Barnstormer

Recipes 

The other day I was at the local fleet and farm and they were selling these 55 gal water tanks. They are about 3 feet tall and a little over 2 feet in diameter. They are made out of a fairly heavy plastic and already have a valve at the bottom and the lid is about 18" wide. They are selling them for $30. My first thought was it would make a great mlt for really big batches. Then I wondered it it was too big to hold that much mash at temp for an hour.

So is it too big or is that a great deal?

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Rickycore

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I'd stay away from that for mashing for 2 reasons. The first being the amount of head space you'll have when you mash is going to make temp control a nightmare. Second from what you are describing it doesn't sound like its insulated, which is one of the main reasons converting a cooler to an MLT is so regularly done. Just my two pennies.

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onthekeg

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When you get that large, the ambient temp probably won't matter as much and I would bet you hold temp just fine.

nickelmcgee

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I've got one of these for my HERMS system;

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/files/images/4150large1.jpg

but I find that once I achieve desired temp it hold within a degree for 60 minutes+ without a problem, even in 40 degree ambient. If I hit my strike temp right on, I will go the whole mash without temperature control. It's easy to clean and maintain too.

Barnstormer

Recipes 

Thanks for the replies! It was just one of those things where everone was buying them to transport water and the first place my imagination took me was making beer with it. I won't need something that large for a while but curiosity got the best of me so I thought I'd ask.

I like the idea of a HERMS build with something like that, I might have to keep that in mind too.