Stainless, insulated, bottom draining mash tun with top

Found these being used in Europe to make a stainless steel, insulated bottom draining mashtun. Come in various sizes but most interesting to me is a 70L (appr 18.5 gallon with a threaded drain already installed or a 80L (appr 21 gal), but no preinstalled drain (see link below on the mods to add bottom drain).

As my plastic igloo is on its last legs (never could get it to stop leaking completely) and had a gusher doing a 10 gal batch yesterday, this might be my "upgrade" Price is around $150 but shipping to the US is an issue and probably expensive. These are for sale on several european homebrew shops' websites.

The are about 18" inside and I'll just order a peice of SS preforated sheet and cut my own false bottom. I think it'll make a stronger more leak resistant tun. I was contemplating a Blichman 15g or a Stout 19g with bottom drain, but either way those options are $400-$500 and are not insulated. I'll weld in the drain and use Kal's o-ring and washers to seal any other fittings in.


Here is the ebay ad...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MARMITE-THE...&otn=2&po=LVI&ps=63&clkid=7820004145139275429

Here is a 3 page write up on how to add a bottom drain and a false bottom to to it...
http://jimsbeerkit.co.uk/home_brew_faq-equipment-mashing-ss-thermopot-mash-tun_1.htm

Anybody seen one in person or know where to get one state side?

Oh wow. That's really awesome.

To all you vendors out there, I would buy a 40L version of this in a heart beat.

I agree! Who is setting up the group buy?

I found the european supplier , but suspect its made in china. I asked for pricing on the 70l and 80l but If I can get quotes on other sizes as well..I think there are about 5 sizes I've seen.

If a homebrew store owner could find the chinese manufacturer and buy direct, I bet they'd make a killing on these.

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=16181

Might be of some help also.

Someone also on another thread:

"I have been using a 70ltr thermos for about two years now, really pleased with it, I regularly mash over-night and the temp drop for 12 hours is 8-10 degrees - not bad."

So less than a degree and hour is pretty good...

I emailed the vendor to see if they're willing to ship to the US. Or rather, how much it would cost to ship here...

Subscribed, I'm interested to see what comes of this.

I'd like to get 1 maybe of 2 of these.

i like

So far...no response from the Mfg...They are in Germany, so maybe no one speaks english at that company...

Anyone get any response from the manufacturer yet?

Are there any brewers here from the UK or continental Europe that could perhaps help out with sourcing?

The retailer told me they do not ship to the US. I have some german connections so I'll try to ship there, then have them ship to me.

sarsnik said:

The retailer told me they do not ship to the US.

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Man, I really wanted one of these.

I'm still not sure if they can be direct fired yet. I think there is insulation between the metal

sarsnik said:

I'm still not sure if they can be direct fired yet. I think there is insulation between the metal

Click to expand...

irregardless the stainless interior wall is way more desirable in comparison to a plastic cooler. i would have taken this over a keg for my mash tun in a heartbeat as well. insulated stainless steel is the best of both worlds (granted you can insulate your kegs, they just aren't as pretty)

you need to find a willing exporter who will load up some shipping containers headed towards the usa

Hi gys. First post here.

Been following the use and modification of these insulated stainless steel Thermopots in from here in Australia.

Thought I'd pass some information on in the hope it can help you guys understand where the UK boys are at.

There is a homebrew shop in England that sells the 50 litre and 60 litre versions of these pots. I think the shop buys them from a dealer on ebay France, which sources them from the makers in Germany. The ebay France people will respond to emails in English, but it seems the German factory does not respond.
See http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Brewing_and_Mashing_Equipment.html (go to bottom of the page, left hand side of product listing).

As already mentioned in this thread, there has been considerable discusion on these pots on Jim's Beer Kit forum in England. One poster named 'Mitch' has taken steps to have equivalent pots made in China in commercial quantities and importing them into the UK. His thread starts here: http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=48527. He has not posted for a month or so, but has dome more recently on another UK forum, The Home Brew Forum, at : http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=23234.

Hope this helps.

They seem like ideal mash tuns, but would also make good fermentors with a heating/cooling loop inserted down through the lid.

Couchy

laizure said:

**stuff about a group buy**[/B]

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I'd be in for a 38.5L unit, possibly a 50L if we're restricting selection to streamline things/leverage volume purchasing. Anything larger than 50L and I'm out. I simply don't have room or need for anything that big.

I'd like to help with the shipping part, but there's no way I could accept a pallet shipment. My place is too tiny to deal with all that.

