DarkSide

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I'd go with the cooler. There is little worry about holding your mash temp. Once I hit my mash temp and put the lid on, that cooler keeps the temp for the full hour, no problem. The issue with using a keg as a MLT is you need to find a way to insulate it to hold the temp or constantly add heat. They are better if your doing multiple step infusions and you want to keep adjusting the temp.

The false bottom i have is round for a round cooler, so the cooler obviously needs to be of the round variety. I just finished posting my MLT build, check it out here:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-brew-build-elm-street-brewery-part-3-mash-lautertun-129913/

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Elm Street Brewery

My Brew Build Posts

Part 1 - Introduction | Part 2 - The Grain Mill | Part 3 - The Mash/LauterTun

Part 4 - The HLT and Keggle | Part 5 - The Stand and Setup | Part 6 - The Fermenter

SgtHulka

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schmagy

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Either way will probably make you happy.. just be sure that you go big enough.

I do like my sanke mash tun in that i drop it on the camp stove and heat my strike water in it. No real difference tho... other than i could double it as another boil pot if i wished??? I dont know yet why i would, but i could, i guess.

FYI i used a HDPE bucket lid from menards with a ton of holes drilled in it as a false bottom, and use copper tube into a compression fitting into my bulkhead ball valve. Completely satisfied total cost for all the materiels including the left over tube was less than 40 bucks. (excluding the keg)

Crazytwoknobs

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Wow, old thread, I went with the $8 5gal igloo and the ball valve.

The possibility exists that there is a 10gal-ish cooler in the near future for $0, but it would be of the rectangular type. Even if it isn't 10gal, I could mash in it at the same time as the igloo, dump it in to the igloo after the inital sparge and go from there (for larger beers).

Thanks for all the replies guys!

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