old washing machine mash tun 80L plus

After many useful lurks , I have a world first project that is worth sharing with the forum.
I have pulled an old enameled wringer washing machine apart, welded up the agitator hole, cut stainless mesh and insulated it. I now have a super efficient(90%) large capacity and non plastic beast of a mash tun. It is not finished yet, it needs a pivot and pulley to lift it when I fill it with grain. Lots of these machines on ebay in the U.S. Photos are at http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/forum/topics/mash-tun-out-of-old-agitator?xg_source=activity

Where are the pics for this one!! Crazy idea

I like it. I bet the pics don't due it justice.

What is the capacity?

Here is the most descriptive picture (pulled from the realbeer.co.nz page)

I was a bit lazy and just linked up to realbeer nz (as above), the photo's are attached there. The drum holds about 100L, you can see from the photo with the grain in it (45 L) there is lots of room. I think I could probably fit two 50L keggles of mash in there.I am going to make it more tech looking with shiny insulation and block and tackle so I can lift the weight.

I was disappointed by the picture...I didn't read the original post carefully and had thought you were mashing /sparging in a washing machine (like a working washing machine with the agitate cycle for mash and spin cycle for sparge!) now that would be awesome!!!!

Awesome! We want more PICS!!!

Will post more when improvements made. But it is an excellent sized tun,way better than the braided hose cooler that preceded it.

It's no hot tub mash tun, but I like it.

Second brew using the washing machine lauter tun, made a 60 L batch of pale ale using citra/amarillo/riwaka. Its fast, efficient (94% extraction) and easy to clean. I love it, if I can get a bigger keggle, 100L batches!

Brilliant.

jpoder said:

I was disappointed by the picture...I didn't read the original post carefully and had thought you were mashing /sparging in a washing machine (like a working washing machine with the agitate cycle for mash and spin cycle for sparge!) now that would be awesome!!!!

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I was thinking the same. The extraction you could get by running the machine constantly would no doubt be amazing. But, really, it's not that great of an idea when you consider how hard it would be to clean...

emjay said:

I was thinking the same. The extraction you could get by running the machine constantly would no doubt be amazing. But, really, it's not that great of an idea when you consider how hard it would be to clean...

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Why would it be hard to clean??? Isn't that a washing machine's job?? I mean, in goes dirty.. out comes clean, right?

I am not sure what the washing machine idea would work like, sounds messy with pumps and spinning grain round. But my lauter tub/tun is a simple hose down to clean, no pumps needed as it is all gravity and pulleys. My second batch used U.S hops, fairly rare in NZ, warrior and citra (with nz riwaka), both excellent I think. Anyway I overshot on the alc% again, aiming for 5% got 6% and less malt mouth feel than I wanted. The tub is now limited by my keggle, I want to run more grain but cant fit it in...