Stainless Mesh False Bottom - Can It Be Too Fine?

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kjparker

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I am building my mash tun out of a keg like vessel, and have a stainless Ikea splatter guard which I was going to make the false bottom out of.

My concern is that the mesh may be too fine to get the required flow, as I will be using a herms system with it.

The guard itself, is just the right size to sit over the concave section in the bottom, and will be passing the pickup tube through the stainless plate in the middle with a couple of brass fittings for it to sit in the little dimple in the very bottom.

I will be supporting the bottom with the pickup tube, and have a couple of small scollaps filed into the end so that it can still draw liquid.

Can anyone think of a reason this would not work? I'm trying to do this as much as possible with things I already have!
 
Clueless ....

I looked at the very same splatter guards at IKEA the other week.. I think that the mesh will be too fine but the only way to tell really is to give it a go ?? the False bottoms you buy from CraftBrewer or Gryphon (no affiliation - but free plug for the boys anyhow) have holes approx 2-3 mm from memory so much bigger than said splatter guard.

I applaud you initiative and warn you that I would say that a good 99.9% of people on here that have a brewery of their own are tight arses and when they were starting out got just as much of a kick out of building their own stuff for as cheap as possible than they do / did brewing their own beer ..

Its a awesome obsession / hobby ... and welcome to it :)


Matt
 
I am building my mash tun out of a keg like vessel, and have a stainless Ikea splatter guard which I was going to make the false bottom out of.

My concern is that the mesh may be too fine to get the required flow, as I will be using a herms system with it.

The guard itself, is just the right size to sit over the concave section in the bottom, and will be passing the pickup tube through the stainless plate in the middle with a couple of brass fittings for it to sit in the little dimple in the very bottom.

I will be supporting the bottom with the pickup tube, and have a couple of small scollaps filed into the end so that it can still draw liquid.

Can anyone think of a reason this would not work? I'm trying to do this as much as possible with things I already have!

Never seen an Ikea splatter guard. Got a pic?
Those little scallops on the end of your pickup tube might impede the flow too so why not cut the end at 45 degrees instead?

TP

Edit ---- Too late!
 
If you've kept the cut-out from the top of your keg-like vessel you can make yourself a falsie ala Yardy.
Do a search for pics of his FB & if you can't find any PM him. He'll be only too happy to point you in the right direction.

TP
 
Google wins!

Woven stainless would be perfect. You don't really want something that inhibits free circulation, or at least I don't.

For $5 though, just buy it and see how well water flows through it and if not well enough, use it as a... splatter screen.
 
If using a pump I'd be worried about the fine mesh getting blocked with small particles! Mine is a fine drilled false bottom, much finer than the ones shown on morebeer.com and if I run my pump too fast, the holes block up when the mash bed compacts and the whole thing stops flowing.

<edit spell check, dunno how a pup would be useful in brewing, a pump maybe>
 
Never seen an Ikea splatter guard. Got a pic?
Those little scallops on the end of your pickup tube might impede the flow too so why not cut the end at 45 degrees instead?

TP

Edit ---- Too late!
Good idea. I hadnt thought of that.

If you've kept the cut-out from the top of your keg-like vessel you can make yourself a falsie ala Yardy.
Do a search for pics of his FB & if you can't find any PM him. He'll be only too happy to point you in the right direction.

TP
Havent cut it yet, and might do that!

Google wins!

Woven stainless would be perfect. You don't really want something that inhibits free circulation, or at least I don't.

For $5 though, just buy it and see how well water flows through it and if not well enough, use it as a... splatter screen.

I already own this and was wondering if I could use it!

If using a pup I'd be worried about the fine mesh getting blocked with small particles! Mine is a fine drilled false bottom, much finer than the ones shown on morebeer.com and if I run my pump too fast, the holes block up when the mash bed compacts and the whole thing stops flowing.
I will be using a brown pump to start with, but will upgrade to a march or similar when funds allow.

The blockage issue is what I was concerned about
 
If you've kept the cut-out from the top of your keg-like vessel you can make yourself a falsie ala Yardy.
Do a search for pics of his FB & if you can't find any PM him. He'll be only too happy to point you in the right direction.

TP

g'day clueless,

just use the cut-out from the keg, there's not much fecking around, cut a few slots and weld a 90 elbow in the top, if there's a problem welding then then just run your inlet from the HLT straight into the the top of the FB by putting a bend in the inlet pipe instead of the 90 elbow, it'll never crush like mesh either.

Yard

tun4.jpg


tun8.jpg


tun5.jpg
 
g'day clueless,

just use the cut-out from the keg, there's not much fecking around, cut a few slots and weld a 90 elbow in the top, if there's a problem welding then then just run your inlet from the HLT straight into the the top of the FB by putting a bend in the inlet pipe instead of the 90 elbow, it'll never crush like mesh either.

Yard

tun4.jpg


tun8.jpg


tun5.jpg

Thanks, was just looking for those pictures!

was there any reason you cut the entire top off, rather than just the center?
 
the FB is from an 18 gallon keg which is now my kettle, i cut the entire top off the MLT to suit this wok lid courtesy of the Salvos :icon_cheers:

tun3.jpg
 
the FB is from an 18 gallon keg which is now my kettle, i cut the entire top off the MLT to suit this wok lid courtesy of the Salvos :icon_cheers:

tun3.jpg

I like the look of that! I like it a lot!
 
Yardy wins in the foot protection area :lol:
Thats one thing I make sure of these days.... Since the toe VS Angle grinder incident. (luckily I had a grinding disk in there not a cutting disk at the time....)
 
I've got a 10" piece of 1.5mm perforated plate and haven't had any issues

I crush at 0.9mm in a 3 roller mill

I had issues with clogging with the standard 3/32" perforated plate

I'd give it a go and see what happens - it'd be close to the bags used in BIAB

Cheers
 
I'm just building mine as well - after failing to find any perforated stainless sheet the right size (and price) I've got some sheet and am drilling it myself.
I've gone with a holesize of 5/64 which is 2mm, or very close - not sure if this is going to be too fine though.
Damn lot of drilling, broken 3 bits so far.

false_cutout.jpg
 
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