Couchy said:

Hi gys. First post here.

Been following the use and modification of these insulated stainless steel Thermopots in from here in Australia.

Thought I'd pass some information on in the hope it can help you guys understand where the UK boys are at.

There is a homebrew shop in England that sells the 50 litre and 60 litre versions of these pots. I think the shop buys them from a dealer on ebay France, which sources them from the makers in Germany. The ebay France people will respond to emails in English, but it seems the German factory does not respond.
See http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Brewing_and_Mashing_Equipment.html (go to bottom of the page, left hand side of product listing).

As already mentioned in this thread, there has been considerable discusion on these pots on Jim's Beer Kit forum in England. One poster named 'Mitch' has taken steps to have equivalent pots made in China in commercial quantities and importing them into the UK. His thread starts here: http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=48527. He has not posted for a month or so, but has dome more recently on another UK forum, The Home Brew Forum, at : http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=23234.

Hope this helps.

They seem like ideal mash tuns, but would also make good fermentors with a heating/cooling loop inserted down through the lid.

Couchy

Click to expand...

Thanks for the post. I think I've looked at every brew store in the UK and Europe and no one will ship to the US Good to see more international faces though

Are these made in Germany or in China? I've been involved in the import business from China and Tiawan and would be glad to set it up, including having a variety of sizes, but I have'nt been able to find the manufacturer...plenty of agents , but not the Mfg'er.

Gentlemen:

I need your help...

I'm working to get 20.5, 38.5, 60 and 80 litre (works out to roughly 5.4, 10.2, 15.9 and 21.1 US gallons) versions quoted and available here in the US. Please PM me if you are interested including the size your interested in and qty you'd like.

NOTE: I am NOT taking orders at this time...I need your input to get some idea of the initial qty's and sizes to work up pricing and shipping cost and options. I can't quarantee I'll have these available. Its a work in progress.

DT

I think dtfeld is trying to organize it from the US side.

Perhaps this should be moved to the group buy section?

laizure said:

Good luck with that, these pots are only available in Europe as far as I know, if you get it from someone else, it is not the company but an agent who will in turn do the same thing you are trying to do now. What ever way you decide, please let me know soon.

I however am 100% sure you will not find the false bottoms that fit in those pots anywhere else but here in Germany, unless you have one custom made. One is 447mm a very odd size that just is not sold elsewhere and a friend of mine makes them as pictured above.

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I'd love to have one of those false bottoms in my kettle. I think the ID of mine is around 18.75" though. Think your friend is up for some custom work?

Maltose said:

I'd love to have one of those false bottoms in my kettle. I think the ID of mine is around 18.75" though. Think your friend is up for some custom work?

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Jaybird might also be an option for a false bottom.

i'm intersted in the big one and a fb

***UPDATE*** 4/28/12 10:30 pm

Laizure has offered to bundle them up, still looking for a shipping company that can pick up pallets from a residential address, but this is dependent on a large enough volume to justify a pallet. Right now, I'd guess the landed cost to be 2 to 3 times what the european rate is. There are a lot of unknown like the total quantity we'd buy, how many fit on a pallet etc. Sooo. best guesstimate with very little details nailed down...

125 Euro x 2= $250
to
125 Euro x 3 = 375

I'm working with another service that would allow the purchase of 2- 3 at a time shipped to your door for approximately 120E + 3% of purchase price using DHL. In this case its every man for himself. You simply setup an account and have them buy it from Amazon.de. Its shipped to their address in Germany consolidated and shipped DHL diect to you.

Example:

I want 2 80 litre versions @ 121,95 each and 4,95 shipping = 126,90 each or 253.80 total. The cost is 10 Euro to sign up and 110 Euro to ship up to a max size 120cm x 60 cm x 60 cm and 31.5 kg The item is50cm x 50 cm x 55cm and around 15 kg so 2 together top to bottom would be 100cm x 50cm x 55cm and about 30kg, right at the limits.

Cost would be (if it fits) in euros 10,00 Fee +110,00 shipping + 253,80 product + 253,80x3% transaction fee = 381,41

that works out to US$ 505.41 based on 1.3251 exchange rate (variable) or roughly $252.20 per vessle. Same math for the 2 of the 38.5 l version works out to 276,46 euro $365 0r $180 per unit so the shipping and handling if your buying 2 units at a time works out to about $80-$90 which if you think about it, thats not to bad, considering 2 10 gallon rubbermaids premade and delived from midwest supply is about $150/vessle. Obviously you still have to do the conversion but hey isn't that most of the fun?

