Will my mash tun work?

I made a mash tun from a 37L (that's 9.5Gal) cooler. (25cm H, 45cm L, 33cm W) I used 1/2 inch pipe with holes drilled in it to allow the wort to drain. I made a square pattern with 2 cross pipes. I was lucky and the cooler had a drain that fit the tubing perfectly so I didn't have to drill any holes in the cooler.
My concern is the holes I drilled in the pipes. I used a drill bit that was 1/8. I made alot of holes. Will these holes be too big? Will it allow the wort to drain too fast or will I get alot of grain coming through? I have seen similar rigs with slits in the pipe rather than holes.
Also, what's the smallest batch of beer I could get away with with this sized tun? I want to start small but I happened to have this big cooler.

1/8 inch holes will be fine. Just make sure you vorlauf some to get clear runnings.

Most people use a 10 gallon cooler for 5 gallon batches, so you should be fine with that.

For smaller batches, you'll probably get some low effiencies, depending on what your dead space is, so it may be easier just to use BIAB for those.

BIAB is brew in a bag???
Thanks for the reply

daisyflower said:

BIAB is brew in a bag???
Thanks for the reply

Click to expand...

Yup it sure is

What type of pipe did you use?

What kind of pipe? PEX. On the lable it says "For use in hot and cold potable water distribution systems." 1/2 inch.

If you have too much of a problem with "gunk" getting through the holes you drilled, you can always run to Lowe's/Home Depot and get a 1/2" braided stainless steel water line and use the SS mesh and slide it over your pipe. Confirm that the SS braid is 1/2" inner diameter and the PEX pipe you have is 1/2" outer diameter...

Braided stainless steel water line?? Would I have to pull some inner tubing out of it first? Is that hard to do? I am not familiar with that stuff.
I still have another length of that PEX pipe. Should I just cut slits in it and abandon my holey ones?

No, the pipes you have made right now should work very well.

Snevey was saying that if you end up having to vorlauf too much with your current pipes one option would be to get the SS braid and slide it over your current pipes.

I used to use a SS braid in mine, and it took about half a quart of vorlaufing to get clear runnings. With my false bottom (which has roughly 1/8 inch holes) it takes about 2 quarts before the runnings are clear.