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Hi guys. i just bought a 10 gal Home Depot drink cooler to make into a mash tun. If I could figure out how to add a pic I would. I still need fittings and a screen for the bottom. Don't know if I should buy one or make one out of stainless braided tubing. Any thoughts? Edited by user Saturday, November 14, 2015 2:04:25 PM(UTC)
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I use an Igloo 10 gal for my personal brewing & bought the SS false bottom. It works very nicely. But if I had to do it again, I would probably try the braid first.
When I brew with my friends we do 15 - 20 gal. batches using a 140 quart rectangular cooler. This one just has copper pipes with slots cut in them (facing the bottom) -- looks like a manifold & just lays in the bottom of the cooler with some food grade hose running to the bulkhead valve mounted in the drain hole. In hindsight, this is the way I would go if I were starting from scratch -- a 10 - 20 gal rectangular cooler with the slotted copper pipes as a false bottom. It works really well and is really easy to clean (the pipes don't need to be soldered -- just slide them together into the tees and elbows).
As long as you can get a good even sparge without getting stuck I really don't think any of them stand out as being better than the others. I've used all of them over the past several years and have never had a stuck sparge (but I'm also religious about a good vorlauf).
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Mash tun is finished and looks great. No leaks and the braided stainless allows h2o to run out quickly. I have seen mashes started 2 ways. #1, is heating the h2o, pouring it into the tun and adding the grains. And B, is heating the h20 and grains together and dumping the whole mess into the tun. Is there any difference or preferred method?
Thanks in advance.
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Boil a few gallons of water & dump it in your tun to pre-heat it. Then get your strike water up to temp. Dump the pre-heat water & add your strike water. Then stir in your grains. Pre-heating will help you avoid losing to much energy into a cool tun. Stirring the grains into the water (rather than the other way around) helps you avoid those pesky dough balls ... and it seems to move along faster (my opinion)... so you won't loose too much energy while the tun is open. As long as you hit your target temp & don't end up with dough balls, I don't think it really makes much of a difference how you do it. BTW: If you don't have a mash paddle, buy one or make one ... it's a very handy tool. Edited by user Monday, November 23, 2015 9:23:44 PM(UTC)
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Registered
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Thanks JB, I appreciate it. That is the way I will go. I've got everything I need except time. lol
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Originally Posted by: Hokey  I've got everything I need except time. lol Amen! I spend most of my time preparing and cleaning, with cleaning taking the lion's share. Anything you can do to reduce cleaning time (or doing things in parallel) is worth looking into. Let us know how you make out. Happy Thanksgiving! --JB
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