I’ve been mashing for 3 years with a kettle screen. It’s time I expand to 10 gallon batches and would like to hear opinions on kettle screens vs false bottoms with holes vs false bottoms with partial punchouts (Blichman style) before I purchase upgrades. Also, hazy memory remembers seeing a boil pot out there with an angled port for whirlpooling. Anyone know of the manufacturer?
I’ve used a kettle screen, stainless braid and false bottom with holes in a beverage cooler mash tun. Without question, the stainless braid is the best (and cheapest) of the three. In my experience runnings clears faster and are ultimately clearer than the other two. I use a pump to recirculate before diverting runnings into the kettle.
Except for the fact that I don’t use a pump to recirculate, my experience exactly matches kcbeersnob. But if you use a stainless braid it works best if you batch sparge.
If you fly sparge (and want to continue doing so, I was actually quite happy to leave it behind) you probably want to use a false bottom. I suspect the Blichman style will work better than the false bottoms I’ve tried, because it might reduce the amount of grain that gets stuck in holes and makes it a pain to clean, but I’ve never used the Blichman so I’m guessing here.
Can’t help you with the kettle question.
The port fer whirl pooling can just be as simple as an elbow with a barbed fitting to reduce the outlet volume and git a stronger stream. I have 1/2" fittings on my keggle, on the elbow inside the keggle I then put a 3/8" barbed fitting… Sneezles61
@rebuiltcellars explains the braid vs. false bottom pretty well. Nothing wrong with Blichmann but I find it over priced for no reason.
Here is a BK with a tangential inlet for whirlpool. BK whirlpool
