[quote=“HellBound”]Hmm, well I wish I had read the replies BEFORE going to home depot. Oh well. I went with a 30 in. braid. It’s longer than you all say I need and I’ll use it , good thing about being too long is I can always cut it shorter, right?
So about the cooler size, I thought the depth of the grain bed and amount of head space made a difference in the lautering process?[/quote]
no problem cutting it shorter. For batch sparging grain depth is not critical. grain depth a couple inches deep is good enough. With batch sparging you are just rinsing the grain.
[quote=“mbg”][quote=“Denny”][quote=“HellBound”]ok, so for the 10 gal rubber maid, should i just use the 9 in. hose? or go for the 12 in.? im thinking drainage area of the bottom of the cooler.
kinda like i see pictured. looks like it would be more effective than just a braid across the diameter[/quote]
I assume you’re batch sparging. In that case, you just need a short piece of braid straight across the floor of the cooler. Snaking it around won’t get you anything but a tangle when you stir.[/quote]
Denny - do you put anything inside the braid to keep it from collapsing under the weight of the grain? I ask because a couple times my mash runnings were fine but the sparge was stuck from the start till I applied a little suction on the drain hose to start it flowing - some said my braid may have collapsed under the weight of the grain. I have an IceCube cooler with my braid in a circle connected to a “T” to the outlet.
Thanks,
Mike[/quote]
Nope, nothing inside the braid. I’ve used up to 75 lb. of grain with no problem.
[quote=“sonex”][quote=“HellBound”]Hmm, well I wish I had read the replies BEFORE going to home depot. Oh well. I went with a 30 in. braid. It’s longer than you all say I need and I’ll use it , good thing about being too long is I can always cut it shorter, right?
So about the cooler size, I thought the depth of the grain bed and amount of head space made a difference in the lautering process?[/quote]
no problem cutting it shorter. For batch sparging grain depth is not critical. grain depth a couple inches deep is good enough. With batch sparging you are just rinsing the grain.[/quote]
Fly spargng rinses the grain. Btach sparging is a draining, not rinsing, process.
Hi All, I don’t mean to jump this thread but I have also been thinking about replacing my FB with some SS braid. I too use a 10gal cylinder igloo and it’s friggin ORANGE too 8) So w/o starting yet another FB versus SS braid war, would the braid offer a better crack at efficiency? Also, I cut a wafer of plywood in the diameter of my cooler and use it to press out/down as much wort as possible during extraction. Any thoughts on that procedure. It does afford me quite an addition of wort.
Thanks, MIke
All things being equal, there should be no difference in efficiency between a FB and braid based on the material. It’s more ihow it’s used. I know that some FB users have a lot of dead space under the FB, wich negatively affects efficiency. You don’t have that with a braid.
I theory there’s nothing wrong with it. I don’t know how ot would work in practice with a braid. I just tilt my cooler after the runoff stops and let it drain into a pitcher for a few minutes, then add that to the kettle.
I still use my FB or soon to be SS braid. Using the wood disc is like sorta “squeezin da bag” but instead the plywood disc forces even pressure downward and a lot of liquid trapped in the grains runs out. I’m also not tannin-o-phobic.
Only guessing, but I think it’s a possibility. If you just let the tun drain into another container without the squeeze, then you can add it later. How much do you get by squeezing? If it’s not too much, you could reformulate the recipe to refigure the volumes.
Although I’ve not measured, it’s a nice little amount +/- 20 sweet ounces?? I intend on measuring on my next batch. So far I think it’s worth it. It’s not a lot in reality but it is the good stuff.
For many years, I considered that to be in the “not enough to worry about” category. We’re talking a pint and a quarter, right? My batch sparge mentor taught me the “Law of Diminishing Returns” and I generally consider that amount to not be worth the effort. These days, I’ll sometimes let the tun drain into a container and collect that and add it back. But when I don’t it doesn’t really make a noticeable difference. You could always just sparge with another qt. of water to get the same amount of runoff without pressing.
Denny, I hope you are still lurking out there. When I built my mash tun my hands looked like I had wrestled a really pissed off, wet cat by the time I got the nylon liner out of the braid. You gave me some really good advice (after the fact) that made alot more sense than what I had done.
Concerning the collapsing of the braid if it happens I have heard of people taking SS wire, coiling it around a pencil, uncoiling it, and putting it inside the braid. I don’t know if it helps, but I don’t think it would hurt.
[quote=“flytyer”]Denny, I hope you are still lurking out there. When I built my mash tun my hands looked like I had wrestled a really pissed off, wet cat by the time I got the nylon liner out of the braid. You gave me some really good advice (after the fact) that made alot more sense than what I had done.
Concerning the collapsing of the braid if it happens I have heard of people taking SS wire, coiling it around a pencil, uncoiling it, and putting it inside the braid. I don’t know if it helps, but I don’t think it would hurt.[/quote]
Yeah, I’ve heard of that, too. I’d rather just make sure I get the right braid to avoid it rather than add another layer of complexity.
I found my braid too long at the beginning,so i cut it and stuck a SS screw in the end to plug it, then put a SS clamp around the braid&screw and tightened it.
I have a 70 qt. Coleman Xtreme cooler with a 14 inch long SS hose braid. I’ve brewed batches that have had grain bills of 60+ lbs with no collapsing. I also have a homemade mash paddle that has hit it a time or two with no issues.
Only guessing, but I think it’s a possibility. If you just let the tun drain into another container without the squeeze, then you can add it later. How much do you get by squeezing? If it’s not too much, you could reformulate the recipe to refigure the volumes.[/quote]
I think that in addition to crushing, you are forcing the grain into the filter (braid) which just negated the part of getting the grain bed set to assist with filtering. So you might be boiling husks and grain particles which could create off flavors or tannins.
[quote=“holaday1185”] I’ve brewed batches that have had grain bills of 60+ lbs with no collapsing.[/quote]Apparently there are quality braids and some not so much - I’ve never had a problem either.
