Setting Up Mash/lauter Tun For The First Time.

[Brewbloke]

Hey guys, just starting out in All Grain brewing and trying to design/build keg type MLT. Brewing at the moment out of an esky with a drain mainfold and have had reasonable results, but looking to improve consistency, accuracy and ease of use overall with a SS MLT.

I have done alot of research into this but I am still confused in alot of areas of the aspects of design. I would be keen to hear about other brewers setups and designs and if anyone has photos of their systems I would also love to see those, particulary false bottom setups and recirculation techniques.

Any thoughts or comments appreciated, cheers.

 

[T.D.]

A lot of it depends on the sparging method you are using. If fly sparging mash tun geometry is important, whereas if you are batch sparging it is almost irrelevant. In fact if you are batch sparging it is unlikely that you will get any improvements from moving to another design.

If you are fly sparging, generally you will want to err on the side of a mash tun that has a smaller diameter and is taller, rather than something that is short and wide. That is within reason obviously, but generally you want a smaller surface area of grain exposed to the sparge water and a deep-ish grain bed (without going too far and compacting it).

In terms of false bottoms, I am a fan of the perforated stainles option, but there are several options available. John Palmer's How to Brew goes into this topic in quite a bit of detail.

 

[Brewbloke]

Been attempting fly sparging with esky setup and been reading John Palmers works which have led me to wanting to build a keg setup. What sort of setup do you use yourself?