Cooler Mash Tun Bag

thunderwagn

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I just got a new bag to place in my cooler mash tun and hope to knock out my 1st brew with it this weekend. I currently have a braided stainless hose in my tun. I'm wondering, can I just leave that in there now with the bag? I had issues with slow, stuck sparges with the hose, but I'm thinking with the bag to filter now, it should be fine to just leave it in?
 
I just got a new bag to place in my cooler mash tun and hope to knock out my 1st brew with it this weekend. I currently have a braided stainless hose in my tun. I'm wondering, can I just leave that in there now with the bag? I had issues with slow, stuck sparges with the hose, but I'm thinking with the bag to filter now, it should be fine to just leave it in?

I leave mine in. I was having trouble collecting wort without it.
 
I actually put a bazooka tube back in because the bag was getting sucked into the drain hole. I think it will work fine to leave it in.
 
I actually put a bazooka tube back in because the bag was getting sucked into the drain hole. I think it will work fine to leave it in.
I thought I remembered someone mentioning that. I think I'm going to leave it in for now. Thanks.
 
I would leave it in. When I used a bag for big adjuncts I had a false bottom in a round cooler. I did remove the thermometer though.
 
Since most of my brews are 65-70% wheat I use a small BIAB to wrap my drain manifold in mash tun, to prevent getting stuck.
Hose under bag can't hurt anything IMO
 
Since most of my brews are 65-70% wheat I use a small BIAB to wrap my drain manifold in mash tun, to prevent getting stuck.
Hose under bag can't hurt anything IMO
Rice hulls are your wheat beer friends.
 
Rice hulls are your wheat beer friends.
Yes but rice hulls are one time use. . But an extra small $3 BIAB bag last many batches, the bag I use fits like a glove on my manifold, . Easy peezy and no getting half way home and cursing at the windshield that I forgot hulls. :))
 
The new mash tun bag worked beautifully by the way (with hose left intact).
I've got nothing against using rice hulls and have used them often. My goal here however was mainly to test the capabilities of the bag and hose and sparging results using a mash that is typically known to cause stuck sparges. If I had issues, next step would have been removing hose and installing an elbow. I'm pretty happy with how things turned out though so I think I'll continue using the braided hose. I have however considered inserting a coiled up piece of copper to keep the hose from possibly compacting. I plan on some heavy grain bills coming up.
My wort came out nice with no vorlauf necessary. Got my 1st runnings, and sparged no problem. I bet I cut 30-45 minutes off my brew day easy.
 
Noice. I'm a big fan personally of them. When my current one inevitably fails I'll be ordering another one.

Ha. Noice!!! Love it.

Mine needs to be replaced soon after a lot of batches. I spin it to get wort out so it is beginning to stretch
 
The main reason I went with the elbow rather than leaving the braid in was to reduce dead space. I measured the dead space with water and had 6.5 ounces in my 10 gallon Rubbermaid cooler with the elbow. If I tilt it I only leave a couple of ounces. With the braid alone, I had almost 26 ounces (almost the same with a bazooka screen).
Elbow.jpg

An advantage the Rubbermaid cooler has is a screw on lid, allowing me to raise the bag a few inches off of the bottom and screw the lid on to hold it there once the second runnings have been collected. That allows it to drain and reduce grain absorption to BIAB level as well. With the elbow pointing downward and resting almost on the bottom there isn't a problem with sucking the bag in.
The old tun is getting pretty scarred up from countless mashes. May be time to get a replacement.
 
I don't get any dead space because I pour all the wort into the kettle from the cooler after lifting the bag and letting it drain.
 
Not too many years ago that was considered high tech in the homebrew world.

LOL...yeah funny how that sort of thing changes....I always recall how "leaching" was thought to be the same in medicine (i.e. high tech)! This set up allows me to put my cooler back into conventional use if I decide to. Not so much for the lid though...the sparge arm is screwed in and I drilled a hole in the top so I could just stick the hose on there and go. We'll figure out something there when we come to that bridge....I think I'm gonna brew before the next time I go camping.

I have been musing about the use of a bag after seeing Hawkbox's setup. Looks like a nice and easy way to clean up after pulling out some spent mash for baking bread.
20180915_130453.jpeg
 

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