Stainless steel false bottom for boiler

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MacKiwi

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Does anyone use a stainless steel false bottom for their boiler, as a hop strainer? Something like...

Stainless_False_bottom_dome.jpg


http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk...gclid=CLT1yPKO-LUCFcrHtAodh2IA2Q#.UT-gBlcaXEh

I've always had a love/hate relationship with the steel braid hop strainer I currently use, and after cleaning some smelly congealed gunk out of it, it is more on the hate side. The attraction of a false bottom is it is easy to remove and clean.
 
No I don't but it is an ambition as like you I have terrible trouble with my strainer. My last beer used about 300g of hops so i didn't even attempt to drain through the strainer and ended up jugging 55L though a grain bag.

When I finally get a stainless set up I will get a stainless false bottom.

:thumb:
 
not for my boiler , but i do have that exact 1 in pic and as i do mainly wheat beers it is needed and i have never looked back , if i had the spare cash i would get it for my boiler too . My vote is get it , it will be great. (unlike the price)
 
That is a great price! I'm going to order 2 for my mash tun and boiler.
 
Will this need a protective seal putting around the bottom and if so what size tubing would be best to use for this.
 
Well, it turned up today, so thumbs up for fast delivery. :thumb:

Upon careful consideration, I dispensed with the supplied elbow to 3/8" fitting, and bodged my own 1/2" solution to fit my existing tap. Only took about 10 minutes, and I was in business...

I haven't brewed with it yet, but a test with a boiler full of water shows that I can pump out until there is a mere 2.5 litres left, at which point the pump starts sucking air. This is a big improvement over the stainless steel braid hose, and in reality most of that will be sodden hops anyway, so a very acceptable "dead space".

It looks to me like I won't need to worry about any beer-line trim around the edge - it sits fairly snug. But the next brew will tell - stay tuned...
 
Ok, so I don't have any 3/8" hose, so I did away with the supplied fitting and bodged this together with random spare parts I had in my tool box...

IMG_0065_zps5b6ec2ec.jpg


So a 90 degree brass elbow, short length copper pipe and a bit of Vossy's hose...

This connects in my boiler like this...

IMG_0066_zps2e97c498.jpg


The inside of the tap has a barrel connector and a 1/2" hose barb. The short length of Vossy Hose allows for quick disconnect for cleaning (one of the main reasons for buying this).

The tap hose barb sits a little lower than the pipe, which creates a little downward pressure on the false-bottom when connected. Hopefully this will stop it floating about during the boil...

The boiler is a 100 litre stainless pot from the usual German crowd, with 2 x 2kW elements...
 
Would be really interested to see the underside of that...is there a tube to hit the bottom of boiler to reduce dead space ?..could one be fitted, im thinking like 2mm up, flush from the bottom.

Are these domed FB designed to be 'one size fits all' i am also concerned about it moving around and getting poo underneath which would defeat the object ? the last thing i have to do is make the strainer for my boiler then i can brew...but i am interested in this for £24
 
I'd say they are "one size fits all". It's a 12" disc, so as long as your boiler is wider than that (taking into account things like elements which may reduce the amount of space at the bottom of the boiler), it should drop in.

I'm also concerned about it moving around, but the set-up I have appears to be robust. I have a brew-day planned for Saturday, so I'll let you know how it goes. If there is a problem with it moving, I'll replace the silicon hose with a solid copper pipe. I'll need a spanner to remove the filter in that case, but there is no chance of it moving.

Here is a photo of the under-side. You can see the stainless nut extends the brass elbow a bit, so there is probably around 5-6mm of a gap between the bottom of the boiler and the end of the nut. This results in 2.5 litres of liquid left in the bottom of the boiler, which is actually pretty good, and will probably all be break-material and hops anyway. If you want to get it really tight, you could replace the nut with a 1/2" barrel, and cut the barrel off at the height you needed.

IMG_0069_zpsf0650139.jpg


loady said:
Would be really interested to see the underside of that...is there a tube to hit the bottom of boiler to reduce dead space ?..could one be fitted, im thinking like 2mm up, flush from the bottom.

Are these domed FB designed to be 'one size fits all' i am also concerned about it moving around and getting poo underneath which would defeat the object ? the last thing i have to do is make the strainer for my boiler then i can brew...but i am interested in this for £24
 
Excellent Mac kiwi, thanks for taking the time to upload a photo, I'm sold. Will be one wringing its way to me, I'll be looking out for your report.
 
I too am tempted if only 'cos it's shinier than my steel braid (which seems to work fairly well for me). Is Vossy's tubing going to survive the boil?
 
jonnymorris said:
I too am tempted if only 'cos it's shinier than my steel braid (which seems to work fairly well for me). Is Vossy's tubing going to survive the boil?

I'll let you know in a few hours :)

My steel braid worked great as a filter, but this is going to be a lot easier to keep clean...
 
No, it's there as a quick-release mechanism. I'll switch to copper if the filter moves around, or the silicon hose melts :)
 
Here's the brew-day report...

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=37067&start=0

To summarise here, the false bottom works fine as a hop filter. I had no problems with it moving around, and there was no hop material in the output. I did have quite cloudy wort going into the FVs, but I was messing around recirculating into the boiler, so it is hard to tell if this is due to the different chilling method, the filter, or if this is no different to how my wort normally is.

The wort going into the boiler was crystal-clear, due to an improved sparge method, so if the finished beer doesn't drop clear, I know I have some issues with the boiler filtering. But I suspect it is just break material that will drop out (there is already plenty in the bottom of the FVs), and that in general the hop filter is an improvement over my steel braid.
 
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