Is the cooler good enough to be a mash tun?

[looflirpa]

Bought a Willow 55L cooler 1 month ago

Today I made the first test:

Put about 12L warm water in it and the temperature read is 75℃, then cover with the lid...

one hour later, another temperature read is 67.3℃

I just wondering if the the issue of cooler, or the water used in test is not enough?(maybe 40L would be much better?)

PS：room temperature is 28℃

Sorry for English typing...All advice welcomed.

 

[mje1980]

I use an esky. Mine is wrapped in cheap yoga mat. Works fine.

 

[dicko]

The more full the cooler is then the better it will hold temp.
55 litre is a great size...very flexible.
I used a 55 litre cooler as a mash tun for many years and if I was doing a smaller mash I had a piece of styrofoam that I had cut to the diameter of the cooler and I used to just sit that on the top of the mash.
It would hold mash temps for 60 minutes without a problem.

 

[DU99]

might need to cover with a blanket,also you can place a sheet of foil on top of grain to stop heat taking the vacant headspace

 

[indica86]

I used foil on the grain, only dropped maybe 1° over and hour +.

 

[looflirpa]

Thanks guys


The lid is warm during the one hour test while the sides is not. I believe a blanket of styrofoam as an extra cover will help a lot.

Poor cooler, lack of independent working ability.

 

[Steve]

Cooler? We're not American......its a bloody esky FFS!

Edit....yes it will be perfectly fine as a mash tun.

 

[huez]

You will find that with the added grain it will hold temp a lot better. A test with just water isn't a very good indication of how well it will hold heat.

And to start a debate, esky is a brandname of a cooler. Coleman has the rights to the name

 

[geneabovill]

Try preheating the esky first too.. It may be that the cool walls in the esky sucked out a few degrees too.

 

[indica86]

I did that too, two kettles of boiling water helps.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

A peice of styrafoam on top of the grain is the go. Makes a big difference

 

[Bribie G]

or bubblewrap.

If you line the chillybin with a big circle of Swiss Voile you can do a full volume mash (typically using around 33L of strike water) then hoist and hang it to drain, as in a BIAB brew, then jug the wort into your boiler. I do this occasionally when I'm making a double batch - I mash one lot in the urn and the second lot in the cooler then transfer that wort to the urn when the first batch has been boiled and cubed.

That avoids all the nonsense of drilling the esky, fashioning a metal braid draining device, etc. and you can still take the chullybun on pucnucs. B)

edit: linky

 

[NewtownClown]

Cooler? We're not American......its a bloody esky FFS!

Edit....yes it will be perfectly fine as a mash tun.

Esky is a brand name FFS! Like calling every vacuum cleaner a Hoover or every blender a Breville.
Esky is owned by Coleman - an American company.

 

[Bribie G]

I usually do my Hoovering on Mondays.

 

[manticle]

I hoover after filling my thermos.

 

[DU99]

"The "Esky" was created by Malley's, a Sydney refrigeration business. The construction is made up of two layers: Polypropylene on the outer shell, with a polyurethane inner layer. This makes it lightweight and portable with excellent insulation." WIKI

 

[OneEye]

I write my name on my Esky with a Texta

 

[manticle]

If you lose the lid to your Texta, you can put a piece of Glad Wrap around the end to keep it from drying out.

 

[Bribie G]

Texta is good, it's hard to write on an esky with a biro.

 

[indica86]

You can always cover it up with Liquid Paper if you spell it wrong.