Mashing in Esky Vs Stainless Pot

[tones0606]

I've been brewing in a 50L stainless "pot" for while now and wondering if it would be of benefit to mash in a esky cooler to maintain mash temps a little better.
I usually only loose a couple of degrees / hr but it's a pain with all the doona covers and sleeping bags.
Just wondering what sort of temp loss people are getting in an esky and if anyone could recommend a nice sized esky.
Would rather an upright esky cooler to benefit the grain bed
Thanks in advance

 

[Danscraftbeer]

I got a typical oblong shaped 75lt esky, $99. Those more robust simple solid square types.
More size than I need but that's better. The benefits that I can see is.
(edit: use a sparge filter seive thing in the outlet)
Fill it with the recommended amount of water at recommended temp then spill and stir in the milled grain.
Stir well and let sit for hours . With no fear of burners running etc. The mash slowly declines in temperature through your preferred temperature range. I find it gets good efficiency.
You then free your 50lt kettle for heating sparge water or whatever.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

The doona covers and sleeping bags was a joke yes? :chug:

 

[Mardoo]

Electric or gas? For less than the cost of an esky you could go to Clark's rubber and get some of their self adhesive insulation. It's not in their catalogues, but it's double-faced with aluminiumized material sandwiching pink insulation. I'll try to scare up a thread that shows what it is.

 

[mofox1]

Formshield? Foamshield? Something like that. Silver backed PE foam. Good for up to 85*... Melts at 105 or something.

Had grand plans for it but never got around to it. From memory it was around 20 or 25 $ per metre at either 1m or 1.5m width...

Also at Clarke rubber unless it's exactly what mardoo mentioned.

 

[Mardoo]

That's the one! Then there's Armaflex if you can find a supplier. That stuff is ideal but hard to come by.

Basically you already have a successful brewing setup. Finding the right insulation to make that work better might be a better solution. I moved to an esky from BIAB and quickly found that the step mashes I was interested in doing were impossible unless I wanted to decoct everything. Infusion mashing in an esky limits you to about two steps. If you want to consider going the insulation route have a look at this thread. Post 19 shows the Formshield.

Even if you run gas and wanted to use the Formshield you could probably build some sort of heat shield that would direct the heat away from the insulation on the side of the pot. I'm no engineer but I'm thinking something like a metal dog cone, you know those devices for removing any dignity from an injured animal?

 

[TheWiggman]

They're called an Elizabethan Collar Mardoo, my ******* dogs have had to don them a few times over the years.
I'm in the 'buy insulation' camp if you want better temp stability. I got some of the aforementioned stuff (self adhesive) and it was $50/m, 1200 wide I think. Not cheap but really does work wonders. Also means you're not buying extra gear.
The question of 'do I need to upgrade' is a fair one though. For single infusion mashes if you hit a strike temp and lose 3°C over the hour, will it really matter? Genuine question. I'm thinking probably not. Thus the best reason to upgrade to insulation is how tuff it looks.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

I have got a big pot with a false bottom (don't use it anymore) but I had the idea of making a styrene shell to go around it using the thicker styrene which is put under concrete floors, just a square shape and filling in the corners with expanding foam so the pot is set in its shell.
As the styrene is pretty thick it would take up a lot of space, but you could use some 80 mm blocks of styrene. would be cheap to make too.

 

[manticle]

Agree with insulating your pot with foam but disagree that eskies are limited to 2 steps. I can do as many steps in mine as I like using an ots element. Because I do regularly step up from 55 to 63 to 68 to 72 to 78, losses are less of an issue as I'm targeting a range of enzymes.

 

[Mardoo]

I think he wants to lose the sleepwear...

Very true Manticle. I'm forgetting about the OTS elements and the fact that I'm geeked out by using them in plastic eskys. That's a great option for step mashing in eskys.

 

[WarmerBeer]

If your handy you can make a HERMS from some copper, an old kettle and a Kaixin pump for less than $100. Then you can step mash in an esky to your hearts content

 

[5150]

Another cheap option for of insulation is to buy a couple of windscreen shields and camping matt. Sandwich the matt between the shields around the pot. Kmart was the cheapest I found.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

It would be awesome to see pics of all the descriptions mentioned.

Agree with insulating your pot with foam but disagree that eskies are limited to 2 steps. I can do as many steps in mine as I like using an ots element. Because I do regularly step up from 55 to 63 to 68 to 72 to 78, losses are less of an issue as I'm targeting a range of enzymes.

What about (backwards) mashing? as I've seen it called. No heating elements.
Is there a significant difference in either raising through those temperature ranges or falling through those temperature ranges.
Just throwing out that question because of the various equipment ranges that people have.

The way I figure it is if you have the bigger systems you raise the grist because thats more efficient in time and energy.
If you have a small set up your better with an esky style. Strike water high at around 75c then mix and sit and fall through the temp range.

 

[manticle]

I have heard of people reverse mashing.
Main issues I see are that it's harder to control and you have more chance of denaturing enzymes before hitting their optimal temperature range. No real advantage I can think of either.

 

[Kingy]

Herms. Set temp sit back and enjoy.

 

[mje1980]

I do that without a herms

 

[wide eyed and legless]

From the OP's original post I would presume he's happy with his single infusion mash, its just wrapping it up and tucking in all the doonas and sleeping bags, I don't know about temp loss with an esky but I assume it would be on a par with what he is doing now, unless he wanted to wrap the esky up too.

 

[JDW81]

They're called an Elizabethan Collar

AKA the cone of shame.....