Cheap & Easy 10 Gallon Rubbermaid MLT Conversion

Has anyone calculated the Tun Thermal Mass for this design?

BeerAlchemy has a spot to enter this for calculating mash/sparge volumes and all but I'm not sure what to enter (or how to calculate it)

Just about ready to brew this weekend

2 10 gallon coolers for 32 bucks at Home depot

Pick up on HLT leaves about a cup when the siphon breaks

I'm pumped! I got my 10 gallon rubbermaid and a 12" stainless false bottom. Now I'll assemble my shopping list based upon your list FlyGuy and get building this thing!

I've done PM for about 2 years and it's now time for AG!

I think the only thing I'll change is I'll do high temp tubing between the barb on the false bottom and the barb on the inside of the cooler.

Thanks for posting and providing feedback about this project.

Just spent way too much time (and money) finding the right stuff at lowes... except SS washers. Or brass. Seems others have had the same problem. What's the consensus on other types of washers instead?

ink
check your local marine supply store. Westmarine or boat us will have them. theres gotta be a couple on the island.

InkPouchMan said:

Just spent way too much time (and money) finding the right stuff at lowes... except SS washers. Or brass. Seems others have had the same problem. What's the consensus on other types of washers instead?

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I used zinc plated washers and put none inside. I used a close nipple that was barely long enough (1.5in ?) and put the hose barb inside against the rubber grommet and washers/ball valve outside.

Works like a champ. No leakage, no SS washer necessary.

pldoolittle , I did the same the Gott coolers I bought have a large hard plastic washer with a gasket on the inside for the spigot, I just reused that and used washers on the outside.

Thanks for the boatshop suggestions, but Westmarine didn't pan out (only up to 1/2"). So I rigged it a bit differently, and no leaks so far. I'll see for sure when it's hot.

I just assembled my MLT and so far no leaks

I skipped the inside washer... on the outside (after the o-ring) I used a high-temp neoprene washer (closest to cooler) and 3 "cut" washers. 'm not sure if there's a difference between "cut" and "fender" washers. My HD and Lowes didn't have 5/8 fender washers. The cut washers look the same but might be thicker.

Anyway, all told I spend around $65. Not bad at all.

Thanks again for posting this Fly Guy!

I assembled mine today. I got all the needed hardware from Menard's in Madison, WI. (Aside from the cooler I ordered online.)

It's been sitting full of warm/hot water for 15 minutes and no leaks! I'll let it go for an hour or so.

I'm not an extremely handy person and I even did this in 5 minutes.

uwmgdman said:

Thanks again for posting this Fly Guy!

I assembled mine today. I got all the needed hardware from Menard's in Madison, WI. (Aside from the cooler I ordered online.)

It's been sitting full of warm/hot water for 15 minutes and no leaks! I'll let it go for an hour or so.

I'm not an extremely handy person and I even did this in 5 minutes.

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Excellent stuff -- that's great! Hope your AG brewing goes as well!

I just finished my MLT today thanks to this wonderfull thread. I added a tee and put 26" or so of SS braid into a loop.

I can't wait to try it out.

Can you use the braided SS line on a 70qt rectangular cooler or do you have to do that copper manifold setup?

Any votes to make this a Sticky?

I'll vote to make it a sticky.

springer said:

Just about ready to brew this weekend

2 10 gallon coolers for 32 bucks at Home depot

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$32 total for the two of them? even each thats still a great price from what i've seen checking around. ill have to check at my local Home depot and see if they even have 10 gal this time (the didnt a couple months ago), and hopefully they even have them at a great price like you got. wish me luck

just built mine, i did a 5 gal version, and i used a 20" hose. i got all my parts from home depeot, in morgan hill, CA, and the total bill was $43. including cooler. they didn't have any SS washers, so i used a neoprene washer as a temp. solution. it was actually a gasket, so it had a slit in the middle that i filled with an oring, to get more support, and i had to use a 16mm washer up front because of the lack of 5/8" washers. it fit perectly! i'll probably do the larger braid and a T connector to make the braid circular. any tips on a sparge arm?

KingPing said:

$32 total for the two of them? even each thats still a great price from what i've seen checking around. ill have to check at my local Home depot and see if they even have 10 gal this time (the didnt a couple months ago), and hopefully they even have them at a great price like you got. wish me luck

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Yup 32 total HD will be selling only Rubbermade coolers so the Gott ones were on clearance. The 5 gallon Gott was 7 $. What you have to do is look around the outdoor department. The ones I bought looked like they had been outside all winter.

you gott lucky.. HAH! really though my gott one was $20 on sunday for a five gal. are yours the "home depot" branded ones?

SomedumbJerk said:

you gott lucky.. HAH! really though my gott one was $20 on sunday for a five gal. are yours the "home depot" branded ones?

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No they just say Gott on them I am going tonight to see if they have any more

I'm embarassed to admit this...But I too was one of those that went with a 5 gallon to get started. I've only done 3 AG's and I just had to order a 10 gallon from Ace today. I should have just listened to all the warnings.

Local HD here only had 5 gallon so no luck with the deal everyone else is finding.

