My First Mash Tun

[tororm]

I just picked up an esky and am setting out to build myself a false bottom mash tun.

The plan its to buy a food grade HDPE (polyethylene) sheet and place it just above the outlet inside the Esky. I will then cut narrow slits up and down along the entire length of the sheet (save a 3cm margin around the edge)- allowing easy drainage via the existing tap.

What do you guys think, should i bother?

 

[Cortez The Killer]

What is going to support it?

Wet grain gets heavy

Cheers

 

[Swinging Beef]

Yeah, you will need to support it somehow.
A copper manifold wont cost you much, either, and will take just as much time to make, I suspect.
Less stuck mashes on a manifold. ^_^

 

[samhighley]

Actually, copper is getting pretty freaking expensive. My copper manifold cost me more to build than a Beerbelly falsie.

 

[Swinging Beef]

Really, Oh.
I picked mine up for free from a council clean up.

 

[porky]

Actually, copper is getting pretty freaking expensive. My copper manifold cost me more to build than a Beerbelly falsie.

I saw a three meter coil of 1/2 inch copper at bunnings the other day for $15.
Not too bad.

Cheers,
Bud

 

[rich_lamb]

I think the sheet idea is a good one - provided you make some sort of stand as the others have suggested. At the end of the day, pretty much anything works.

Good idea to allow for tilting the mash tun towards the tap also; reduce your dead volume. If you just use the tap it can leave a fair bit of wort below. Or you could just compensate for this by sparging more - but reducing dead volume is neater and more accurate for your calculations.

 

[Spartan 117]

I saw a three meter coil of 1/2 inch copper at bunnings the other day for $15.
Not too bad.

Cheers,
Bud

was that from bunnings?

Aaron

 

[Spartan 117]

I just picked up an esky and am setting out to build myself a false bottom mash tun.

The plan its to buy a food grade HDPE (polyethylene) sheet and place it just above the outlet inside the Esky. I will then cut narrow slits up and down along the entire length of the sheet (save a 3cm margin around the edge)- allowing easy drainage via the existing tap.

What do you guys think, should i bother?

why not just go the steel braid option, i did and it works beautifully. Also excluding the esky it cost me about $10.
Go to Bunnings and in the gardening section they have a huge range of small plastic fittings that are cheap as chips
but work really well. The steel braid you can alsp get from bunings or do what i did and go to a plumbing store

Also check on youtube there are some good resources for building mash tuns there

Good luck

Aaron

 

[Swinging Beef]

"I saw a three meter coil of 1/2 inch copper at bunnings the other day for $15.
Not too bad.

was that from bunnings?
Aaron

<_<
Ok.. whats going on here...

 

[Spartan 117]

"I saw a three meter coil of 1/2 inch copper at bunnings the other day for $15.
Not too bad.


<_<
Ok.. whats going on here...

Sorry I'm having one of those stupid mornings didn't see the "at bunnings" part but i seen the same thing when i was getting stuff there the other day. It's all good I'll grab a few cups of coffe all will be fine

Aaron

 

[tororm]

The idea was to have the sheet sitting on multiple poly columns. I'm keen on this method simply because I have been thinking about it for a while- also I dont really want to modify the esky at all. That being said, its proving difficult to find a sheet of poly that is'nt 3m by 2 m- so I may just go the copper manifold.

 

[bouncingcastle]

A bit of advice... Stop with the buggering around, and just get a BeerBelly falsie...

He's already worked out all of the kinks, it is easy to clean, made of SS so will last you forever, and there's no screwing around or upgrading later when you decide that the less than optimal solution you have chosen needs to be changed.

If there is anything I would change about my history of brewing, is the "home brew" equipment I have made over the last year or so that I have later upgraded... At this rate, it would almost have worked out cheaper to get a full blichmann SS brewery (not quite )

I myself moved from an esky with a braid, to an esky with a copper manifold, to an insulated pot with cut down copper manifold, to an insulated pot with an SS false bottom. I wish I had started at the end.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is think about your brewery and how far you want to take it - then plan accordingly to fit your budget. I think you will find, if you are happy with an esky, then bite the bullet and get a falsie - then you will never need to touch the tun again.

