Wanna upgrade my mash tun...?

[philistine]

Im currently using a 19L beverage cooler as a mush tun and while its working perfectly and as I believe, giving me great efficiency due to its shape - its just that little bit too small.
Its fine for doing a single infusion, but with multi step mashes its too small and gets too full.

the thing is I only ever brew 20-25 litre batches so what I wanna know is: Will getting a much bigger mash tun (say one of these round 56L bev coolers from cheeky peak) cause issues with temp stability and/or efficiency?
I wondering if all that 'dead space' that Id get above my mash in a cooler thats over twice the size cause it to lose temp?

Ive also seen 40L HEX coolers from the same store as well, but they're set up a bit differently with the false bottom being full size and the outlet situated underneath it with no other plumbing (as opposed to the seemingly standard set up where the false bottom is concave and sits below the tap, requiring a few fittings and some tubing to enable drainage thru it from above)
Are there any real issues with the differences in design?

I feel a 40L vessel would be more appropriate, but not sure if there are any other pro and/or cons between the two that I dont yet know about...

The other thing Im thinking about is that Im in the process of building a simple HERMS set up with an external HEX and Id like to know that I'll be able to intergrate it with the new MLT (the one I currently use has REALLY slow drainage which just wouldnt work with a re-circ system)

thanks in advance!

 

[wynnum1]

If only going to make 20-25 litre batches probably not going to be any better in larger mash tun how big is your boiler.

 

[philistine]

boiler is a keggle, so ~50L
basically, all I need is a bit of extra space in the MLT to give me enough room for a 3 step mash and/or a grain bill over 5kg (i once tried making a Dunkler Weizenbock using a 3 step mash and it was a total mess) but so far the only round bev. coolers I can find are either 19L, or 40L plus.... a 25L-30L bev. cooler would be prefect but I cant find one anywhere

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I wondering if all that 'dead space' that Id get above my mash in a cooler thats over twice the size cause it to lose temp?

Cut a piece of foam from something like a Broccoli box and sit that directly on the mash. Solves the dead space issue and it will hold its temp a lot better

This works for any mash tun, so you can still make small mashes in big tuns

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I use alfoil over the top if I'm mashing in a 30-50L esky, which I've used at different times over the years. It holds the temp very well.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Mash firkin good
(a firkin is about 39 litres).

A 'tun' is about 980 litres.

I should stop being so firkin anal

re. your question i use a round shaped esky and i would also be interested to know if the grain bed drains any different than from a square esky. But i guess it's probably dependent on the false bottom/bazooka tube / snake setup.

 

[GalBrew]

Mash firkin good
(a firkin is about 39 litres).

A 'tun' is about 980 litres.

I should stop being so firkin anal

re. your question i use a round shaped esky and i would also be interested to know if the grain bed drains any different than from a square esky. But i guess it's probably dependent on the false bottom/bazooka tube / snake setup.

Yes it does. John Palmer did quite a bit of research into the fluid dynamics of different vessels. You should read his book.

 

[Markbeer]

It depends if you batch sparge or fly sparge.

Batch you don't have to worry about it as much if you stir every sparge.

A taller more narrow vessel suits fly sparging better.

Yes it does. John Palmer did quite a bit of research into the fluid dynamics of different vessels. You should read his book.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Ah goodo .. using a tall round esky - I add the sparge water slowly via SS colander keeping the level an inch above the grain.

googled Palmers work - a very clever fellow using dyes to look at fluid dynamics.... Tricky stuff. Smart fellow.

 

[MastersBrewery]

SS brewtech do a 38L insulated SS mash tun, but what sort of budget are you looking at? Then again how many years are you going to brew? The SS one will probably out live you.

 

[philistine]

man I WISH I could afford one of those....... even though I know I'll end up spening that amount on bits and pieces here and there - its just hard to get that kinda dosh all in one go to buy a single piece of kit when ya got bills to pay etc.....
Although, coincidently, a couple weeks back I saw an insulated stainless steel pot of similar size in a cheapo variety store and it got me thinking of buying it and basically cloning that SS brewtech one.... It was about $160 and I think its actual purpose is for catering and keeping hot food hot... it was hard to figure out because the labels weren't in english

 

[MastersBrewery]

man I WISH I could afford one of those....... even though I know I'll end up spening that amount on bits and pieces here and there - its just hard to get that kinda dosh all in one go to buy a single piece of kit when ya got bills to pay etc.....
Although, coincidently, a couple weeks back I saw an insulated stainless steel pot of similar size in a cheapo variety store and it got me thinking of buying it and basically cloning that SS brewtech one.... It was about $160 and I think its actual purpose is for catering and keeping hot food hot... it was hard to figure out because the labels weren't in english

yeah they're usually ised to keep rice hot.

 

[kevinj]

Hi
Some numbers I find useful when thinking about pot size.
Hate aluminum, don't like plastic, but finding a 40 liter stainless steal pot, at the right price, elusive.

http://kotmf.com/beer/2012/mash-calculators/

 

[pat_00]

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/All-Stainless-Steel-40L-HomeBrew-All-Grain-Mash-Tun-Full-Setup-with-S-S-Tap-/151590212632

Any body seen one of these in the flesh?

Thinking it might be a cheaper alternative to the blingy SS Brewtech ones.

 

[droid]

It is a cheaper alternative.

and I quote; A wooden spoon for stir grain will also given as bonus which is very helpful to stir the grain porridge without worry about broken of the spoon.

Check the fittings sub standard might you arrive at that thought also less compatible if that is a factor to consider from a $ pov

***Also the dimension internal is 33ltrs

 

[pat_00]

That's good, broken spoons keep me up at night

I might see if I can swing by and check one out in person.

 

[Kingy]

Not sure of your beer consumption but you could wrap your 50litre kettle in foam and retire it to a mash tun and buy a bigger kettle. Then do double batches? Will work great when your hex is finished.