Recommendation for Mash/Lauter Tun

I moved a few months ago, and my lauter tun did not survive the move. I am getting back into all grain brewing recently so am interested in replacing this and maybe some other equipment. I plan on buying a 8-10 gallon stainless steal pot, and want to get a 5 gallon lauter tun setup. What recommendations are their for a good lauter/mash tun system, preferably under $150. I originally bought my equipment in the mid 1990's so have lost track of the hobby.

Suthrncomfrt1884 said:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/

Click to expand...

Yup, and it can be made for $80-$90, well under your price range.

Thanks for the reply. It looks like it should be really easy to build. The system I had before had a false bottom, and a copper arm that spun and evenly sprayed the water over the grain. I know the steel mesh acts as the false bottom, but does using a cooler make the step of evenly spraying water not necessary?

Also I will be making 5 gallon batches of beer, would a 10 gallon cooler be excessive? or should I go with a 5 gallon?

You'll need a 10 gallon cooler to do most 5 gallon batches. With 10-12lbs of grain average + water, you'll be hitting the 6 gallon mark easily. That's without sparge water.

The sparge arm you talk about (copper piece that sprays water) isn't really necessary unless you're doing fly sparging. Even then, you can get by without it. Search the threads and read up on batch sparging. It's much easier, takes less time, and doesn't effect your efficiency much on the cooler setup.

Also...on my first AG setup, I built the same basic cooler (still use it for smaller test batches) but instead of the S.S. braid I used a homemade copper manifold. It works great and I don't have to worry about the braid collapsing, which I'm not sure happens often, but I wanted to avoid it anyway.