dcunitedfan
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I just built a 5 gal mash tun using FlyGuy's instructions at https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=23008
I'm not yet ready to do my first mash, but I did do a test to see how well the cooler maintains temperature. With water in the 150-155F range, it seemed to lose maybe 2-4F in one hour. I did notice that while the walls were pretty cool to the touch, the lid was rather warm. Of course, heat rises, and I don't know if the lid is as well insulated as the rest of the vessel (I suspect not since these things are designed for cold liquids, so the lid insulation is less important there). I was testing with 3 gal of water and no grain, so maybe with the additional thermal mass of the grain, it will be less of a factor. Still, I'd like to keep the temp as stable as I can with some cheap solution congruent with using a cooler instead of a heated metal kettle for a mash tun...
So I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed the same thing and devised some sort of simple solution to help with the lid insulation. I'm hoping that I could cut the heat loss down just by putting a big hat on my mash tun
I'm not yet ready to do my first mash, but I did do a test to see how well the cooler maintains temperature. With water in the 150-155F range, it seemed to lose maybe 2-4F in one hour. I did notice that while the walls were pretty cool to the touch, the lid was rather warm. Of course, heat rises, and I don't know if the lid is as well insulated as the rest of the vessel (I suspect not since these things are designed for cold liquids, so the lid insulation is less important there). I was testing with 3 gal of water and no grain, so maybe with the additional thermal mass of the grain, it will be less of a factor. Still, I'd like to keep the temp as stable as I can with some cheap solution congruent with using a cooler instead of a heated metal kettle for a mash tun...
So I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed the same thing and devised some sort of simple solution to help with the lid insulation. I'm hoping that I could cut the heat loss down just by putting a big hat on my mash tun