Making a Mash Tun.....FInally

I have a rectangular cooler, but I used a simple hose braid for a long time with OK results. One bored weekend with spare time I made a manifold out of PVC, and both my efficiency and sparge time improved greatly. I don't think fly vs. batch sparge is a big deal for homebrewers.

 

I believe the cooler you talk about is a Rubbermaid 1610, usually cheaper at Lowes or HD. This is what I use, and it can easily handle any high OG beer in five gallon batches. I use a false bottom. My last tun was rectangular and used a stainless steel manifold (screen) . . . I prefer the round/false-bottom arrangement. Adding a valve to the Rubbermaid model took all of about 10 minutes. Lots of suppliers for false bottoms, you will want the 10" diameter.

For me, sparging is a pretty simple affair. I normally do a mash-out, this partially mimics batch sparging . Then I continuous sparge with nothing more complicated than a silicon hose attached to a barbed valve. Using my method all you need is to keep at least an inch of sparge water above the grain bed. KISS

Here it is in action:

 

I use a rectangular cooler with a steel braid hose I got at lowes. I batch sparge and it works great. Never had a stuck sparge. I'm thinking the screen you already have will work just Finr. Fly sparging is supposed to lead to better efficiency but I routinely get 68-72% efficiency which is fine by me. YouTube don osborn and check out his very straight forward batch sparge to get a visual representation. I would suggest getting some brewing software like beer smith,pro mash, or I brewmaster as it helps you figure out water amounts, approx ibu levels, grain %s, and approx beer color. I think batch sparging is the best way to ease into all grain brewing and once you get your process dial in you can think about adding gadgets and new process's.

 

This won't work for high OG beers. Here's a calculator that gives you all the details:
http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

 

Your wife's ok with you use of her good towels? ;-)

 

A false bottom is only used to separate the "wort" from the grain bed. This insures that you are only getting wort into your boil kettle and not grain. You need to have some sort of screen to filter the wort from the grain.

The reason for using a larger capacity cooler for 5 gal. batches is the amount of grain required for higher gravity batches. My cooler only allows for about 12lbs of grain. The reason for having a larger cooler is that during mash out you need to raise the temperature up and this could require a decent amount of hot water thus having a smaller capacity cooler prevents this.

 

Yes, the dip tube (elbow) extends through the false bottom to the bottom of the MT.

 

Grab the 10 gallon, so you can brew whatever beer trips your trigger down the road. I have two, the 2nd is used as a HLT when I fly sparge. I bought mine (Rubbermaid) from Wal-Mart for $43...sounds like Lowe's is similarly priced.

If you have the opportunity, use all SS parts. Though it's supposed to be minimal, brass can leach lead. This is the ball-valve I purchased:

http://www.bargainfittings.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=128

The ball valve is 3-piece and can be taken apart to clean without having to remove the whole valve from the cooler.

I use a false-bottom, but many simply use a screen (bazooka screen), I haven't done the research to see which is better.

 

This might be a noob question, but I'm getting a setup pretty much exactly like yours. My only question is how is a mash out possible if the cooler is the mash tun?

 

You can add boiling water if there is room for it. You can drain off some wort, bring it to a boil, and add back in. A friend routinely does the later.

 

http://www.maltosefalcons.com/tech/building-better-mashout-through-decoction

 

+1 on getting the 10 gallon cooler for bigger beers. I use a kettle screen on my valve in my 10 gallon cooler, and I am happy with the results after a year with it. Since you mentioned you already have one of those, go ahead and give it a try before you buy more equipment. I have gotten good extraction/efficiency, and no stuck sparges to date.

 

Adding hot water (normally boiling) does the trick. Pull up the calculator above (my 2nd post) and scroll down to Rest Calculator: Insert your grain/mash profile and it will compute how much boiling water to add to bring your mash up to 165 (or 168 or whatever).

Most all beer software has a Mash Infusion and Rest Calculator (search Google for free ones) and they seem to work pretty well. But each home system is different enough some trail and error will be involved. For the OP: very important to be able to accurately measure your temps in the mash tun . . . this determines the profile of your sugars and ultimately your beer. I have struggled with this and suggest you throw away every cheap thermometer you own and start with something really good (usually $$$). If you guess with your temps your beer will suffer.

Finally, I usually get hit(s) when showing the above photo. The wort is collecting in an unheated pot which allows cooling which allows alpha enzyme activity to crank up (defeating the mash-out). Ideally you want to lauter straight to the brew kettle and heat. My work-around is to do quick transfers to brew kettle before even a gallon has collected, keeping the wort on the north side of 160.

And . . . no towels were injured on this brew day.

 

I use a rectangular cooler as well with just a regular hose braid. I batch sparge and my efficiency is 72-78%, which I'm pretty happy with. The size I have is good for 5 gallon batches but I'll need to step up to that 10
Gallon Rubbermaid to do 10 gallon batches soon

 

Same setup here ... 48qt cooler and a hose braid. Now that I've started paying more attention to mash pH, I'm getting in the low 70% range as well. My last beer had around 18# of grain and a OG of 1.088 for a 5 gallon batch. I'm pretty sure I could have put 3-4# more grain plus additional mash water in there. One of these days I'll push the limits with a big barleywine.

 

When batch sparging for a 1.050-1.060 OG beer, My sparge water comes pretty close to the top of my cooler, so I know I wouldn't be able to do a mash when wanting to brew 10 gallons of a beer.

When I first started, 5 gallon batches were plenty and they lasted a bit. Now that i've gotten the hang of home brewing, friends and neighbors start to frequent more when a beer is tapped, haha.