Brewing Gadgets: Bazooka Screen v. False Bottom

I've made mention of my poor mash efficiency/conversion rates.  This refers to the amount of fermentable sugar that is extracted during the mash process.  The percentage is in comparison to the theoretical amount stored in grain.  My conversion rate has been as low as 50% over my last several brewing sessions.

To date, I've simply dealt with this by increasing my grain bill by about 10-15%, which costs me about $1.50 per 5 gallon batch overall.  If I were a big brewery, this would be a problem.  However, as a casual brewer its just a matter of pride.  I constantly hear of fellow homebrewers achieving efficiencies over 90%.  I'm skeptical since 100% is theoretical in strict laboratory conditions with small amounts of grain, but that could just be sour grapes.  Anyways, 80% seems achievable so I still have a long way to go.

Two things I've speculated would make a significant difference in my brewery's eficiency are changing from a batch to a fly sparge, and upgrading my mash tun with a new false bottom.  I'm addicted to the simplicity and time savings of a batch sparge so I am saving that for another day. However, this weekend I was greeted at my local homebrew shop that a new false bottom had arrived that would fit the 10gal Rubbermaid cooler I use as a mash tun!

When I first started all-grain brewing I installed a stainless steel ball valve and bulkhead to replace the standard valve in my cooler to control the outflow of wort.  I then needed to find something to allow the wort to flow out while leaving the grains behind. 

Popular options include a braided metal hose (like those used for washer hookups with the liner removed)  or a false bottom.  I couldn't find a false bottom at the time and was concerned about how to keep hose braid material clean, so I turned to the "bazooka screen" which amounts to a copper T connected to tubes of stainless screen material crimped at the ends.  This worked great except I could not get the last inch plus of sticky goodness out of my mash tun since it sits up off of the bottom of the cooler.  I figure this amounted to the loss of at least a couple quarts of high octane wort.

This week I tried a stainless false bottom which is concave and sit flat on the bottom of my cooler at the edges with an outlet for the wort in the center.  The grain bed sits on top of this and liquid is forced via gravity and pressure from the grain into the valve assembly.  Works like a champ!

I'm happy to report that after removing the spent grains, there was no measurable liquid left in the bottom of my mash tun and my overall efficiency has improved 8% while recycling the wort through the grain bed only once (compared to twice or more in the recent past).  This will also reduce my opportunity of extracting bitter tannins from the grain hulls.  Looking forward to more batches to see if this trend improves.  I will plan to use the bazooka screen in a future brew kettle conversion to help filter out hop leaves.

Any other ideas on how to improve mash efficiency?

Cheers,
-D

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[Bazooka Screen vs False Bottom]

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