I recently bought/installed a false bottom for my 5 gallon round mash tun after using a simple hose braid for years. However, first use during Big Brew Day on Sat was disastrous. After mashing for 60 mins, turned the spigot of the tun gently to start the vorlauf and......nothing. No one drip. Screwed around with it, stirred, finagled, etc. Got the initial runoff drained, but when I batch sparged....nothing.
So, we thought outside the box, got a huge grain bag from inside the LHBS where the event was held & dumped the mash into the bag in the kettle. Voila! A biab! Worked fine the rest of the way, but in hindsight am trying to figure out the issue with the false bottom.
After cleaned out & disassembled, I realized the problem was probable that the plastic elbow was screwed too far down which pressed it too close to the bottom of the cooler, completely blocking drainage. Ok, so I adjusted & tried again with just a gallon or so of water.....
It flowed ok, but veeeeeery slooooowly. Just drizzling out of the spigot. It would take about 18 hours to collect 7 gallons. WHat's the story here? Did my LHBS just sell me a ****ty false bottom? Why is the flow so bad? I'll return the thing & go back to a cheap hose braid if this is what I'm looking at. Totally disappointed - was siked to upgrade, but just worked horribly.
Looking at the elbow, am curious if its just too small to allow quick fluid movement. The hose braid would allow full flow, almost too quick, unless I regulated. In the test, I had the valve all the way open & was just ridiculously slow.
Any ideas here? Return to hose braid?
So, we thought outside the box, got a huge grain bag from inside the LHBS where the event was held & dumped the mash into the bag in the kettle. Voila! A biab! Worked fine the rest of the way, but in hindsight am trying to figure out the issue with the false bottom.
After cleaned out & disassembled, I realized the problem was probable that the plastic elbow was screwed too far down which pressed it too close to the bottom of the cooler, completely blocking drainage. Ok, so I adjusted & tried again with just a gallon or so of water.....
It flowed ok, but veeeeeery slooooowly. Just drizzling out of the spigot. It would take about 18 hours to collect 7 gallons. WHat's the story here? Did my LHBS just sell me a ****ty false bottom? Why is the flow so bad? I'll return the thing & go back to a cheap hose braid if this is what I'm looking at. Totally disappointed - was siked to upgrade, but just worked horribly.
Looking at the elbow, am curious if its just too small to allow quick fluid movement. The hose braid would allow full flow, almost too quick, unless I regulated. In the test, I had the valve all the way open & was just ridiculously slow.
Any ideas here? Return to hose braid?