I just managed to find a home depot with 1 10 gal cooler left. It was behind the lawn mowers and dirty as hell. It was priced at $39.99 but when it rang up it was $39.97. I asked why the difference and she said they were being discontinued. Apparently when the price ends in a .97 thats what it means. I found everything else but when I got home and took apart the "braid" i found out I had the plastic one!! Where did you guys get the SS ones? Are you using the water heat supply hoses? Arent they to big in diameter? I have both a Lowes and a HD near me so if someone could give me an item number for the SS I would be much appreciative!!

wedge421 said:

I found everything else but when I got home and took apart the "braid" i found out I had the plastic one!! Where did you guys get the SS ones?

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Lowes has mixed the two. Don't feel to bad. I looked to make sure I had a SS one (but not closely enough) and got home with a plastic one instead. I took it back and had to go through a box of 40 to find two SS hoses.

I found two 10 gallon coolers at HD today (they had 10 minus the 2 I bought, Frazer PA), but I am wondering if I should get a 5 gallon (to use for PM’ing) to replace one of the 10 gallon coolers, and when I go to all-grain to use the 5 gallon as the HLT. Will a 5 gallon cooler be large enough as a HLT if I am only doing 5 gallon batches?

Also, is there a real difference between using brass fittings vs. stainless steel fittings, besides cost?

Thanks

Post deleted.

I was frustrated, but I think I fixed the problem using a lot of teflon tape.

Okay, now that I am done with this I have a couple of questions.

First, how does everyone clean their MLT when they are done with a brew? I have never done AG before, but I figure you have a cooler full of spent grains afterwards. Do you remove the braid to clean, or just clean around it?

Also, while I am waiting on some of the other equipment to go AG, I figured I would try a PM or two to practice the process. Is this 10 gallon MLT too big for a PM, or can I use it?

Thanks to everyone here!

I just rinse my MLT out using the hot water flowing out of my immersion chiller. I rarely remove the braid -- just get the bits of grain off it and it should be fine. If I know I won't be brewing again for a while, I might be a little more careful and remove it, but generally it isn't worth it. The wort is always going to be boiled anyways, so things don't have to be sanitized like on the fermentation side.

You can do a PM with a 10 gal cooler, but it is far from ideal. Recirculation tends to be a bit difficult, and you REALLY have to pre-heat the cooler well to ensure it holds its temperature with such a small grainbed. But it is possible. Another option is to just do an all grain batch, but keep some DME on hand in case you don't hit your target efficiency (just add enough to make up for any loss in gravity).

Best of luck!

Thanks for the reply, FlyGuy (and for this entire thread). As for your last suggestion, I would just do an AG, but I don't have ability to do a full boil yet, so I think I will give a PM or two a shot while I get the rest of the equipment needed together.

That sounds like a good plan. Note that you only need a few things to step-up to all grain brewing now: a 30 qt turkey fryer pot (preferably with Foam Control drops), and a cheap, DIY copper immersion chiller. PM's are OK, but they are almost as much work as a full AG batch, so I suspect you will want to progress to full AG pretty quickly, especially if you have most of the gear already.

Best of luck!

Anyone have the Home Depot or Lowes SS braid Part number and Brand?

I got my from Lowes, no part number. On the label it does say "Stainless Steel Connector". Watts Model FSF16. It also says Floodsafe Auto-Shutoff Connector 16". I don't remember what the non-Stainless steel one says, but I did have to dig through the box of stainless steel ones to fing one that was actually stainless steel.

Quilyn

I have the 5 gallon Home Depot version & performed the conversion via this thread. Today I ran a temp. loss test on 3.5 gallons of water (no grains).

Mash tun was simply placed on my driveway outside. I cut out a 1/2" piece of styrofoam & placed it on top just below the lid to help insulate. I'm assuming that about 10 lbs. of grain would drastically help contain the heat longer with more mass than just water.

Outside temp: 88F
Water started at 174F

169F after 20 min. (5 deg. loss) - small leak noticed on front (1 drip every 15 sec.)
166F after 40 min. (8 deg. loss)
164F after 60 min. (10 deg. loss)

Does this sound normal?

Did you preheat it? I only lost 1-2 degrees over a 60 min mash.

As for the grain having more mass, I gotta say no. A 5 gallon cooler holds 14# of grain or 41# of water.

Plain water will lose heat faster than water + grain. Also you will lose a lot of temperature if you don't preheat.

After my 1st Ag yesterday, with 11 lbs. of grain + water, the cooler only lost about 3F degrees over one hour. 154F down to 151F

Has anyone installed a thermometer like this in one of the 10 gallon coolers.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/pics/fullsize/npt-therm.jpg
It has a 1/2" MPT fitting. How did you do it?

Drill a new hole and insert a 1/2" Nipple in there.

On the inside put an o-ring, SS washer, then a 1/2" FPT to Copper tube adapter. Put a section of copper tube with holes drilled in it on the adapter to protect the probe during stirring (see Bobby_M's post on Thermometer Guards).

On the ouside add another o-rings, some washers, a 1/2" coupler and then the thermometer.

Or do what Pol does and just drill a hole and find the appropriate drilled stopped and insert that in the inside and just slide the probe thru the hole.

Thanks for this tutorial! I found it very easy to follow. I ended up needing more washers, so instead, I used the plastic nut from inside the cooler on the outside, between the SS washer and the ball valve. Only needed one washer inside, one outside.

Moonshae said:

Thanks for this tutorial! I found it very easy to follow. I ended up needing more washers, so instead, I used the plastic nut from inside the cooler on the outside, between the SS washer and the ball valve. Only needed one washer inside, one outside.

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this is just the beginning, trust me on this