Cheap Mash Tun Idea

[jojai]

Seeing as many of the better brewing setups for AG brewers use 3 vessels, all pretty much the same, stainless steel, and the mash tun is differentiated by the fact it is insulated. I thought of using an insulated fermenter drum. Mash temperatures max at around 77C, so is there any reason why the plastic they are made from wouldn't be suitable? (Many of us 'no-chill', and I for one have tipped wort at around 60C into a cube before, without detecting any plastic flavors or other abnormalities.)

I've already got an esky mash tun (which is plastic too, so I doubt there is much difference), but knowing that you could insulate a fermenter could make AG that little bit more accessible...

$16.00 for 25L fermenter
$2.00 for a tap
$5.00 for S/S braid (sketchy on this as I don't use any myself)
$10.00 for plenty of insulation from clark rubber
$2.00 for a roll of duct tape
Total: $35 for a 25L mash tun, if it would work?


Now, I wonder if you could use plastic for the HLT and kettle....

 

[peas_and_corn]

This has been done in the past, and some have had good results. However, I want to know where you get your gaffer tape- $2??

 

[Adamt]

Search for "bucket of death", probably via google, for threads with people using plastic for kettles/HLTs...

Can't see anything wrong with your idea!

 

[randyrob]

from here --> http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter17-2.html

The original (at least the most popularized) home lautering system was probably the bucket-in-a-bucket false bottom championed by Charlie Papazian in The Complete Joy of Homebrewing (1984). This setup is fairly effective and very cheap to assemble. Using two food-grade 5-gallon buckets, the inner bucket is drilled with lots of small holes to form a false bottom that holds the grain and allows the liquid to run off; the sweet wort passes into the outer bucket and is drawn off through a hole in the side. False bottom systems usually rinse the grainbed uniformly, but there are two drawbacks that need to be considered. The first is that the placement of the outlet hole in the outer bucket influences the way the tun drains. More rinsing will occur on the side of the grainbed where the hole is. For best results, the outlet tube needs to be extended to the center of the tun so that it will drain evenly. Secondly, false bottoms have the potential to flow too fast because of the very large drainage area available and can compact the grainbed as a result. Stuck sparges from draining too fast are a common problem for homebrewers using false bottoms for the first time.

 

[jojai]

I want to know where you get your gaffer tape- $2??

Ahem... Never actually bought it, my brother used to work at the convention center as a A/V tech and we accumulated a few buckets full of electrical tape and duct tape, I was just taking a guess.

I assumed it would have been done before, but "plastic, mash tun, insulation" yields a lot of results. Bucket of death? Well that wasn't the nickname I had for it.

Randyrob: interesting, so the major drawback on that design would be lowered efficiency? How about using the SS braid, does that have that drawback?

 

[randyrob]

ah here we go it's called a "Zapap"

from here --> http://byo.com/feature/828.html

pair of buckets, nested, with lots of hole drilled in the top bucket and a drain hole on the side of the lower bucket the famous "Zapap" lauter tun popularized by Charlie Papazian.

neway pleny of good/cheap ideas for ya to get a batch of ag down with minimal cost, i know one of the main reasons's i thought i'd give it a go was becasue i already had an esky!

Rob.

 

[ausdb]

Seeing as many of the better brewing setups for AG brewers use 3 vessels, all pretty much the same, stainless steel, and the mash tun is differentiated by the fact it is insulated. I thought of using an insulated fermenter drum. Mash temperatures max at around 77C, so is there any reason why the plastic they are made from wouldn't be suitable? (Many of us 'no-chill', and I for one have tipped wort at around 60C into a cube before, without detecting any plastic flavors or other abnormalities.)

I've already got an esky mash tun (which is plastic too, so I doubt there is much difference), but knowing that you could insulate a fermenter could make AG that little bit more accessible...

Edit
Now, I wonder if you could use plastic for the HLT and kettle....

Sorry one question if you have one mash tun why do you want another? but as theo toher have said search for "bucket of death"

This has been done in the past, and some have had good results. However, I want to know where you get your gaffer tape- $2??

You can't get Gaffer tape for $2 but you can get DUCT tape

 

[braufrau]

I thought the bucket of death was when you perched your HLT waaayyy up above you head so you have gravity feed from all your vessels from HLT to fermenter??

 

[oldbugman]

Wasnt the bucket of death fited with an element? to counter the heat lost during the 60min mash?

