# False Bottom Ideas For 100l Techniice Esky



## stux (18/12/12)

So, my Techniice 100L arrived the other day 





Has a nice 1" BSP (I think) bung hole, well, its 32mm in diameter at least




The funny thing is the base is slightly concave... around the edges at least, this presents a bit of a channel. I had drawn up lots of nice diagrams with cross-sections etc, but I closed the document without saving 

So, it looks that the corners are about 8mm or so deeper than the mainly flat center area

inner dimensions = 58 x 38 cm




I think this means the wort will flow to the edges, then sortof nicely drain around the edges... perhaps perfect for running a manifold just around the corners...

like this... but not. (thanks chappo cocko)




or, I could get a BB falsie... that will look exactly like this (thanks pocket beers)




Which looks a little small :-\

Amanda @ BeerBelly has said that Wayne can make larger falsies... and if that is the case... then what size should I go for?


Alternatively, I did have an idea to basically get an entire sheet of mesh which would be large enough to cover the bottom... I figured I could add angle iron or something along the edges, raising and lifting the edges, as well as helping to prevent edge wall channelling... i hope... and perhaps some standoffs etc. The idea would be to make an entire false bottom with full coverage, and then drain from underneath that. If i did that I might not even need a manifold/pickup arangement as it look like it will drain nicely out the bunghold with just a gentle angle

Again... i had lots of pretty diagrams 

Edit: re-drew the full false bottom diagrams




Although I would start with batch sparging, I'd be wanting to go to a HERMS and even experiment with continuous sparging, which is why I like the idea of a false bottom

Any thoughts?


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## Cocko (18/12/12)

Stux said:


> like this... but not. (thanks chappo)
> 
> View attachment 59423
> 
> ...



Umm.. Thats mine, not Chappos and I use to get about 75% out of it regularly.... Batch sparging. Once I started fly spargin, it was 82+ every brew...

You have thrown up all the options and I reckon the manifold is still the best. Not only because it served me so well for so many years but if you get your head around what you are trying to achieve, it works.

A Mesh bottom would be like draining a bag in biab and would take most the sparge to form a grain bed filter...

But, others will know better..

2c.


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## stux (18/12/12)

Cocko said:


> Umm.. Thats mine, not Chappos and I use to get about 75% out of it regularly.... Batch sparging. Once I started fly spargin, it was 82+ every brew...
> 
> You have thrown up all the options and I reckon the manifold is still the best. Not only because it served me so well for so many years but if you get your head around what you are trying to achieve, it works.
> 
> ...



Sorry Cocko , fixed 

Thanks


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## Cocko (18/12/12)

Stux said:


> Sorry Cocko , fixed
> 
> Thanks




HAHA!.. just reconised the pic is all mate. Chappo did abuse me a lot during that build, so all is good! :lol: 

All good, main point being the rest of my post...

Good luck with the build mate, I miss my 100L tun, it will serve you well.

What are you boiling in? 120L?


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## stux (18/12/12)

Cocko said:


> HAHA!.. just reconised the pic is all mate. Chappo did abuse me a lot during that build, so all is good! :lol:
> 
> All good, main point being the rest of my post...



Appreciated



> Good luck with the build mate, I miss my 100L tun, it will serve you well.
> 
> What are you boiling in? 120L?



Thanks

98L for now 

Currently knocking out 65L with BIAB

Choice was basically between 80 or 100, and went with 100

See: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=69194


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## stux (18/12/12)

The manifold does have the benefit that if I get an itch during the xmas holidays, or if the silly season makes a good size dent in the 10 kegs I have on standby... I can run to bunnings to buy the parts


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## Cocko (18/12/12)

Yep, easy!

The manifold is forcing even channeling, if you go full mesh you are picking up from the closest point and the 'back of the mesh will be suffering..

3c.

EDIT: This


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## Sammus (18/12/12)

I'm sure they'd both be fine, and I don't reackong the BB looks too small. It's only the performance that matters right, not the size?  

I think Palmer did some flow analysis on mash tuns and his data sugeests that having your manifold all the way to the edge can give you highly non-uniform flow through the grainbed while you're sparging. If you're batch sparging then it doesn't matter what manifold you use in that regard  

I haven't used a tube style one, but I've used a stainless braid (good for the price, but my least favourite), a round false bottom that we've all seen before, and one of BBs falsies. The BB falsie is about a thousand times better than the others in every regard. It requires much less circulation to get out bits of grain, and once that's done the wort coming through is unmistakably clearer. No affiliation or anything, I don't even own one, my mate bought one for his setup recently and I was so impressed by it I want to ditch my large round shiny stainless mashtun and build an esky with a falsie in it  With the others I have had problems with stuck sparges too, flasie has no such problem same batch of grain, same mill, same everything except mash tun.

