First All Grain Brew

Can I steep 10lbs of grain in a sock or should I look into other methods? Like building a Lauder tun from a cooler?

Check the sticky at the top of this section, BIAB (Brew In A Bag). Should help you get where you are going.

Well if by sock you mean a mesh bag big enough to hold 10 lbs of grain then you sure can. That's what BIAB is. You won't be steeping it though, you will be mashing. You have to maintain temp to make sure you extract the max amount of sugars from the grain.

That being said, I had a ton of fun building my mash tun from a cooler, and I barely get a 2 degree drop over a 60 minute mash. It's really all preference, but if you plan on doing 5 gallon batches, I recommend building a mash tun.

jmh286 said:

That being said, I had a ton of fun building my mash tun from a cooler, and I barely get a 2 degree drop over a 60 minute mash. It's really all preference, but if you plan on doing 5 gallon batches, I recommend building a mash tun.

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Have to agree. Great satisfaction in converting a cooler to a mash tun. They hold temp so well it is amazing!

I see there are several ways to build a mash tun, what is the easiest and most inexpensive way from your experience?

b_mckendry said:

I see there are several ways to build a mash tun, what is the easiest and most inexpensive way from your experience?

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I already had a 9 gallon cooler so that was "free". I went with brass fittings (you can find them lead free, but if they don't specifically say lead free, you will want to pickle them. Just do a search here for that). I used a SS braid for a filter. It cost me $24 bucks at the blue big box store and took about 10 minutes. Easy and cheap.

b_mckendry said:

I see there are several ways to build a mash tun, what is the easiest and most inexpensive way from your experience?

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I'm not trying to be unhelpful, but google building a mash tun and watch all the videos and read all the tutorials and decide which one is right for you. I use a 5 gal igloo cooler for mine and love it.

b_mckendry said:

I see there are several ways to build a mash tun, what is the easiest and most inexpensive way from your experience?

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Do you want the easiest or least expensive? They're not the same thing. The easiest is to purchase one at the LHBS. The cheapest is to convert a picnic cooler.