So today I did my first all grain brew. I did the DIY mash tun with the stainless steel braid to strain out most solids. It worked ok.. but it took a lot of stirring to get the liquid to actually get to the bottom of the mash tun and out through the hose. I have been looking at false bottoms like this: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/9-stainless-steel-false-bottom.html And I am wondering if you would put the hose barb on the bottom or if you would put it into the cooler as pictured where the fitting would be exposed on the top. I am guessing it would be with the fitting downward but also wondering if people actually connect the hose barb to their spigot or is the hose barb is just to get the fluid below the false bottom and if most people just have another hose underneath to take the fluid through the spigot. I hope this makes sense..
"I hope this makes sense.." Not really, but a piece of hi-temp silicone hose is usually what goes between the barbed fitting and your ball valve. The ball valve and bulkhead fitting will replace the original cooler spigot. Domed side (barbed fitting side) up. If you used anything but a "made for mashtun" bazooka screen, I'd say give it another try before going the false bottom route. Good luck.
The hose barb stays on top just as shown in the pic. As GreenKrusty101 says, use a silicone hose to connect the barb of the pickup elbow (on top of the false bottom) to the ball valve. You will need two more parts: a coupler and barb fitting to mate to the ball valve on the inside of the mash tun. This allows you to "pick up" wort below the false bottom, all the way down to about a 1/4". If the false bottom does its job there will be no grain. Many false bottom kits include the hose/coupler/barb (the parts are largely generic). I've also used the ss braid like you described and don't understand the wort not making its way to the bottom until stirred. Any possibility your run off was stuck (or nearly stuck) and the stirring helped it along? If you can keep grain out of the braid you should pick up all the wort without having to stir. I prefer the false bottom over the ss braid manifold but either will do the job.
Well I think I had to much grain and not enough water. I has about 12 lbs of grain and 3 gallons of water filled up the cooler. its a 5 gal cooler. So I got as much as I could out and then sparged it with about 4 gallons of water. I think just because there was so much grain in a fairly small cooler that it was just hard for the water to work its way down. I have all of the components needed to hook up the false bottom. All i would need to buy would be the high temp hose. So I may shop around for a deal and see if I can find one a bit cheaper.
How much water should I mash with for 12 lbs of grain? The recipe I had was for an AG Dogfish head Punkin clone. And that was what was recommended.
I try to get around 1.5qts water to a pound grain in my mash. I first mash in to about 1.25:1 and let settle, then I can top off and adjust temps if need be with hotter or colder water to get temp and thickness right.