Edit: after reading CMs comments below, I should say that all my experiences were in smaller vessels, a falsie in a big esky may move around a bit and hence be a pita.


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## brettprevans (18/12/12)

Having used a falsie in a 120L or larger ut was a nightmafe cause the bastard can move and u get grain struck under, stuck sparges eyc. When we then used a manifold it worked a treat.

Imo for a job like that there's nothing on earth Like a genuine, bona fide Electrified, six-car monorail

I mean manifold


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## Silver (18/12/12)

Before i got my 40 ltr IGLOO, i had a rectangular esky which i fitted a full size woven stainless mesh filter and it worked a treat.


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## stux (18/12/12)

Silver said:


> Before i got my 40 ltr IGLOO, i had a rectangular esky which i fitted a full size woven stainless mesh filter and it worked a treat.



How did you do it? Any pics?


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## MastersBrewery (19/12/12)

citymorgue2 said:


> Imo for a job like that there's nothing on earth Like a genuine, bona fide Electrified, six-car monorail




Just so happens Sydney will have one going cheap in the near future....keep an eye on ebay :huh:


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## Silver (19/12/12)

Stux said:


> How did you do it? Any pics?


No pics, sorry. Made a rough template using cardboard. Transferred to mesh and cut with 1mm thick cutting disc. Finished using 4" sander. Drilled a couple of holes and put a couple of small ss bolts in for lifting mesh in and out. I butchered that piece of mesh to use in my Igloo. Never had a stuck sparge and efficiency runs around 80% give or take a few points.


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## Nibbo (19/12/12)

Cocko said:


> Umm.. Thats mine, not Chappos and I use to get about 75% out of it regularly.... Batch sparging. Once I started fly spargin, it was 82+ every brew...
> 
> You have thrown up all the options and I reckon the manifold is still the best. Not only because it served me so well for so many years but if you get your head around what you are trying to achieve, it works.
> 
> ...




I knew i reconised those shady welds... h34r:


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## Yob (19/12/12)

I use a sheet of Voille (sp ?) in my esky, mostly because I wanted a fine filter because of the brown pump I use and didnt want to run the risk of the wort return blocking..

it works an absolute treat and have never considered forking out for SS..dead easy to clean too (*ed) manifold similar to Cocko's

system has been upgraded from this piccie but you will get the gist.




Ghetto? Yep... work? You bet your ass it does :lol:


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## jc64 (19/12/12)

Yob, love it! Ghetto style for the win!

I use a stainless braid in a 80L Techni-Ice esky, I'm getting around 68-70% efficiency which is fine with me. Single batch sparge, really quick as a bonus.


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## JDW81 (19/12/12)

Stux said:


> So, my Techniice 100L arrived the other day
> 
> View attachment 59419
> 
> ...



I had one of these and made up a copper manifold to the specs in how to brew. It also had the slightly funny shaped base, but didn't make any difference to efficiency etc. I put a brass plug in the outlet, with a 1/2 inch internal thread, which was easy to fit a weldless valve to.

Had great efficiency with both batch and fly sparging, and assuming you get your measurements right there will be no problems with channeling etc.

Looked something like this..


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## kieran (19/12/12)

If the edge will bother you, apply some clear silicone to all the 8mm lower edges/corners, thick enough so it raises the edges to draw flow back into the middle.

There are food-friendly silicones able to adhere to rigid plastics, withstand "chemical attack" (I wouldn't call a mash acidic, but a pH of 5-ish is a little on the low side) and importantly resist heat.
e.g. http://www.selleys.com.au/trade/building-p...ilicone-401-rtv


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## stux (19/12/12)

JDW81 said:


> I had one of these and made up a copper manifold to the specs in how to brew. It also had the slightly funny shaped base, but didn't make any difference to efficiency etc. I put a brass plug in the outlet, with a 1/2 inch internal thread, which was easy to fit a weldless valve to.
> 
> Had great efficiency with both batch and fly sparging, and assuming you get your measurements right there will be no problems with channeling etc.
> 
> Looked something like this..



Lovely neat manifold, how big is your esky?


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## stux (19/12/12)

So, at the moment I'm leaning towards the manifold, although perhaps if I can get a BB false for 50$ 2nd hand...

I've done a bit of searching on the US forums, and it seems a few people have made the full-perforated false bottom, with good success...

one example (yuri_rage)

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/how-do-i-b...652/#post794800


> I made it out of perforated stainless from www.onlinemetals.com (3/32" holes, around .030" thick). Tin snips and a bench mounted sander made it pretty easy to shape. A few sheet metal screws provide standoff from the bottom of the cooler (less than 1").





And toecutter's, same thing really, sits on the old manifold, http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/finished-m...-bottom-280696/



> Actually , just finished it up yesterday. I used 10-2 1/2 inch stainless steel screws to act as legs, so it sits slightly above the top of the back side of the spigot. Underneath the false bottom is the original copper manifold.








