A few weeks ago I received a 52 quart Xtreme Coleman Cooler for my birthday. So I ordered stainless fittings and a valve from bargainfittings.com. All the parts arrived a few days later so off to Menards I went to get a few supplies. I bought a 30 inch stainless faucet hose, teflon tape, and a few small clamps.
Looking at the picture that is the fitting I ordered from bargain fittings, I found it made the connection about 4 inches longer by the time the bulkhead was installed. I ordered another washer and a female barbed fitting. This way I can space the valve out a bit and connect the stainless hose/filter closer to the drain.
I cut both ends from the hose with a hacksaw, I found it was much easier than I thought it would be. It only took a few strokes to cut each one off. I have watched many YouTube videos before building my mash tun and I thought getting the stainless braid off from the hose would be really easy. Well it seemed stuck to the hose. I finally figured out that you have to push it back on to the hose a bit then it slides right off. Next using my needle nose piers I folded about 1/4 inch of brain back inside so no fray wires were sticking out. I added a small stainless clamp and slid it over the 1/2 inch stainless barbed fitting.
Now what to do with the other end? I have seen many different ways to close it on YouTube. Should I put a stainless bolt in the end and clamp it? Should I put a plug in the end? Maybe I could just crimp it in my vise and fold it over? I saw a few people used a zip tie and just smashed the end closed. Well I decided to slowly fold about 1 inch of the brain back in to the end. I think it took about 4 times around before the end was solid, no clamp or zip tie needed.
I’ll be making my first 5 gallon all grain batch in a few days. Can’t wait to try out my new mash tun. I plan to batch sparge the first time. Does anyone have a better way to close the end of the stainless braid?