Mash Tun - Cooler Type

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rancineb

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For those who made their own mash tun out of a cooler, what type of cooler did you use to maintain the temperature best? I bought a generic Coleman and in the middle of doing a test but it doesn't appear like it'll be able to hold a temp of 150 for an hour. Curious if the better coolers made a difference or if there are other ways you maintained a stable temperature to make the wort.
 
You can always wrap it in a blanket or sleeping bag.

I use a Coleman 72 Extreme.
 
coleman and igloo are decent. I bought mine cuz it said it would keep stuff cold for up to 5 days and it was enormous. pre warming the mlt before putting your mash in there helps a lot and make sure to keep your lid closed. the lid is where all your heat would get lost
 
Like the others said pre-heat and wrap in a blanket, at least this time of year. I have a 5 gallon igloo and a 10 gallon rubbermaid, during the summer they have no problem holding the heat. Winter time I don't think it's going to matter, you're going to have to wrap and pre-heat to maintain temp. Even if you lose one or two degrees it won't make that much of a difference to the final product.
 
Testing with water will always show much greater drop in temperature than a barley mash and is not a valid test as the two are thermally diferent. IME a generic Coleman cooler will work fine if preheated thoroughly. Did I mention preheat!
 
If you don't do the Igloo Round cooler from Home Depot which a lot of people use, I would get either a Coleman Xtreme or Igloo MaxCold. Those have thicker insulation and should hold temps better.
 
Thanks for the feedback. I was looking to get the Coleman Xtreme but it wasn't available in the store so I'll need to order it. Figured I'd buy the cheap one first and do a test before ordering the Xtreme.

When you mention preheating, do you mean putting warm water in the cooler and then draining before the mash?
 
Yes, that is preheating. That way, your mash heat isn't absorbed so readily into the plastic walls, as they're close to the same temperature already. You can also consider getting some expanding foam and filling the lid with it (assuming it's hollow). I have read of people doing this and getting better heat retention out of their coolers.
 
djfriesen said:
Yes, that is preheating. That way, your mash heat isn't absorbed so readily into the plastic walls, as they're close to the same temperature already. You can also consider getting some expanding foam and filling the lid with it (assuming it's hollow). I have read of people doing this and getting better heat retention out of their coolers.

+1. Also, you can get a small piece of foam insulation cut to fit your mlt and wrap it in foil. Then set that sucker on top of your mash and close the lid. This reduces headspace and therefore helps retain heat. I've never done it but have heard others have with great success.
 
+1 to fill the lid with foam, my lid gets noticeably hot during the mash and so I have foam and now a blanket or two over it. I think more important than heat retention as they are all pretty much the same (or can be fixed with blankets) is shape. My free cooler/mash tun is rectangular and I would prefer something with less area more depth for the same volume. I find for lighter weight beers that there is insufficient bed depth for a good filter, just as well I like my beers heavy but then again who doesn't.

Clem
 
I just ordered a Coleman Xtreme cooler so that should be fine with some blankets around it. I'll be doing this in my basement so I'll be sure to place it on some blankets as well so the cold cement floor doesn't affect the temperature.
 
I used a large rectangular cooler I got from Wal-Mart. I chose it because I wanted to reduce pressure on the grain bed(why you never see a tall mash tun in a commercial brewery), but honestly I seriously doubt it matters. I replace the drain fitting with a replacement tap for a bottling bucket. I then drilled a hole in the top for input from my HLT. Also I used copper piping with t and elbow fittings to make a strainer and something similar for the input to more evenly distribute the incoming strike water. I lose about 1°F per hour with about 10lbs off grain.
 
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