Kilgore_Trout
Well-Known Member
I've had this:Amazon.com: Coleman 28-Qt Cooler with Molded Handles, Blue: Sports & Outdoors
Laying around my garage for a while, I added a spigot to it about a year ago to use as a chilled glycol storage vessel. It worked great and held sub-0 temps for quite a long time, but I've since stopped using it.
I've been doing some reading and it looks like this would be suitable for some medium grav all-grain batches. It's already got a spigot on it, so my plan is to just use a very large nylon grain bag initially rather than fuss with a manifold. If it's worth it later I can assemble one but I don't want to go overboard on my AG first brew.
I've got a few questions however:
How big of a grain bag will I need? I was looking at just grabbing the biggest one AHS has (18x32), how much grain can I reasonably hold in this thing?
What would you guys recommend I use as a sealant? Since I drilled the whole for the spigot myself it's a bit messy, o-rings don't do the job. Until now I'd used silicone sealant and just replaced it after each use (sub-0 temps destroy that stuff fast) but I'm assuming the cheap silicone sealant from Lowes isn't going to hold up at the temps I need for mashing. Would some of that harder 2-part epoxy work? My plan is to just hit Lowes and read packages until I find something with a high temp tolerance.
I plan on doing a fairly standard batch sparge, sticking to what I read in BobbyM's primer. Any suggestions regarding basic techniques to change?
Any input is appreciated .
Laying around my garage for a while, I added a spigot to it about a year ago to use as a chilled glycol storage vessel. It worked great and held sub-0 temps for quite a long time, but I've since stopped using it.
I've been doing some reading and it looks like this would be suitable for some medium grav all-grain batches. It's already got a spigot on it, so my plan is to just use a very large nylon grain bag initially rather than fuss with a manifold. If it's worth it later I can assemble one but I don't want to go overboard on my AG first brew.
I've got a few questions however:
How big of a grain bag will I need? I was looking at just grabbing the biggest one AHS has (18x32), how much grain can I reasonably hold in this thing?
What would you guys recommend I use as a sealant? Since I drilled the whole for the spigot myself it's a bit messy, o-rings don't do the job. Until now I'd used silicone sealant and just replaced it after each use (sub-0 temps destroy that stuff fast) but I'm assuming the cheap silicone sealant from Lowes isn't going to hold up at the temps I need for mashing. Would some of that harder 2-part epoxy work? My plan is to just hit Lowes and read packages until I find something with a high temp tolerance.
I plan on doing a fairly standard batch sparge, sticking to what I read in BobbyM's primer. Any suggestions regarding basic techniques to change?
Any input is appreciated .
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