Maintaining Mash Temps in Stainless Steel (Keggle) Mash Tun

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Jewrican

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I converted a new kettle into a Mash Tun and had a rough brew day today. My mash temps did not hold well at all and I lost at least 7 or 8 degrees easily throughout the 60 minute mash.

I knew that this would be an issue and made a wrap using reflectix (folded in half and wrapped around the keg so the entire keg has 2 layers all the way around) and made a "lid" (using about 5 or 6 layers of reflectix).

What else can i do? I dont have a false bottom and use a braid / dip tube to drain the mash tun so heating the keggle is not much of an option in addition to worrying about burning the reflectix jacket as i heat the keggle.
 
Had one but replacing it to eliminate bpa from my brewing and it is warping from heat. Thousands use kegs. There must be a way to make this more efficient.
 
Either:
1) Go massively overboard with the insulation, and use nonflammable insulation.
2) Put the keg on your burner and give it some heat (stirring the whole time) without insulation.
3) HERMS/RIMS

It's the standard trade-off when maintaining temperature in any application. You either insulate (and deal with the difficulties in adding heat through/around the insulation, and difficulties with the insulation itself such as the BPA issue you mentioned), or you heat (and deal with continually adding heat, as easily-heatable containers such as kegs are not well-insulated). I'm using a cooler now, but I plan to go HERMS in the not-too-distant future, and when I do that I may get a keg for my mash tun, as I will be able to deal with the heat issues.
 
infuse or add boiling water several time during the mash during the mash...mash in on the thicks side so you can accomodate more water as you mash..just an idea??
 
Interesting, I have never heard about this. Is this a pretty serious health risk if you use coolers as mash tuns?
 
i think the truth is that we just dont know yet. BPA has become a much bigger issue recently. They say it is in water bottles and many other things that we consume product from. It has been fully banned from anything having to do with infants and children.

With that said, i would rather not take the risk of using a cooler any longer. The issue with these plastics is when they are heated. We dont heat any food in plastic in the microwave or anything anymore.

Am i going overboard with it. Quite possibly... but maybe not... id rather just remove it from my brewing that continue to use it and ignore it.

Everyone has their opinion.. i dont mean to start a huge debate on BPA's reality and facts.. i just have chosen to not use plastics personally.

Hope that helps.
 
back on topic... everyone else seems to be getting great temps with this stuff... i wonder if i just need another layer of this stuff or something.

I am only doing a 5 gallon batch so i mashed in with like 3.25 gallons of water which means that i have like 12 gallons of dead space in the mash tun to lose heat in.

What do you guys think?
 
I see that this is an old post so I hope you see it. Head space is a killer in any mash tun. Fill'er up and your numbers are sure to improve.
 
back on topic... everyone else seems to be getting great temps with this stuff... i wonder if i just need another layer of this stuff or something.

I am only doing a 5 gallon batch so i mashed in with like 3.25 gallons of water which means that i have like 12 gallons of dead space in the mash tun to lose heat in.

What do you guys think?

When I used a 15.5 gallon kettle I had three layers of the reflectix on my MT and 2 on my lid. Doing 10 gallon batches this worked fine for me but I am in Florida where it rarely gets frigid.



Now that I have a blichmann MT, I use a 10 jet burner that I recently cut down to 2 jets. I use the pump to recirculate the mash the entire mash period. The Blichmann is not insulated at all. However, since I now have the jets cut back I may add some insulation to it to get more consistant temps. Right now I am lighting the burner about 3 times during the mash with 80 degree ambient temps.

Maybe when it gets colder here I can turn the burner down to a Bunsen burner type flame and let it go the entire time. I have been thinking of doing an electrical element inline to recirculate thru with a PID.
 
I know this is an old thread, but I thought I'd leave my two cents. I have a few friends who uses the kegs and they simply just made a lid that can slide down in the keg and eliminate a lot of the headspace. Also, I use and induction heater on a 10 gallon SS mash tun, with Reflectix insulation on it. I keep the induction cooktop at 110 degrees (mash at 152) and I may lose a degree, two in the winter, but it seems to do the job. I don't recirculate as of yet, but definitely need to start doing that. The nice thing with the induction on SS is that you don't have to worry to much about scorching, since the the heater never goes above 120, more of just ambient heat support...
 
A couple of thoughts that may or may not apply. The temp drop seems suspect to me. I might suspect that the initial reading, the final reading, or both might be not quite inaccurate. Are you CERTAIN that you had a uniform temp at the outset? If you hadn't adequately stirred the mash you might have measured a relative hot spot. As to the final, did you measure at the side or in the middle? Unless you stir during the mash (I don't) you'd end up with a stratified temp, that is, a temp taken in the center of the mash would be markedly different from a temp taken at the top or side of the mash. Finally, and I know it seems obvious, but... same thermometer? Just thoughts.
 
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