilliant, really.
It is also quite possible that, since you’re using a round 10-gallon Igloo cooler, you are also seeing the effects of grain bed compaction (which you wouldn’t see in a rectangular cooler). Anytime the grain bed height approaches and exceeds its width, you’re very likely going to see grain bed compaction which will significantly slow the lautering/sparging rate regardless of the false bottom used.
This is the reason I switched from the round 10-gallon Igloo (with 12-inch SS Bazooka Braid) to a 20.5-gallon rectangular Coleman Cooler. Batch sparging is soo fast and easy now. No stuck mashes, either.
If you have time, I’d try it with just hot water the first time and see what happens. I think you should also see if you can get someone from your club to come over, you’ve got a bunch of smart guys there who can help you figure it out.