Cooler Mashtuns

[Craigerrr]

Going to ressurrect my rectangular cooler mashtun to change it up a little.
Going to have to work up a profile for this.

I am interested to see/hear how others who use some kind of cooler mashtun go a out their brew day.

 

[J A]

Going to ressurrect my rectangular cooler mashtun to change it up a little.
Going to have to work up a profile for this.

I am interested to see/hear how others who use some kind of cooler mashtun go a out their brew day.

I just ran across a fellow selling some new-in-box Brewtech 5-gallon equipment for a very low price and couldn't pass it up. It includes a 10 gallon InfuSsion tun which is an insulated stainless vessel with bottom drain, really good, gasketed false bottom and fittings for thermowell and recirc port. I'll be working up some recipes to use it for single-infusion mashing. Eventually I may set it up for recirc but for now it'll be interesting to see how well it handles infusion mash. It's supposed to be way more efficient and consistent than an Igloo...we'll see.
I'll be brewing next week with it, if my schedule works out and I'll post pics and results.
I'm so accustomed to doing 10 gallon batches and having a fairly long brew day, I'll be looking forward to seeing if a shorter, simpler process will give me results similar to what I'm used to getting. For sure, it'll be nice to produce smaller batches again.

 

[Zambi]

I use a cooler (igloo) for mashing, but I just put pot & bag & lid inside the thing
I'm sure that's not what you are after

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

When I went all-grain about 10 years ago I built a picnic cooler mash tun based on Denny Conn's Cheap-n-Easy design. Initially I added the strike water and stirred in the grains. Now that I have a pump I first add some rice hulls along the torpedo braid and then add the grain, and then transfer the heated strike water to the cooler through the ball valve. . I transfer at a slow/medium rate. I found that if I fill too fast I get more dough balls.

After mashing is complete I use my pump to vourlauf slowly for 10-ish minutes. I use a colander to help diffuse the output flow so it doesn't dig a well into the grain bed. Then I drain the tun through the ball valve to a bucket, that will be carried out to the brew kettle.

Since I don't have a port on the 5 gal (19L) kettle that I use to heat my sparge water I carry the kettle over and pour it into the mash tun for a batch sparge. Sometimes, I transfer the first couple gallons using a large Pyrex measuring cup and then dump the kettle. After stirring in I let it sit for 10 minutes then do a vourlauf and drain to a bucket.

Normally I mash inside but, in the picture below I mashed outdoors because the kitchen was being worked on.

Below is the torpedo screen made from the exterior mesh taken from a water supply hose.

 

[Ward Chillington]

I used the picnic cooler set up for about the first year until I bought a couple of 10 gallon Igloo water coolers for a mash tun and a HLT for my gravity fed rig.

Instead of the Denny Conn braid, I built a square manifold from 1/2" CPVC pipe with a bunch of 1/32" holes on one side of the pipe. It connects with a flexible piece of silicon hose to a stainless barb fitting in the back side of the tun's valve.

It's been working like a champ for years, never collapsed, drains clean making the vorlorf step quick and it's easy to clean and dry. I shortened it when I started using the Igloos so I guess that makes it modular. Now if I could figure out how to get it to make excuses for unwanted lipstick on the collar, I might be on to something!

As I've been writing this an old post came to mind....here's some more thinking fodder for you Craigerrr...

https://www.brewersfriend.com/forum/threads/igloo-mod-hlt-mash-tun.13540/

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

@Ward Chillington, thanks for posting that thread. I like your lid mounted sparge arm design. When vourlaufing, an even dispersal of the wort over the grain bed is one thing my design lacks. I'll likely steal your design for that!

 

[Ward Chillington]

Steal away Barbi...I'm sure I took it from somewhere! Pro tip...stainless steel screws!

 

[Craigerrr]

I used the picnic cooler set up for about the first year until I bought a couple of 10 gallon Igloo water coolers for a mash tun and a HLT for my gravity fed rig.

Instead of the Denny Conn braid, I built a square manifold from 1/2" CPVC pipe with a bunch of 1/32" holes on one side of the pipe. It connects with a flexible piece of silicon hose to a stainless barb fitting in the back side of the tun's valve.

It's been working like a champ for years, never collapsed, drains clean making the vorlorf step quick and it's easy to clean and dry. I shortened it when I started using the Igloos so I guess that makes it modular. Now if I could figure out how to get it to make excuses for unwanted lipstick on the collar, I might be on to something!

As I've been writing this an old post came to mind....here's some more thinking fodder for you Craigerrr...

https://www.brewersfriend.com/forum/threads/igloo-mod-hlt-mash-tun.13540/

Thanks, I see that I had some input in that thread too!

