5 gallon mash tun question

Im thinking about making up a smaller 5 gallon mash tun for small experimental batches. I can probably build one up for under 30$ thats why im even contemplating doing it. Yay or nay? I have a 70qt. coleman xtreme, and i think it'd be a little overkill for a 2-3 gallon batch, side question, anyone know what i can use to seal the 70qt. around the lid? Possibly silicone of some sort? It seems i get about 4 degrees of heat loss over an hour mash.

Yeah why not?

And im assuming that by seal you mean insulate? keeping it covered with blankets would probably help.

Burro2882 said:

Yeah why not?

And im assuming that by seal you mean insulate? keeping it covered with blankets would probably help.

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Not insulate, i have an insulated sleeping bag i can throw over it for that. Im talking seal the lid a little tighter, it seems where the lid handle is it will seep steam sometimes which makes me think its not 100% tightly sealed. So im thinking a nice bead of silicone around it may work?

You might be better off buying some rubber gasket material, and then maybe attaching it to the cooler with a bead of caulk, or some food grade adhesive.

The 5 gallon ought to work just fine for small batches. That 70 qt that you have might be a little too big to get a good grain bed on smaller batches.

That's all I have ever used for my beers, a five gallon mast tun. That holds about 14 pounds of grain or so, which I've never really exceeded for maybe 99% of my beers.

Nothing wrong with a 5g mash tun. It's good for small batches and even 5g batches of lower gravity beers.

JJL said:

You might be better off buying some rubber gasket material, and then maybe attaching it to the cooler with a bead of caulk, or some food grade adhesive.

The 5 gallon ought to work just fine for small batches. That 70 qt that you have might be a little too big to get a good grain bed on smaller batches.

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yeah thats what im trying to decide on, just something thin enough to give it a little bit more of a seal. Just wasn't sure if anyone had run into this problem with the 70 qt. extreme cooler. It works perfectly for 5+gallon batches, i just want to get into experimenting a little more, and i figure that mash tun may be too big for 2-3 gal batches. And a 5 gallon coleman round cooler is 20$. So i figured that'd be perfect for what i want to do.

And it looks like they make food grade silicone up to 400F, so i think i may grab some of that and put a thin layer around the inside so it will seal against it.

My home made mash tun is a 36 quart Igloo, and it is the perfect size IMHO. Someone was tossing it because they lost the spigot plug, and I rescued it. I think I spent about 5 to 10 bucks for mine.

You can never have too many mash tuns. I have a 70 qt extreme that I use when our club does big beers for barrel aging, a 5 gallon, and a 48 qt.

Starderup said:

My home made mash tun is a 34 quart Igloo, and it is the perfect size IMHO. Someone was tossing it because they lost the spigot plug, and I rescued it. I think I spent about 5 to 10 bucks for mine.

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The only problem is, when you start getting into bigger/higher gravity beers you really get limited with that size.

lustreking said:

You can never have too many mash tuns. I have a 70 qt extreme that I use when our club does big beers for barrel aging, a 5 gallon, and a 48 qt.

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You had me at 'You can never have too many mash tuns.'.