Good mash tun or brew kettle?

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Grimsawyer

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Say, has anyone thought of converting THIS into a mash tun or brew kettle? It has digital control of temperatures from 150 Degrees F and up past what I'd use. I saw one at Pier One Imports In Keizer, OR for $139.00 and my mind just started racing. It is an aluminum insert that the wort/water would be in contact with but the heating element is stainless. It is a sturdy unit. Would it be a good product for beer applications? Would it work better than the stove for a brew kettle for 5 gallon batches? Any thoughts? :confused: It already has a ball valve built in, small diameter, but still!
 
At 1650 watts it's probably about the same as most stove elements. People do use pots like this for both purposes, more commonly in Europe. As a mash tun, you'd want to use the insert and a big grain bag. Otherwise, you'd risk burning the grain closest to the element. If you mashed in it, you could put it on a stand on the counter & gravity feed to the main pot. Or you could just remove the grain bag and crank the heat up.

It would be really good for mini-mashes and darker brews.
 
Because it's made for frying, the thermostat may not have an adjustment low enough for mashing temps. Not a problem if you use an external temperature controller.
 
If it's like mine, it simply does not have the ballz to be used as a brew kettle. Mine was a lot cheaper than that, but then again, I bought it from Home Depot instead of "gourmet.org". I'll see if I can find the wattage on mine. It might be OK as a mash tun; once I get a burner and kettle, I'll use it to heat sparge water and such. It didn't come close to bringing four gallons of wort to any kind of boil, just a soft simmer (I ended up splitting the batch and boiling half on the stove with my old stockpot).
 
Yuri_Rage said:
Because it's made for frying, the thermostat may not have an adjustment low enough for mashing temps. Not a problem if you use an external temperature controller.
Click to expand...
The research I've done says the temperature can be set as low as 150 F. I havn't done alot of reading into protien rests and acid rests and all the little rests in AG. My first couple will just be set to mash temp without all the rests, but I was wondering if 150 is low enough to accomodate all the lower temp rests. :)
 
I have the same exact fryer and keep in mind its alluminum which means its porous. I thought I cleaned mine out so well after frying in it and I boiled my wort and transfered it to the fryer pot to cool (didnt have a large enough fermenter at the time so i used the pot to cool the wort then transferred it to 2 3 gallon fermenters) then transferred it to the fermenters and pitched my yeast. Ended up with a film of oil on the top. So when I siphoned it, I had to leave a bit in the fermenters so I wouldnt bottle oil. It was o.k. except for the loss of a few beers. Now I own this
http://southeasthomebrew.com/advancedsystems.html
Not all three, just the one that says showcase.
 
Buc Fan said:
I have the same exact fryer and keep in mind its alluminum which means its porous. I thought I cleaned mine out so well after frying in it and I boiled my wort and transfered it to the fryer pot to cool (didnt have a large enough fermenter at the time so i used the pot to cool the wort then transferred it to 2 3 gallon fermenters) then transferred it to the fermenters and pitched my yeast. Ended up with a film of oil on the top. So when I siphoned it, I had to leave a bit in the fermenters so I wouldnt bottle oil. It was o.k. except for the loss of a few beers. Now I own this
http://southeasthomebrew.com/advancedsystems.html
Not all three, just the one that says showcase.
Click to expand...

I've looked at those before and dreamed about owning one. Now that I look at it again I'm curious. How do you chill the wort? Immersion wort chiller? Hook up a CFC? Are you on your own or is there a system in place? :confused: Sexy brewery btw. :rockin: :rockin: :rockin:
 

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