Dip Tube Without False Bottom in Mash Tun

[sidepart]

Just curious if this would work, because my immediate thoughts are no (but maybe someone has tried it). I'd like to use a dip tube without a false bottom to try and decrease the dead volume left behind in my cooler.

I'm using a rectangular cooler with the mesh braiding (seen here). My cooler leaves about a gallon of water behind if I don't tilt it. I'm wondering if a dip tube might help. I have a feeling that with all the grain compacted around the dip tube and braiding that this won't suction correctly like with a false bottom.

Any thoughts? I guess I could just keep tilting, but it's hard for me to predict my dead volume since tilting it is inconsistent. Plus it's heavy and I'd rather do something else while the mash tun is draining.

 

[sidepart]

Probably just answered my own question. Decided to do a test. I added some plastic tubing (from my racking hose) to the female barb and bent the stainless mesh downwards. I tested this out and it worked great. Only had about 1 cup remaining in the cooler. I tried again by pushing my hand down on the tubing area to mimic the weight of grain pushing on it...seemed to still work ok.

I'll try it with grain this weekend when I brew.

As an obvious note, you'll need some kind of tubing on the output that outputs the liquid lower than the cooler itself. I wouldn't mention it because no duh, but when I did my first test, I didn't use any tubing on the output and it was a less than spectacular flow rate.

Here's a picture.

 

[SpentGrains]

I basically do the same thing, except with a nylon barbed piece from a racking cane. Works for me.

 

[sidepart]

This worked pretty well, but I think I need something stiffer and narrower. Maybe a piece of copper would work better.

I still had a loss of about .25 gallons when using grain (as opposed to 1.25 cups).