Draining mash

[thumper123]

I have a large brewer's funnel with a built in plastic screen. I siphon the upper wash that is mostly clear off first then fill up the funnel with the thicker wash and kind of swish it around with a spatula until I get most of the moisture out of the corn. The problem with this funnel, however, is that the screen is very fine and plugs up quickly. I have to fill and strain many times as well. I tried a strainer that I built out of a larger mesh screen, but it plugged up pretty quickly too. I used a pillow case for years, and it works okay, but the whole process is a pain no matter what I've come up with. I like the two bucket idea with 1/8" holes, and I'm going to try that. What we need is a centrifugal rig - maybe made out of an old washing machine, but there I go dreaming again.

[WIski]

http://www.dudadiesel.com/choose_item.p ... AtPA8P8HAQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[shadylane]

Using a washing machine for a centrifuge has been tried
http://www.artisan-distiller.net/phpBB3 ... ine#p67042" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[thumper123]

Good Lord, like minds think alike.

Whiski, what screen size do you recommend?

[Nutmegmooner]

Beekeepers extract honey with a centrifuge, and they are available for the hobbiest...

[3d0g]

If you've got about $25K to spare...

[shadylane]

I'd like to build a miniature version of that from my junk pile.
Looks like a good way to separate the wort from the spent grain.
$10 in parts and a couple thousand hours of research and labor should Getter done.

[Brutal]

MC you made the sig line.

[WIski]

what screen size do you recommend?

400-600 Micron.....

You don't have to handle your bag then..........

[One Sock]

Heavy duty salad spinner! http://www.webstaurantstore.com/5-gallo ... aQodJawAuw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[hawgwrench]

I just make a bigger ferment, rack off the liquid and dump the rest of the mess for the woodland critters to get drunk on.[/quote]

Yep yep! I got a whole herd of deer hangin around....and a right smart of squirrels to boot. They're my greatest fans....

[S-Cackalacky]

Heavy duty salad spinner! http://www.webstaurantstore.com/5-gallo ... aQodJawAuw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Great find! It's a little pricey for me, but with all the pictures, I could probably build my own on the cheap.

[DFitz]

I was just happy to see that OBX used the ass-press as well, I felt a little foolish thinking I was the only one....

Ass press... He said Ass...

I've had luck with the ass press. Works great using a milk crate to stack your paint stainer bags into until you get a big pile then rest up a bit sitting down on the milk crate. I just place my milk crate on top of the bucket. FYI, put a piece of ply wood over the bags or your ass will get wet... Heh.. I said Ass. I'm sure a mop bucket works better. Then again, so does an apple press. We use what we gots.

[WIski]

The salad spinner looks to have some pretty wide groves. Would a mesh liner be needed? Are you running one of these sock?

[MichiganCornhusker]

MC you made the sig line.

An honor and a privilege. I'm touched.

[Hound Dog]

Yep yep! I got a whole herd of deer hangin around....and a right smart of squirrels to boot. They're my greatest fans....

I had an opossum wobbling around one afternoon. Couldn't shoo him off of the sweet feed pile for anything! He just wobbled around a bit and munched more. Looked at me all confused when I was laughing at him to go on. I just let him be. Should see the squirrels with the strawberries from panty dropper!

[HDNB]

Yep yep! I got a whole herd of deer hangin around....and a right smart of squirrels to boot. They're my greatest fans....

I had an opossum wobbling around one afternoon. Couldn't shoo him off of the sweet feed pile for anything! He just wobbled around a bit and munched more. Looked at me all confused when I was laughing at him to go on. I just let him be. Should see the squirrels with the strawberries from panty dropper!

when i die, i wanna come back as a squirrel. in your yard.

[One Sock]

The salad spinner looks to have some pretty wide groves. Would a mesh liner be needed? Are you running one of these sock?

Nah, I don't have one, just the talk about centrifuges made me think "salad spinner" so I looked to see if there were bigger ones and found this! You would certainly need some kind of mesh liner.

[tlogan]

Anyone ever try using one of those drill pumps? The kind that hooks directly to your drill with a piece of tubing (5/8) and a piece of window screen over the inlet? I'm just attempting to determine the best way to do this on my 55 gal fermenter set up

[bellybuster]

Those drill pumps are full of grease. You need a mag drive pump but even then the solids will block it up.