And the BLING factor!!!!

See http://www.addressgermany.com for the details.

Sweet! :rockin: Any word on pricing yet?

See Update above for some pricing and options.

Who's still in?

Here is a very nice HLT conversion as well.

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=30868

Just saw this thread. Did you guys eventually get any of these pots imported?

Also, i used Google translate to display one of the German pages for the pot in English. It called them a "vacuum" pot. Is there something like foam insulation between the outer and inner skin, or is it truly a vacuum? If the later, then making modifications like a thermometer port will destroy the vacuum.

pincorrect said:

Is there something like foam insulation between the outer and inner skin, or is it truly a vacuum? If the later, then making modifications like a thermometer port will destroy the vacuum.

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I have one of these. A 70l , shipped from ebay.de to me in the UK. On ebay Germany you can search the name 'thermoport' for them. It's not a vacuum between the pot skins, it's actually insulating expanding foam and keeps the heat well. I used a 20gallon blichmann false bottom on it with my own dip tube and replaced part of the inbuilt tap with a SS ball valve. Works great.

Hi,

I live in China, and use one exactly like the one pictured. It seems there is interest, and I have been thinking about finding a part time job, so - PM me if your interested - my tun is 40L and looses about 15 celcius over a 12 hour mash (I do overnight mashes.)

Other sizes are available (60, 70, 100, 500.....50,000L) But I will probably limit the ones I can send to 100L (shipping a 50,000L mash tun would not be easy!) Depending on the interest, the price will change - if there are 100 people interested in buying, I would be able to negotiate a good price, if fewer, the price will increase.

I will be up-front, I would like to make some money from this. BUT, I know for a fact, I will be able to make some money, and offer these at a very reasonable price. If you have questions, get in touch - I am not an agent for a factory, or a supplier - just a homebrewer who lives in the right place to buy this kit cheap - and who would like to take advantage of that fact!

I purchased a complete mashtun from hop and grape in the UK, and they were very helpful in sending me one to the U.S.

http://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/public/detailv1.asp?itemcode=STA20292446


This is a plug and play mashtun - works great right out of the box.
I bought the 30 liter ~ 8 gallons - works great for 5 gallon batches up to 1.080 original gravity. Any bigger recipes you'd have to use a larger version of this mashtun which they sell.

I would ask that anyone buying from them be very polite and not be demanding as this is the only shop selling to the U.S. and we would hate to lose this awesome resource.

The tun I received had a little bit of damage to one of the lid straps but it's functional. These get shipped a long way so don't expect it to arrive 100% in perfect aesthetic condition, but mine was probably 95% perfect.

I will see what I can to post pics of a brew day with the mashtun.

They use a piece of poly tubing around the screen which works well in filling the gap between the wall and screen, and allows the screen to slide down easily into the mashtun. The poly tubing isn't rated for as high as mash temp so I swapped out a piece of silicone tubing, which doesn't slide and is a PITA to get the screen in there, but it's foodsafe. I wish I had a silicone gasket to go around the screen.

The screen has a handle and there is a dip tube/valve assembly. Legs are stainless bolts. So, you have to stir the mash with a dowel and try to avoid some of those obstacles, but you could replace the handle with a stainless hinged pull ring if you wanted.

I used to make mashtuns from converting kegs and adding insulation, but this is the best solution I have ever found.

It's a heck of a lot cheaper than many alternatives out there even with shipping, and step mashes aren't necessary these days so why pay for alot of tech you don't need.

There's my plug - I am extremely satisfied with this mashtun.

I have beersmith equipment 'dead space' amount which I will try to post sooner than later. I think it's about 1.10 liters. That will help you dial it in for your next brew. Deadspace meaning all water lost through condensation on the equip. Under the screen it's only about 1/2 liter that gets lost of wort. But for beersmith, use the 1.10 liter amount to get your water amounts correct.

I ordered one of these from the Ebay.de folks while I lived in Ireland and had it moved back to the US with me.

I use this as my mashtun today; they are FANTASTIC for mashtuns and fantastic for electric breweries.
An electric brewery made with these is about as efficient as you can get at homebrew levels (directly heating the water / wort AND VERY well insulated).

I had a 1 1/2" triclamp ferrule welded into mine as a bottom drain and then just purchased some perforated stainless sheet and cut it into a circle with a plasma cutter and then used stainless bolts from HomeDepot to set it off of the bottom and create a great stainless false bottom that is SUPER clog resistent.