Seems like its a good idea to build a manifold as the base for a full false bottom anyway... So I should probably go with a manifold, and I can then always play around with mesh if I feel inclined later 


I'm still wondering about the margin area on the full mesh false bottom, in my original plan I considered having a non perferated section around the edge... I've found figures anywhere from 10-50mm for the width of this non perforated section


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## Silver (19/12/12)

Check metal scrap yards for ss woven mesh. I picked up a 1200mm x 900mm piece for $50.
Brewing Gods on my side i reckon.


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## JDW81 (19/12/12)

Stux said:


> Lovely neat manifold, how big is your esky?



I think it was 60L (sold it a while ago), but if you keep the distance between your manifold bars as X, and make the distance between the outside bars and the walls of the esky 1/2 X, you can make it fit any size. http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixD-1.html


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## stux (12/2/15)

Finally got around to setting up the bung hole and building a manifold for my 100L techni-ice mash tun! Life happened over the last 18 months or so.

I used the technique for the bung-hole from this post







I couldn't get Part #2 in SS with a thread all the way through, so I just picked up a brass one from Reese.


Used a stanley knife to cut out the majority of the plastic mesh in the bung hole







then a dremel with a scroll saw bit and a barrel sander bit to finish and clean the cut. Quite happy with how it worked out







I went through Palmer's manifold building instructions, ideally you want N runs, where N is a number which gets you an inter-pipe gap of between 2 and 3", better closer to 2. You want half X on the edges, and X between the runs.

This works out to either 5 or 6 runs, with 6 being better.

The magic number for the horizontal copper bits is 45mm for a techniice 100L esky. You want 6 elbows, and 9 tees for 6 runs with the weird shape I have to accomodate the off-centre bung. I forget the exact length of the long bits of copper, think its about 540mm. I used up 4m of copper total. Where the siicon tubing joins I had to trim the Ts with an angle grinder a little bit.

I found the dremel heavy duty cutoff discs were being used up like candy cutting the slots so switched to an angle grinder with a 1mm disc (actually 1.2mm).





In the end the manifold sits slightly askew because of the tubing, but I'm okay with that, its fairly close to optimal, and doesn't need any clamping.

The end parts of the manifold are punched with a centre punch so that they won't fall apart, but I can still remove the long runs for cleaning.

I think I just did my last 60L BIAB


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## Tahoose (18/2/15)

Stux any idea what the name of part number 2 is?

And just confirming that it is 1inch bsp.. Have the same esky and going to put a tap and cam lock on but but don't need it to go all the way through.


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## stux (18/2/15)

Tahoose said:


> Stux any idea what the name of part number 2 is?
> 
> And just confirming that it is 1inch bsp.. Have the same esky and going to put a tap and cam lock on but but don't need it to go all the way through.


From the post I linked:



_1/2" brass barb tail. I just use a 3" length of silicone hose to attach to my false bottom inside the tun. Use a hose clamp to secure it if you're a little too vigourous with stirring your mash_
_1" to 1/2" brass reducing bush. You need to force the barb tail into the back end of the bush, as the thread doesn't go all the way through. Brass is soft enough that it will start it's own threading_
_1/2" BCP adapter_
_Standard 1/2" one piece ball valve_
_1/2" BCP to male camlock. Wanted male BCP to male camlock, but were out of stock, so added the adapter in the middle._


It is definitely 1" BSP, which is about 32mm in diameter

I literally just showed that picture to the guy at Reece and pointed


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## Fents (18/2/15)

i have a spare beer belly esky false bottom (one without the bottom plate) you can have for a few beers if you like, seems you may have already sorted it tho.


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## Tahoose (18/2/15)

Stux said:


> From the post I linked:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks mate, I'll only need the reducing bush through to the camlock stuff. Don't need anything manifold wise on the inside as will be looking at a more ghetto solution.


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## Tahoose (18/2/15)

Stux are you planning to under-let the mash tun with this system?


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## stux (18/2/15)

Not until after I get my pump sorted. For the first run I'll be using 3 tier gravity and will fill the esky with strike then dump the grains in, same as when I biab


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## Tahoose (18/2/15)

Fair enough, good luck with the new system.

I have a bit's and bobs brewery atm, but hopefully (fingers crossed) I'll have a dedicated brewing space and >100ltr 3V gravity system.


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## Ducatiboy stu (18/2/15)

Stux said:


> I literally just showed that picture to the guy at Reece and pointed


Thats what I do. Especially with nuts and bolts I need. Just take them in and say "20 of these thanks"


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## Tahoose (19/2/15)

Well picked up a few things before work, the brass bush, another ball valve, some camlock fittings. 