[tlogan]

Looked up the mag drive pumps. I would still need to be able to do some type of filtration before the pump. I did my first 5 gal batch of sweetfeed whiskey last nigh (to make sure I could get it right) and my oh my they were a lot of solids that even my siphon picked up. I couldn't even begin to think about "dewatering" the settled grain. Just brainstorming here, but I I'm trying to come up with a good solution for filtering the 55 gal fermenter. I can't just lift it up and dump it into an ass press or mop bucket.

[bellybuster]

Have your fermenter raised above standard bucket level. Use a screen type filter or false bottom on a bottom drain and voila. You can also put a jury rigged filter on the end of a racking cane, I know this doesn't get any below your siphon level but...
Check out "bazooka screens"
Another option is a gusher pump, inexpensive and can handle solids. I'm talking the manual pumps

[BoomTown]

I love my mop wringer and paint strainer bags. Just did a 10 gallon mash in about 30 minuets and lost less than a gallon to the grain. I will run it in the morning.

I do this too. I also sparge while the grain is in the mop strainer, with 1/2 L of boiling water, and then wring. Living in a high rise, I simply toss the squeezed bag of grain into a bucket and repeat until the all the grain is in the paint strainer bags, then tote them over to guest bathroom toilet, and upend them into the bowl, and flush them away.

After a few cycles of this, I've gotten so I can do it about as fast as Corene, and rarely have any cleanup beyond rinsing the mop ringer, the buckets and the bags.
Usually about 15 minutes, start to finish.

If i start with 10 gallons of water in my mash, I usually end up with about 10 gallon of beer, guess the boiling sparge water makes up for what the grain refuses to give back. I can either distill the beer right away, or let it set a couple days to clear. The liquor tastes better if I distill the cloudy beer I think, but if it clears before I get to it, it's easier to clean the still after.

But I'm just an ol Cowboy trapped in the city...so easier is better...
Boom

[tlogan]

Have your fermenter raised above standard bucket level. Use a screen type filter or false bottom on a bottom drain and voila. You can also put a jury rigged filter on the end of a racking cane, I know this doesn't get any below your siphon level but...
Check out "bazooka screens"
Another option is a gusher pump, inexpensive and can handle solids. I'm talking the manual pumps

Was looking up the false bottoms. I can order the sheet and make my own for about $100. Likely that will be the way I end up going as it seems to be the least amount of maintenance required. Bazooka screens are a good idea, and may be a back up option or I could use in conjunction with false bottom if i could find finer filtration level bazooka screen.

Thanks for your help. It's nice to bounce ideas of the community members!

[Brutal]

Another option is a gusher pump, inexpensive and can handle solids. I'm talking the manual pumps

You mean like this? I've never seen one of these. If that rubber doesn't have a strong smell this could be pretty useful.

[S-Cackalacky]

This is going a little off the original topic, but when I siphon something like a SF wash, I have my siphon hose tied to a wooden stick with the end of the hose high enough to be off the grain bed. It usually will also suck up some grain kernels, so I use a ss funnel with a small piece of ss scrubbie stuffed in the spout to strain the wash through and remove any stray grain kernels.

Back on topic - I'm giving some thought to making a centrifuge similar to the salad spinner in the link above. I'll probably use a couple of 5 gallon food grade HDPE buckets and some PVC pipe. The outer bucket would have a piece of smaller PVC securely attached to the bottom of the bucket coming up through the center. The inner bucket would have a larger piece of PVC pipe secured to its lid that would fit over the smaller PVC pipe. This would provide a pivot for the inner bucket to spin on. The lid could have a crank type handle or a pulley with a belt and electric motor. It might need some sort of bearing at the bottom to allow it to spin freely, or just allow the top end of the larger pipe to rest on the top end of the inner pipe. I was thinking of something like a plastic lazy susan or similar. A plastic spigot at the bottom of the outer bucket and holes drilled in the inner bucket should finish it off.

It will be inexpensive to build, so really not much to lose if it turns into a complete failure. I may even already have most of the materials.

Posted while others were posting.

[cuddy-boozer]

+1 for the false bottom idea on such a large fermentation drum

[bellybuster]

this is my mash tun setup, I have never had issue with stuck anything and get all but a little bit of the wort from the grains. The bit that remains is no worries, I just calculate that before hand and add that much more water. The grains when done are damp at best. I pump my wort but not at much more than gravity speed.
bad pic I know but.....

[cuddy-boozer]

I like that. So rather than relying on gravity to push the wash through a false bottom you're drawing it through by pulling a slight vacuum

[bellybuster]

not really, its a mag drive pump so really has little draw, the liquid needs to be available for it to move it.
If I had my time back I would have the drain in the bottom of the tun