Removing your false bottom!

[Brett Mason]

What a great title for a post.

After switching to all electric my old clean up method of taking my keggle etc outside and blasting with the hose became awkward with the cables attached. I'm also after ways to reduce the amount of lifting involved so have been looking at cleaning the vessels in place. Boring topic but clean up still eats up a good chunk of my brew day.

My trub filter was fixed in place which made cleaning the kettle time consuming. It doesn't help that my filter has evolved into a mongrel made from two bazooka tees wrapped in extra mesh. The actual plumbing is fairly simple yet Google failed me for ideas to make it removable by hand so I thought I would post the simple solution I've found.

The solution is a "NPT pipe union" (aliexpress.com). Even without any  silicon o-ring it will seal sufficiently when only hand tightened. I suspect it may need a wrench to loosen it when it is hot but that's still much easer than a regular threaded connection - will find out next brew day.

For my mash tun I've gone with a "Hex Quick Connector (aliexpress.com) since it isn't hard plumbed. Again this seals with just hand tightening although this time it uses a silicone o-ring. Not quite as easy to undo as the pipe union so I may switch if there is enough clearance.