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ping pong balls in dead space

Maine Homebrewer

Grandmaster Brewer
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Using a brewbucket with a hundred holes drilled into it sitting in a bottle bucket as a lauter tun (google "Papazian zapap").

Been annoyed by the dead space for a long time.  All that recirculating gets old.

Thinking about figuring out how many ping pong balls can easily fill the dead space.

Thoughts?
 
I would NOT use ping pong balls.  They are made of celluloid...a plastic made from nitrocellulose and camphor.  They are flammable, and will likely impart a flavor to your beer.

Marbles are common in carboys for consuming extra volume.  I'd use that or stainless steel ball bearings (expensive).
 
  I do not use this method, but if I did I would get a couple of cheap HDPE cutting boards.  Cut them to size with a scroll saw, drill a crap load of holes like the initial bucket, but progressively smaller holes.  This would not only fill your dead space but also act as a strainer.  Maybe cut/ melt a few grooves on the faces of the cutting boards to aid in the process.  Toss it/ them in the dish washer to clean.

$0.02

 
I would think that if you used the cutting board idea to just fill the dead space in the bottom of the bottling bucket, I don't think you would even need to drill any holes.  You goal is to try to consume dead space, right?  Then maybe put a wedge under the back side of the buckets to get a little bit of an angle going.  This would get quite a bit of it.
 
Seems like a lot of trouble to me.  Why not upgrade your mash/lauter tun to a cooler setup?  Purchase the appropriate size cooler, stainless steel braided mesh (washing machine hose) and a quality valve and be done with it.  Just my $0.02.
 
I do use a Igloo 10 gallon and recently purchased a 15 gallon "cube" cooler for the heartier batches.  The angled drain on the cube required a minor alteration to my manifold I use in the 10 gallon cooler, no big deal.  Just thought the idea of making a plate type strainer was interesting.  I'm looking to increase my batch size so the idea of a plate strainer at the bottom of a 55 gallon barrel I think is worth the 100 bucks or less.  How much do 55 gallon mash tuns run these days?
 
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