SS Braid with Tubing inside - More Uniform Draining?

[bigben]

Hey you peoples...

Just a quick question. I'm building my mash tun using a 70qt Coleman Xtreme. I was debating a manifold(copper or cpvc) and a braid. I have great results with my 5 gallon round cooler with braid...so anyway, here is my idea.

I am going to batch sparge, so let's get that out of the way. No fly sparging here....

I recently purchased a bunch of 1/2" High Temp Tubing from Midwestsupplies...
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=4602

Now it says it's "rated" to 150 degrees, but what does that mean? Can it safely handle hotter temps without leeching anything??? I assume so because people use this tube with pumps to transfer hot wort...but anyway, here is my idea.

I want to get a SS Braid, and slip it over this tube to use in the mash tun, and here is my reasoning...

If I just use the braid, then all the wort will drain to one small spot right at the spigot. Regardless of how long the braid is, since the hole thing is a mesh, it doesn't create any kind of siphon or anything, right? So what if I put this tube inside a braid and cut slits or holes in it...would it allow the mash to drain more uniformly????

If so, I guess I would need to get like a 3/4" SS Braid to fit over it???

Thanks for any advice or whatever.

 

[the_bird]

If the 70qt Xtreme has the same basic design as the 36qt that I use, creating a siphon is a non-issue; the drain hole is at the bottom of a channel, so there is effectively no space below the drain. That's one of the things I love about the cooler, there's zero dead space.

 

[bigben]

If the 70qt Xtreme has the same basic design as the 36qt that I use, creating a siphon is a non-issue; the drain hole is at the bottom of a channel, so there is effectively no space below the drain. That's one of the things I love about the cooler, there's zero dead space.

O yea, duh....I forgot about that. It does have the depression.


I guess what I was wondering is that even tho it will drain everything, I was still concerned with channeling. I know I know, it's batch sparging....but still. Plus it should give the braid extra stability right?

I just figured if the tube was in there, then the wort could all drain straight down, rather than down and at an angle to the spigot. Maybe I just shouldn't worry about it.

I do have SS Wire that I can put in the braid.

 

[the_bird]

Channelling isn't a concern with batch sparging. You're just draining the sugars that are already in suspension, not rinsing sugars in the grain. Hell, I hit 90% efficiency on the last batch with that cooler and a braid - not going to do much higher than that! Just be a little careful when you stir not to beat up on the braid, but even if you have to replace it once a year or so - it's only a couple bucks. The simplest solution works great.

 

[Bobby_M]

Anything you put inside the braid has potential to close off the open spaces which may slow your draining. You can do something like what I did, run a THINNER copper tube inside and wrap it with a spiral of stainless (or copper) wire to keep the tubing from touching the inside surface of the braid.

 

[bigben]

I know channeling isn't supposed to be a concern when batch sparging...I said " I Know I know".

But you can't tell me there isn't some channeling when you have a 20" cooler and the spigot all the way at the other end, right?

Or is channeling caused by the dripping of the water when fly sparging? I thought channeling could still occur in batch sparging. That's why I though about putting the hose in the braid, so it would allow the wort at the other end of the cooler drain straight down.

I am probably just being stupid, but I thought I'd throw it out there. I definitely want to put SOMETHING inside the braid because I just dont trust it with 25-30 lbs of grain on it.

 

[Bobby_M]

I know channeling isn't supposed to be a concern when batch sparging...I said " I Know I know".

But you can't tell me there isn't some channeling when you have a 20" cooler and the spigot all the way at the other end, right?

Or is channeling caused by the dripping of the water when fly sparging? I thought channeling could still occur in batch sparging. That's why I though about putting the hose in the braid, so it would allow the wort at the other end of the cooler drain straight down.

I am probably just being stupid, but I thought I'd throw it out there. I definitely want to put SOMETHING inside the braid because I just dont trust it with 25-30 lbs of grain on it.

Channeling is a fly sparging term where the water chooses a path of least resistance to the drain point thereby avoiding some sugar on it's way out. In batch sparging, the infusion plus stir fully dilutes the sugars and all the liquid becomes the same gravity. The braid is just a separation medium. No such thing as channeling. Liquid wants to go down due to gravity. It will drain down the entire length of the braid and then flow to the spigot because it's the easy way out.

You can put something in the braid, but the grain isn't going to crush it no matter what. Though it's 25lbs of grain, only a a few pounds are physically weighing on the braid. You're more likely to crush it by monkey fisting the mash paddle and going nuts.

 

[bigben]

Haha!! Monkey Fisting.

Ok, I got it...so in batch sparging everything gets dissolved when you stir. Cool

Yeah, I have been using a braid in my round cooler and I haven't mashed it up yet. Thanks for making my decision and design much easier!!

 

[ColoradoXJ13]

I just built a mash tun with this cooler. I "tried" (wait and see) to put copper tubing with slits cut in the bottom (a'la manifold style) inside the ss mesh and clamp the mesh with worm-clamps, then connect the copper tubing to a T-compression fitting which attached to the thru-wall thing. I failed miserably, but mostly due to my ineptitude. I bought a $25 ss mesh, which was about 6' long, I think it was a super long washing machine hose. After bending the copper tubing very badly (crimping, etc) and spending an hour sawing slits, I just couldn't slide the ss mesh over the tubing. I was thinking along the same lines as you, if I could immobilize the SS mesh over something, I would be less likely to 'monkey fist' it and it would last forever. I was counting on the ss mesh to filter grain, the copper to collect wort and deliver to the bulkhead. I plan on retrying this sometime, will post up my results.

 

[Bobby_M]

For what it's worth, I have at least 13 batches on my plain old braid and it's only showing a little bit of wear. If you can get 10/20 batches out of this $5 item, I think it's a success.