[bonjour]

I'd think of replacing my braid but all I've got is a round white thingy with a bunch of holes in it.  Works great for either batch or fly sparge.

[stout_fan]

My braid is doing fine, I've lost count of the # of batches.
I put a 1/2" SS brain inside. Here's checking length and overlap.


Then I fit inside the braid. Great flow rates. No collapse and a still looks good after all these years.


There's also some slots in the bottom of the feeder "T" so I can drain it all.

[woody]

I readjusted mine (well, I shoved it further up onto the barb) and it got the stretch out of it.   My runoff was a lot faster today.  I didn't think it would retain its shape by simply pushing it back together, but it did.   

[roberba]

One thing I did was to make a small coil of copper wire to fit in the braid. This prevents it from collapsing.

[denny]

That's a good solution.  A better one is to get a braid that doesn't collapse!  Mine never has with up to 75 lb. of grain.

[dbarber]

I shortened mine to 8 inches or so because I thought it might be easier to stir without hitting.  After that I started getting either stuck mashes or very slow runoff.  I switched it back to 15 inches and haven't had the problem since.

[denny]

I shortened mine to 8 inches or so because I thought it might be easier to stir without hitting.  After that I started getting either stuck mashes or very slow runoff.  I switched it back to 15 inches and haven't had the problem since.

That's very interesting and kinda puzzling.  Both my experiments and my experience have made me conclude that it doesn't matter.  I wonder why the different results?

[dbarber]

I shortened mine to 8 inches or so because I thought it might be easier to stir without hitting.  After that I started getting either stuck mashes or very slow runoff.  I switched it back to 15 inches and haven't had the problem since.

That's very interesting and kinda puzzling.  Both my experiments and my experience have made me conclude that it doesn't matter.  I wonder why the different results?

That what I had read, so I figured it couldn't hurt.  But nothing else in my brewing had changed except the length of the braid.  I should mention that I use a coleman extreme that has a channel in the bottom.  Once I shortened it, it fit completely within that channel, so maybe that had an effect.

[bluesman]

I recently replaced my braid with a 24". I use it in a Coleman Ultimate Extreme 58qt mash tun. Works great.

I don't think I've ever quoted myself...but there's a first time for everything. I just damaged the new braid I installed and need to  replace it. That's the only thing I don't like about the braid. It's very fragile. But it works great. 

[denny]

Either you're a really rough brewer or you need to find a better braid!    Did you see the pics of mine?

[ndcube]

Mine just kind of floats around at the bottom.  I'm semi-careful when I stir not to pinch it to the bottom of the cooler.  It has a few dings in it but nothing too bad.

Sometimes I'll run a pience of siphon tubing through it to straighten it out or remove dings but this usually isn't necessary.

[lupy]

I walked a buddy through the building of his Denny tun. His braid was different than mine. It had a looser weave and a much weaker overall strength so i suspect there are different grades of braids. Either way, both have worked fine without problems.

[bluesman]

Either you're a really rough brewer or you need to find a better braid!    Did you see the pics of mine?

Actually... redbeerman was over to brew your VBIP and we overfilled the cooler slightly... he was stirring the mash... Things were kind of hectic and ...well it got kinked...we got a stuck sparge...man it was rough but in the end the beer turned out great.

My last braid lasted over a year.

[Kaiser]

What is a good braid to get? I want to replace my slotted pipe with a braid and when I looked at the HD I found that most braids and made from plastic nowadays.

The motivation comes from the fact that I tried to lauter a Doppelbock a few weeks back and it was getting stuck very easily. I had to remove lots of the grain and add it back once the wort was more dilute.

My mash tun looks like this:



and the manifold like this:



stout_fan, where did you get the spring to fit inside the braid? Is it stainless?

Kai

[bluesman]

You can get the Stainless Steel water supply lines from HD or Lowes...



and cut the ends off with a hack saw...



then pull out the inner liner very carefully as not to kink the braid...I use a pair of needle nose pliers to grab the inner liner.