 

[Craigerrr]

When I went all-grain about 10 years ago I built a picnic cooler mash tun based on Denny Conn's Cheap-n-Easy design. Initially I added the strike water and stirred in the grains. Now that I have a pump I first add some rice hulls along the torpedo braid and then add the grain, and then transfer the heated strike water to the cooler through the ball valve. . I transfer at a slow/medium rate. I found that if I fill too fast I get more dough balls.

After mashing is complete I use my pump to vourlauf slowly for 10-ish minutes. I use a colander to help diffuse the output flow so it doesn't dig a well into the grain bed. Then I drain the tun through the ball valve to a bucket, that will be carried out to the brew kettle.

Since I don't have a port on the 5 gal (19L) kettle that I use to heat my sparge water I carry the kettle over and pour it into the mash tun for a batch sparge. Sometimes, I transfer the first couple gallons using a large Pyrex measuring cup and then dump the kettle. After stirring in I let it sit for 10 minutes then do a vourlauf and drain to a bucket.

Normally I mash inside but, in the picture below I mashed outdoors because the kitchen was being worked on.

View attachment 33081

Below is the torpedo screen made from the exterior mesh taken from a water supply hose.
View attachment 33082

How much liquid are you leaving behind in the mash tun at the end of it all, my cooler is pretty much identical to what you have there.

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

I leave almost nothing behind. After draining the sparge, I put a wedge under one end and let it finish draining while I get the boil started. That usually gets me another 1/2 gallon which I add to the kettle.

 

[Craigerrr]

I leave almost nothing behind. After draining the sparge, I put a wedge under one end and let it finish draining while I get the boil started. That usually gets me another 1/2 gallon which I add to the kettle.

I will go with 1 liter in my EQ profile, that plus the absorption should be at least pretty close

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

I will go with 1 liter in my EQ profile, that plus the absorption should be at least pretty close

I did the same. I figure there is probably a liter of recoverable wort in there if I let the mash tun drain for an hour or two.

 

[Craigerrr]

I can't find the copper pipes that I had made up for the bottom, I will have to get to home depot and get some of that whitish CPVC piping and fab something new up

 

[Craigerrr]

@BarbarianBrewer
How much temperature drop do you get when adding strike water to your cooler?
Or do you preheat it?

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

@BarbarianBrewer
How much temperature drop do you get when adding strike water to your cooler?
Or do you preheat it?

I partially preheat the cooler with a heat wrap. I say partially because I lose approximately 4-5°F beyond what is predicted by the Brewer's Friend mash calculator. I should say that I usually add the grain first and pump in the strike water via the ball lock. There some variability in this additional temp loss; a little bit less in the summer and a little bit more in the winter. Maybe I could get a more predictable loss if I factored in the current temperature of the tun. But, for last brew I went back to my pre-pump method of adding strike water slightly above target to the tun first and letting the tun absorb all the heat it wants and when it reaches target strike water temperature (as predicted by BF calculator) then I add and stir in the grains. I got a few more dough-balls but, I hit the target mash temperature. I'll try this a few more times to see if my starting mash temps become more predictable.

 

[Craigerrr]

I will have to do a little experiment to see what my heat loss is

 

[Donoroto]

I will have to do a little experiment to see what my heat loss is

Hmm. Maybe make 8 gallons of oatmeal? Or, if you wanna go Southern, grits?

 

[Craigerrr]

Hmm. Maybe make 8 gallons of oatmeal? Or, if you wanna go Southern, grits?

I was thinking of heating 30 liters of water to a specific temperature, transferring it to the cooler, waiting 10 minutes and seeing what the heat loss from that ends up being.
But, yeah, I could have a big group over for oatmeal breakfast! That will be super easy to clean up too... NOT

 

[Craigerrr]

I heated about 32 liters to 69C according to the kettle thermometer. The orange thermometer measured 68C, which one is correct, hard to say but 1C difference potato tomato... after transferring to the mash tun giving it a couple of stirs and 10 minutes to settle it seems like the temperature drop is 3C. Planning to brew on Friday, so will put this to the test, will heat strike water to 3C over recipe strike temperature.

 

[Craigerrr]

This is what I have done with the interior, couldn't find the beige CPVC pipe, went with PEX pipe, good for 180F continuous, 200F intermittent, and it is easy to work wih. The sparge setup in the lid is more for a vorlauf at the end of the mash, I don't plan to circulate during the mash. Planning to do full volume mashing, but we'll see where this goes. I have a little Anvil pump for the circulation, and to transfer wort to the kettle. I already had everything except for the PEX pipe.