ben the brewman

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SWEET! Please do take pics I want to see one thats all tricked out!

jakesz28

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Here is my build. Its a work in progress.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/starting-my-electric-build-312527/

stalewater

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I brewed with Ben this weekend and saw this thing in action WOW what a great idea. I second anyone thinking of doing this, I have a bayou classic kettle and am seriously thinking about this build!!

ben the brewman

Recipes 

Make sure its the same kettle as the above link. Its easy to do and ill help you out.

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Check out my stainless steel cooler mash tun! http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/my-new-mash-tun-268370/

JonnyJumpUp

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This is a cool idea, my 5 gallon cooler has warped pretty bad. Probably upgrading to a 10 gallon cooler but cringe to spend the money on something that will probably warp.

I have an 8 gallon Bayou Classic SS Pot that the outer diameter is 13.6". Does anyone know the outer diameter of the linked pot and/or the cooler without the liner?

8 gallons is plenty for me. I am content with 5 gallon batches. I can mash about 20lbs in it which is about the biggest 5 gallon beer I would do.

ben the brewman

Recipes 

Im not sure of the size of the pot. I would measure the pot you have and measure the inside of your cooler and see how close they are to the same size.

__________________
Check out my stainless steel cooler mash tun! http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/my-new-mash-tun-268370/

JonnyJumpUp

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I'm not that stupid if I had a 10 gallon cooler on hand I'd measure it. Trying to find dimensions before I order a cooler. My current cooler is 5 gallons. I will just swing by home depot.

ben the brewman

Recipes 

I can't measure mine for you because I had to trim it some to make the pot fit. If I had another I would but home depot is your best bet for sure.

__________________
Check out my stainless steel cooler mash tun! http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/my-new-mash-tun-268370/

LuiInIdaho

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Here is a link to the pot that I used (as recommended by Ben). It gives the Diameter as 13.5 Inches. This was large enough that it required removing a little of the insulation from the inside of the cooler. Also, the recommended pot is is 17.25 inches tall. If you kettle is only 8 gallons, I am sure that it would not be that tall. The 11 gallon kettle fills the void nicely.

So, you have a few options to consider.
1. Buy the 11 gallon kettle to take full advantage of the cooler height.
2. Cut down the cooler to the appropriate level for the shorter 8 gallon kettle.
3. Place your kettle in the cooler at its original height, and place your valve where you want it. Then you can insulate the bottom of the kettle with great stuff. Just a word of caution, though, if you are going to use Great Stuff. You will need some fairly decent size holes into which you would spray the foam. A small hole (1/4 inch diameter) does not allow enough air flow for the Great Stuff to cure. I used 1.5 Inch holes and four of them on the bottom to fill a void. Then I used some more plastic and pop riveted a new bottom onto the cooler to cover the holes where I sprayed the foam.

Hope this helps.

Mark

MarcusKillion

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Will the pot fit into cooler without cutting off top of cooler ?
If so then I was thinking of cutting the cooler on sides of top so that handles of pot would drop right in and lid of cooler would still screw on . Then drilling a hole for ball valve and pounding the hole flat so that I could screw on a ball valve instead of welding it so that it would be removable for taking out the pot which with handles would still be useful for a brew kettle or other pot use .