Or a helper. That's always nice.
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Pots and keggles have handles. They can be insulated too if you choose to. But carrying them vs scooping them out was more of a discussion for when there are physical limitations. There's also batch size considerations.
How do you apply heat if the temperature is off to begin with?
Brewers friend is close. I have decocted before because I was off. I guess I could fire up the propane.
Still the cooler is lighter than if it was full of beer and ice and it's meant to be carried. Full the brim I'd need two people. We're all different. My 80qt pot weighs more empty than the cooler.
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I wonder if someday I will miss controlling fermentation temperature with frozen water bottles instead of this chest freezer and inkbird that do all of the work for me.
I guess I did go back to basics since I started all grain with small batch stovetop BIAB, and now I brew the same way on my foundry. I gave up using the malt pipe and recirculating the wort and just use a Wilserbag instead.
Building a cooler mash tun does sound like a fun project, but I probably wouldn't use it more than a few times.
I guess I did go back to basics since I started all grain with small batch stovetop BIAB, and now I brew the same way on my foundry. I gave up using the malt pipe and recirculating the wort and just use a Wilserbag instead.
Building a cooler mash tun does sound like a fun project, but I probably wouldn't use it more than a few times.
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Just my own personal opinion but I am happy to just set the temperature on the PID and I don't mind scooping it for the few minutes it takes to get it in the bucket. I thought it would more of a pain originally. The rim on the keggle is problematic but I could nail tipping a pot into a bucket, tote or even a cooler to get it to the composter. Something wide could work with the keggle like a tote or rectangular cooler but the bucket is already dirty from grinding grain.
I very often surf for used homebrewing equipment and many times see MT coolers as part of "Everything you need to homebrew" sales pitch. They are usually quitting, although to be fair, sometimes they may be getting an AIO or moving up. But I wonder if they are quitting, why quit then? And I don't have a solid answer. One answer though is they don't like their product. I think sometimes people quit because they are exasperated with being unable to produce anything they consider good. It can be hard to do that when you don't have as much control over the process. A cooler does make a perfectly fine MT in a HERMS. Hitting your mash temp perfectly though is hardly a given plus changing it for different schedules is also a concern.
A cooler doesn't shine like my MT either!
My 120 quart Coleman extreme works just fine for maintaining the mashing temp. If someone is having an issue with temp loss there's options to wrap it easy enough.
To haul out the spent grain, I bought a muck tub dolly that works great. After I dump the grain I also scoop out the scrap from the boil kettle and wipe everything down with paper towels. All the woodland critters don't mind those along with the other delights.
To haul out the spent grain, I bought a muck tub dolly that works great. After I dump the grain I also scoop out the scrap from the boil kettle and wipe everything down with paper towels. All the woodland critters don't mind those along with the other delights.
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Yes ok, people keep saying "maintain" but what about changing the temperature when there are different steps in the schedule. I do know how to do that with infusions and decoction but you can miss too. I do see it is a little rosey in here. Software is great but I did start out all grain brewing when there wasn't software available in the late 90s although I did get a wonderful program not too far along that alleviated calculating by hand. It was still way easier to fix being off on the temperature stovetop vs a crappy 90s cooler. I'd rather not use two canning pots either, I still have them along with the scorch marks in the ripply bottoms. Sparging with a small bucket with holes in one hand while pouring water with the other is fun if you can rub your belly and pat your head but I do still like fly sparging with Phil's sparge arm better.
Why is that important? Never mind.
I'll probably do a PID for my HLT. My homemade amazonian boil control is working fine though. I can watch a thermometer. I waste less time that way.
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It makes me happy like a sunny day.
A cooler as a MT on my EHERMS would be out of place next to its shiny HLT and BK keggle buddies.
I love brewing on my rig! It's my pride and joy, my mid-life crisis! (My keezer is pretty spanking too, I'll write that up someday soon.
A regular PID is not recommended for boil control. I have a power percentage controller, which may have a more specific name but that's what it does. You can set some of the fancier PIDs to act that way I think but I don't own one of those and until mine breaks I can't describe them accurately. I can pretty much just set the power to 100% to get the boil started and walk away with 6 gallon batch on my boil keggle but I'd be about a gallon or more short at the end of the boil. I usually out of an abundant sense of caution only put it at 95%, wait for the boil, start the brew timer, then power it down to about 75%. Add hops accordingly , check boil losses at 15 minute intervals, adjust power if needed. I just ran through four 10 gallon batches and that's pretty full so I had to learn the hard way to not to set it too high because the minute you walk away....well you all know what happens! I just have PIDs on the HLT and MT. The PID on the MT doesn't control anything, but it reads the temp and can do high alarms. Not exactly sure why the design has them other than perhaps they are reasonably priced and work easiest for the out temp into the coil.
Here's another thing I don't want to do. I do a fair amount of whirlpooling of hops and most certainly don't want to stand over the kettle for 20 minutes stirring. I can connect the pump to the whirlpool port, set the power to 10-15% to keep the temperature steady and let it run. In the mean time I am going to set up the fermenter, sanitize, and get the CFC in place.
If this helps...I know this is not my original concept, but...
I'm an old guy with a bad back as well. I brew 15 gal batches out of my clawhammer biab system. To remove the basket, I use one of those cheapo $100 electric winches from amazon. I mounted it to the ceiling of my basement and my kettle is on a stainless steel cart with wheels. I wheel it under the winch and lift the basket. Then move my kettle back in place. Drop basket to the ground. My typical grainbill is about 30-35lbs dry if that helps.
Once I have the basket on the ground, while heating to boil, I scoop it into home depot 5 gal buckets for removal from the brew site.
Rich
I'm an old guy with a bad back as well. I brew 15 gal batches out of my clawhammer biab system. To remove the basket, I use one of those cheapo $100 electric winches from amazon. I mounted it to the ceiling of my basement and my kettle is on a stainless steel cart with wheels. I wheel it under the winch and lift the basket. Then move my kettle back in place. Drop basket to the ground. My typical grainbill is about 30-35lbs dry if that helps.
Once I have the basket on the ground, while heating to boil, I scoop it into home depot 5 gal buckets for removal from the brew site.
Rich
Impressive!
Most brewers are creative folks making their system work and evolve as circumstances change.
I have thought about the electric winch idea several times but more for full kegs if beer going into a keezer. That is when and if I build another.
