Can I make a mash tun out of this

Just got a new brew pot that I will be using and wondere if I could possible use the pot as a mash tun also. It's a 10.5 gallon pot and has a ball valve installed with a thermometer. It also came with a torpedo screen on the ball valve. So my question is...

1. Can I use the torpedo screen as a way to filter the grains from the wort?

2. What are my other options? I was thinking I could use a steal braided line like people use with their cooler mash tuns.

Yeah I think you're good to go. You'll just have to run off your runnings into a bucket/carboy, another pot unless doing BIAB so you can clean grist out of kettle before boiling.

Here a pic. The mesh on the screen looks so wide.

I think you'll be ok most of the grain will set in a bed around it. Vorlauf for little to filter out the few grains that work through it If your worried about grains being transferred. Then you should be fine to drain and sparge.
I use a 7.5gallon pot with ball valve and screen on inside as a filter and have made quite a few batches without issue. If that screen doesn't have a pipe inside the screening just be careful when you stir your mash as to not crush the screen and block your flow of wort.

Sweet next brew day I'm going to give it a try and see how it goes. I've been doing biab for the last three batches and now that I have this so I can try mashing without a bag. Wish me luck

that screen is not going to work very well as a false bottom. i bet your going to have some serious headaches come brew day. its meant to filter out larger hop particles or whole hops in the boil only.

That's the same screen I use in my cooler mash tun and it works great.

audger said:

that screen is not going to work very well as a false bottom. i bet your going to have some serious headaches come brew day. its meant to filter out larger hop particles or whole hops in the boil only.

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Why? The holes in a false bottom are larger than that screen. While I agree, it looks a bit on the coarse side for my preference, but I think it will work very well in a MLT.

Looks like it'll work like a charm. Unless you are using pumpkin. Then people suggest using rice hulls

wilserbrewer said:

Why?

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because

It's a 10.5 gallon pot and has a ball valve installed with a thermometer. It also came with a torpedo screen on the ball valve.

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normally valves are installed 2-3 inches off the bottom. you want a false bottom to be just that; on the bottom. not 2-3 inches above the bottom. everything below it is going to be left in the tun, meaning you wont be collecting as much sugar as you could.

the screen would be fine if it were sitting directly on the bottom somehow, but it didnt seem to me like that was the case.

Used it a couple of days ago and everything worked out well. It did leave some liquid in the bottom but it didn't seem to make that much of a difference but I wasn't shooting for a very high efficiency to begin with. I ended up going over my og by six points.

That's exactly how I started out doing all grain. Worked great. I still use the very same torpedo screen in my cooler MT. I just learned the hard way about scorching.

Please elaborate what you mean about scorching. Will that happen using my set up? I know that the bottom is probably hotter but when I mash in I stir the sh$& out of it.

deuce40 said:

Please elaborate what you mean about scorching. Will that happen using my set up? I know that the bottom is probably hotter but when I mash in I stir the sh$& out of it.

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Since the grain is on the bottom of the kettle, right on the other side of the flame, there is a good chance for scorching if you aren't careful. Of course, if you are not running your burner during your mash, there is no need to worry. I had my burner on low, ramping it up for mashout and walked away for a tad too long. Had scorched grains on the bottom of my kettle for what seems like forever. This is before I discovered PBW. A nice, long soak in that took it off.

Ok I want to make sure I'm doing this right. My burner wasn't running for the mash but I wanted to make sure I got my process down right. I batch sparge so what I did was pulled my first runnings. While I did that heated my sparge water in another pot. Got up to 170 then poured it in. Is that considered a mash out? After that collected the rest of my wort. Waited ten minutes so that the hot water could do its thing. Cleaned my bigger 10 gal pot that I used for a mash tun, then poured the wort in there for my boil. Every thing look ok. I was doing biab before and my brew day was never as smooth as this.

Yep sounds good.