24 replies to this topic

[zymot]

I have a picnic cooler and used a SS braid that caused stuck run offs. I went with the Bazooka straight 12" and my stuck sparges went away. Which model Bazooka do you have?If you are using Bazooka abnd getting stuck sparges with that, you might want to check other things.How fine of a crush are you getting? Maybe you should try a more course grind.It is normal to leave some of the wort behind. You cannot get it all into the boil kettle. (this is called dead space) In my set up, I count on about 1 quart.I know of no specific design for a rectangle/square false bottom. You could make one, but that would take materials (e.g. perforated stainless steel) and skills (e.g. cutting, bending steel and and possibly welding)The manifold in blktre post is an excellent idea. You can also make one out of high temp PVC, CPVC. Some find the plastic CPVC easier to work with. The latest Palmer book has all teh information you need to make one.Before I got my Bazooka, I had a design that was a hardwood frame that fit the bottom of my cooler with 2 layers of stainless steel screen stretched across the frame to make a false bottom. The bottom screen was a pretty course mesh, about 1 to 1/2. This was to support the top mesh that was about 16 mesh.zymot

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

I have a picnic cooler and used a SS braid that caused stuck run offs. I went with the Bazooka straight 12" and my stuck sparges went away. Which model Bazooka do you have?If you are using Bazooka abnd getting stuck sparges with that, you might want to check other things.How fine of a crush are you getting? Maybe you should try a more course grind.

This is pretty much what I'm thinking. I've never had anything close to a stuck sparge and if the bazooka is better than what I have something else has to be up.

[djinkc]

FWIW my mill is set at .025 - that's a pretty fine crush. The manifold handles it fine.

[siouxbrewer]

Question for the OP: Do you plan to keep the screen to use with the FB? If so, this would sorta be like having a working tv sitting on top of the broken one. I know we're beating the manifold dead horse here, but it's looking like the cheaper, more functional option.

[3rd party JKor]

I have the exact manifold that blktre posted above in my ice cube. I don't know why it works so well, but it does. I pull some serious flow through that thing with my HERMS and it's never even shown a sign of restricted flow (knock on wood). I get efficiencies between 85% and 93% for typical gravity beers, so it likely has very few, if any, dead spots for fly sparging. I used to have a false bottom and I had trouble several times with stuck sparges and poor recirculating. Conceptually, the larger open area of the FB would seem to be better, but I think circular holes are much easier to plug than the slots in the tube style manifolds. I bet if you had an FB with slots instead of holes it would probably work well also.