The height to width ratio is 1:1 so it's awesome for recirculation mashing ala HERMS or RIMS and if you only do 5 gallon batches in the 50L version you've got a height to width ratio of 1:2 so an even thinner grain bed that's even less likely to stick. The insultation also means that HERMS temp ramps happen much faster as you're not losing any heat.

They ARE a pain to cut and then reseal and they're a HUGE HUGE pain to weld (I'd recommend silver solder, honestly); don't try to weld it like I did -the insulation inside caught on fire. These things also have an air tight seal on them and if you are using them as an HLT or a kettle and you silver solder or weld a large triclamp on the top you could have a dual-use kettle AND column still (just attach a column to the top tri clamp); of course this would only be used for bio fuel purposes....


There are companies that will allow you to drop ship to a UK address and then have the order forwarded to a US address although you will have to pay shipping twice this way AND because they're MFGRed in China you might run into US Customs issues... (although they do look like a German/French company and when you're shipping them from China to Germany to the UK to the US like this you'll probably get away with it).


If anyone ends up finding this thread and buys one for a mashtun I have a professionally made SUPER heavy duty stainless false bottom I'll make you an incredible deal on (it came with my brew kettle after I had already built my own for my mash tun) -it fits PERFECTLY into the 50L thermobox but obviously I can't use 2 false bottoms at the same time. (I've only been keeping it because I've considered trying a simultaneous dual batch brew day where my kettle doubled as a second mashtun.) -My brewhouse capacity is WAY larger than my kegging capacity if I were to do that though so it's kind of a pointless experiment.


Adam

Here's a pic of my false bottom design; there are some other pics of the brewery there but not the mashtun unfortunately. (The bottom weld is so ugly I've been embarassed to upload photos.)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...1336290566929.536472.776771928&type=3&theater

Adam

Does anyone know where in Germany they manufacture these?

The built in taps aren't that great but they DO make it very easy to remove the tap and convert it over to a ball valve... (if you want a bottom drain mashtun you'll want a size that does NOT come with the tap)

Personally I would recommend one for an HLT and a mashtun (amazing mashtuns, REALLY) but not a kettle.

As someone else mentioned bottom firing is OUT with these; they're for electric brewing, infusion mashtuns, or HERMS/ RIMS systems ONLY but they are AWESOME when used in these applications.

Also if you want a dual purpose HLT + Column still these kettles and the clamped Glacier Tank kettles are good options.


Adam

kickflip_mj said:

Does anyone know where in Germany they manufacture these?

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The company has operations in German and in France but I believe most of the MFGRing is in China. There was someone on HBT a few years ago who lived near the German location and offered to ship a pallet of them to the US if there was enough interest but there weren't enough orders for it to go through. (If you could find an American living on a military base in German near their German location you could probably get them shipped to the US on the cheap AND avoid customs and questions about Chinese MFGR...)

I really don't think that there's a better mashtun for infusion mashing out there... -If they'd make 1 BBL size, you could build a great and energy efficient electric nanobrewery that works with the ECS 2 element kits quite well.

I called them and talked to the French contingent of the company and they were super nice until you asked them to ship to the US; then they became irate ********. I'm not quite sure what their issues are but it's a true tragedy that they don't ship to the US as dealing with Chinese intermediates is frought with all sorts of risk a huge setup costs and hidden fees and "gotchas".

I wish an established homebrew-focused Chinese importer would start focusing on these insulated options. There's definitely a market for it with all the people jumping to electric.

Adam

Been a while!! Moved, changed jobs, trying to get the brewery set back up. New space doesn't have a drain/water /electricity.

However I think I have found a way to get several of the Stainless Steel Thermopots to my door step. I had a list over a year ago, but I'm interested in seeing if this is worth pursuing still. Thinking about calling the business Tuns-O-Stainless.

Right now I'm thinking about only the following sizes as I think this is the majority of US brewers will want. I might consider the 80l if there is enough interest, but shipping does get to be a big cost (about as much or more as the product itself). They are not overly heavy, but they are bulky.

38.5l (10 Gal) w/ tap Target Price $259.00 + Shipping
60l (15 Gal) No Tap Target Price $299.00 + Shipping

Shipping the 60l from Atlanta to Seattle WA was about $40, the 38.5 would be a little less.

One other thing to consider. These will have been shipped multiple times half way around the world, so I can not guarantee a perfect product. I think there might be a few dings and small dents on most of them, but certainly functional and able to make a sweet MLT or HLT.

Not for certain, but Its looking good!

Whereabouts in Atlanta are ya'?