Need to figure out my manifold idea, but atm I think it might be a pizza trays/angle grinder/ nuts and bolts/ rubber arrangement, plus some voile.

Don't care about the grain bed so much I just want to be able to drain the mash tun reasonably quickly.


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## Cocko (19/2/15)

Tahoose said:


> Well picked up a few things before work, the brass bush, another ball valve, some camlock fittings.
> 
> Need to figure out my manifold idea, but atm I think it might be a pizza trays/angle grinder/ nuts and bolts/ rubber arrangement, plus some voile.
> 
> Don't care about the grain bed so much I just want to be able to drain the mash tun reasonably quickly.


Mate, if you re running your drainage out through a 1" fitting, you will be smashing it.. IMHO...


Report back.


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## Tahoose (19/2/15)

Yeah apart from the bush it will be mostly 1/2" stuff because that's what fits in well the camlocks ect.

Will try to remember to update, at the moment the future system in my mind looks a little like;

HLT 100ltr pot with Stc-1000 and immersion element.
120ltr Techni-Ice Mash tun
19ltr pot with element and coil + pump (Heat Exchange HERMS add on)
Kettle 180ltr pot with Italian spiral burner, medium pressure reg.

It will be setup as a 3v gravity system with the HE below the mash tun. Flexibility to run it a couple of ways..


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## Ducatiboy stu (19/2/15)

1" is heaps. You may even need to throttle it so that it doesnt suck thru the grain bed


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## stux (4/3/15)

Used the mash tun with my march pump the other day. Flow rate was good, clarity was amazing compared to BIAB. Need to refine my technique a bit 

Really enjoyed having a non-physical brew day!

This is what the tap configuration ended up as. Love the camlocks. Its amazing, camlocks, ball-valves and a pump. It felt like a real brewery 




Easy enough to unscrew and replace with the stock bung and you'd never know I was using the esky as a mashtun!

(maybe I was a bit over-zeallous with the PTFE tape )


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## WarmerBeer (4/3/15)

Stux said:


> (maybe I was a bit over-zeallous with the PTFE tape )


Nope, not over zealous at all. Nothing worse than having to hot - fix a leak in the middle of a brew day.


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## Tahoose (4/3/15)

False bottom is half way done, other brewing needs have stopped it halfway.

My metal working skills are laughable. Was a combination of a hack saw, some pliers, a hammer and a drill.

Ended up getting a stainless steel dishwasher front. Perforated stainless would have been alot easier. This will definitely look ghetto though.


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## Ducatiboy stu (4/3/15)

WarmerBeer said:


> Nope, not over zealous at all. Nothing worse than having to hot - fix a leak in the middle of a brew day.


isnt it amazing just how wort will leak out of everything. Plastic has a habit of getting soft and the threads loosen up.


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## stux (4/3/15)

Before brewing, I left the esky filled with about 20L of water over night. There were no leaks 

During brewing, and I filled it right to the brim, (i believe it actually holds circa 95L), and there were also no leaks


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## Tahoose (27/4/15)

Getting close, just need to actually have enough time to give it a test run. Was supposed to be this arvo but can't afford to knock back the work. 

False bottom 




Wort overflow return




Drill and grinder action




Will line with voile aswell


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## stux (29/4/15)

I thought pvc pipe wasn't supposed to be used in food applications?


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## boybrewer (29/4/15)

Its not suppose to be . The Yanks use a product called CPVC which is made for hot water . The standard here in OZ is only PVC . I was looked for CPVC alas no plumbing store carries it ( the ones I went to ) .


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## Tahoose (29/4/15)

Any risk? Can use copper instead. Might need to find something else to support the false bottom.


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## Tahoose (29/4/15)

Edit, double post.


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## stux (30/4/15)

I wouldn't use PVC pipe in a mash tun, suggest copper instead


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## wide eyed and legless (30/4/15)

I believe a household favourite is made out of polyvinyl chloride, cling wrap, I wouldn't worry about plasticizers in the wort, the toxin we are making is far more damaging to our health than that.


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## Camo6 (30/4/15)

I was eyeing off the fire sprinkler SS braided hose at a refurb I'm working at and thinking that would go great in a big mashtun. A lot of it just got turfed too.

Keeping a close eye on the SS glass door fridge in the cafeteria too...


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## Black Devil Dog (30/4/15)

You could probably use something like this.


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## MastersBrewery (30/4/15)

This thread is bad I'm looking at my 100L camping esky and think "hmmm I didnt mind 3V" worse still I've got the spare pots to do it. This could well end in divorce .... again .... for the 3rd time!!


I need a drink


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## Tahoose (1/5/15)

Aluminium should be fine hey guys?


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## stux (12/12/15)

Tahoose said:


> Aluminium should be fine hey guys?


Think so


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