Brewtroller Build: - Mash Tun False Bottom

I just got my false bottom back from the sheetmetal workshop so I thought I'd post a few pictures. I bought a sheet of perforated stainless steel sheet from: LockerNZ - http://www.lockernz.co.nz/pdf/catalogues/Perfmetals.pdf

I opted for the P106 which is 2.4mm holes at 3.6mm centres. It comes on a roll which I think was about a metre wide but they sold me just a half metre of that (for about $90), so I ended up with a piece 0.5 x 1m in size. My pot is about 420mm in diameter so I only needed half this so I actually have a piece of 500x500mm still left over.

I thought about cutting it into a round piece and bolting some feet and a handle to it, but for $60 I got Mt Wellington Sheetmetals to knock it up and spot weld everything.

There is a bit of a gap around the sides, I guess the pot is not exactly circular, but it should be fine. It actually looks twice as big in the picture because of the reflection. At most there is about 5mm at the edge - I reckon that will fill up with grain no worries. The base is made of the same material and is about 50mm high to cover the ball valve outlet. If I did it again, I would make it only about 25-30mm high so there is less space underneath - this may then require a dip tube running through the bottom if you had the valve outlet above the false bottom. In the end I'm actually pretty happy, I have a stainless steel elbow on the inside of the outlet so I can get all that juicy wort :).

Links to all posts in this series:

http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/profiles/blogs/brewtroller-system-b...

http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/profiles/blogs/brewtroller-build-ma...

http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/profiles/blogs/brewtroller-build-pa...

http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/profiles/blogs/brewtroller-build-pa...

http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/profiles/blogs/brewtroller-build-pa...