 

[braufrau]

It was the second post in this thread here
that gave me the impression. That bucket perched wayyyy up there with 76C sticky liquid seems harbinger of death to me.

Ahhh here we go ... previous post on the definition

 

[jojai]

Sorry one question if you have one mash tun why do you want another?

I don't, I was just thinking. The reason why was because today I did an hour round trip (on my bike, no great distance) trying to find a hbs that isn't shut down, because I was under the impression that you needed those sediment reducer thingys that go into the back of a fermenters tap... As I have been informed they're benefit is negligible. Anyway, I figured if more people did home brew then there would be more hbs, K&K and the general lack of information in hbs ends up with a lot of people thinking good beer cannot be made from home, so I figured if there were cheaper means to make AG, then that could get more people brewing, and then I wouldn't have to ride to two closed stores. (And yes I know, i should have called ahead, but whitepages told me brewcraft and bake and brew were still open in clearview and prospect respectively). So there you have it

I thought the bucket of death was when you perched your HLT waaayyy up above you head so you have gravity feed from all your vessels from HLT to fermenter??

That's something I would call a bucket of death.

 

[braufrau]

Broadview to Pooraka's not so far! About 11km I would think .. one way.

 

[Adamt]

Search for "bucket of death", probably via google, for threads with people using plastic for kettles/HLTs...

I meant; a "bucket of death" is a plastic HLT or kettle .

Oh yeah... and look for posts by a guy called "Plastic Man"

 

[Bribie G]

In the 1970s I had exactly the device being discussed here, sold through HB shops in the UK. It was a plastic five gallon white plastic bucket fitted with a curly element in the bottom and a nicely accurate dial/thermostat, and a tap. It was basically a plastic version of a Baby Burco stainless steel home boiler. Worked beautifully, made many AG brews in Cardiff, Wales, and shipped it out to Australia along with a pressure barrel in 1977. Used it in Bundaberg until 1984 then it went to God (along with the Pressure Barrel injector, couldn't get another one and there was no Internet or Ebay back then).

You put in the false bottom, got the water up to strike temp, added grist, mashed (with a couple of anxious hours drawing wort from tap and pouring back from the top to maintain temperature ... a juggling job and you needed to do a few brews to get the hang of it, but I always had good results). Run wort / spargings into plastic bucket fermenter. Toss the grain. Pour wort back into boiler. Add hops, turn the dial to max, boil. Hop flowers were nearly always used back then, so you ended up with a nice hop flower bed on top of the false bottom.

Strain into fermenter. Cool. Ferment.

Into Pressure Barrel.

Neat. I didn't bottle at all in my UK brewing career. - had two pressure barrels on the go.

If someone brought it out here, I would buy one tomorrow.

EDIT...

Hahahaha ..............YESSSSS ..........Still available, the good old Bruheat .....Now I remember the name ...... :super: :super: :super:

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatal..._Equipment.html

 

[Brewtus]

Idea for a cheap false bottom would be a cake rack and use a BIAB bag.

 

[alexbrand]

[from the signature:]Bierbrauer Bauer braut braunes Bier, braunes Bier braut Bierbrauer Bauer.

Oh damn. That's hard... Can you say it three times?

I know... off topic...

Alex

 

[braufrau]

Oh damn. That's hard... Can you say it three times?

I know... off topic...

Alex

i can hardly say it once! I've really gotta learn some german before saturday!

 

[braufrau]

That bruheat thing is neat. You need a bunch of doohickies to go with it but you end up with 1 vessel brewing.

 

[Bribie G]

That bruheat thing is neat. You need a bunch of doohickies to go with it but you end up with 1 vessel brewing.

I've emailed them to see if they can ship. God I won't sleep for a week. :lol: As for the doohickies, they weren't avaliable then so I made my own, like a false bottom from an aluminium sheet cut into a circle with a hacksaw and drilled with n holes, and a hop filter made from a wire kitchen strainer whacked into approximate shape etc.

 

[enoch]

This is my old bicket of death. Not at all inclined to split but having two jug elements, some kind of bare terminals, a few drips, a bit ustable, etc always something to treat with etreme respect.

Only cost about $30 dollars though (without the thermo) and was good for 60 litres.
It was based on my old Bruheat which was an OK boiler but a complete PITA for mashing unless you were working about 4 litres per kg.