Chris.

EDIT: just saw the part about not wanting to touch the esky. The plug should just remove and you can fit the falsie in its place. If you want a functional esky again, just swap back.

 

[shabadoo75]

Go to Bunnings and in the gardening section they have a huge range of small plastic fittings that are cheap as chips
but work really well.

On advice from my friendly home brew store owner I would *never* use any tubing or fittings that have not been expressly built to be used for cooking or potable water plumbing. Those small plastic garden fittings do not have to pass any human consumption manufacturing guidelines, so they are manufactured in what ever way is cheapest.

Search Yahoo for "garden hose lead" to see what I'm talking about.

Joe

 

[OLDS2006]

That link didn`t work for me, is there some other examples to look at.
edit-found the post on their website.

 

[Spartan 117]

On advice from my friendly home brew store owner I would *never* use any tubing or fittings that have not been expressly built to be used for cooking or potable water plumbing. Those small plastic garden fittings do not have to pass any human consumption manufacturing guidelines, so they are manufactured in what ever way is cheapest.

Search Yahoo for "garden hose lead" to see what I'm talking about.

Joe

Hey Joe

Wasn't talking about the garden hose's, was refering to the PVC fittings for sprinkler systems etc. PVC is fine to use in almost any food production due to its decomposition temp being at about 200C and low reactivity and stability with other compunds(well any of witch you would expect to come in contact with a mash tun) . Hence the reason for its use's in cheap kitchen untencils(and probably the esky itself??). Sanatize before use and you'll be fine.

As for the manufacturing issues, nearly all PVC products will be made in the exact same way first you melt your PVC inject or blow mould it, then temper it. The reson for wide use of PVC(in any field) is due to the low costs of manufacturing.


Cheers,

Aaron

 

[Leigh]

On advice from my friendly home brew store owner I would *never* use any tubing or fittings that have not been expressly built to be used for cooking or potable water plumbing. Those small plastic garden fittings do not have to pass any human consumption manufacturing guidelines, so they are manufactured in what ever way is cheapest.

Search Yahoo for "garden hose lead" to see what I'm talking about.

Joe

Gotta love non-scientific research done in the name of journalism...

I've also read articles about aluminium leaching from aluminium pots and chromium leaching from stainless steel pots...danger lurks around every corner!

 

[Spartan 117]

Gotta love non-scientific research done in the name of journalism...

I've also read articles about aluminium leaching from aluminium pots and chromium leaching from stainless steel pots...danger lurks around every corner!

Fair call

Aaron

 

[dr K]

I actually use an Aluminium beer can (Toohey's Red) drilled full of holes and jammed onto a 15mm threaded brass nipple, inside a 55 litre easky,tap on the other side. Built it as a joke but keep on using it...its fine...however, the BeerBelly falsies that I have seen, and the feedback that I have had about them suggest that this is clearly the way to go, a very small investment for hassle free sparging.

Kurtz

 

[shabadoo75]

Wasn't talking about the garden hose's, was refering to the PVC fittings for sprinkler systems etc. PVC is fine to use in almost any food production due to its decomposition temp being at about 200C and low reactivity and stability with other compunds(well any of witch you would expect to come in contact with a mash tun) . Hence the reason for its use's in cheap kitchen untencils(and probably the esky itself??). Sanatize before use and you'll be fine.

As for the manufacturing issues, nearly all PVC products will be made in the exact same way first you melt your PVC inject or blow mould it, then temper it. The reson for wide use of PVC(in any field) is due to the low costs of manufacturing.

Hey Aaron,

Cool, it sounds like you know more about this stuff than me, I just built my first copper manifold and after talking to people and doing a bit of reading I've been erring on the side of caution.

So here's a question for you, I told the guys at Bunnings what I was building, they said it's fine to use tin/lead solder ( it's all they had in stock ) I ended up passing on that on bought some lead free solder elsewhere. Would lead solder really be safe?

cheers

Joe