Recirculating valve into a Igloo Water Cooler Mashtun

[NorthMoonBrewing]

I'm preparing to buy myself the 10 gallon igloo mash tun with the SS false bottom. I want to recirculate and sparge with it. As I've been helping a buddy build his electric brewery, I was wondering if anyone has ever drilled into the side near the top of the cooler and installed a ball valve and sparge arm type set up. I thought if I did it, I could run it to a 3 way valve where I could use one side to recirculate and then open the other valve to sparge with a pvc custom built sparge arm that would sit near the top of the cooler for sparging, hit me with some ideas or even
Photos of other who have done it so I can get the stuff purchased and get the ball rolling. Thanks guys.

 

[NorthMoonBrewing]

My idea is to build it just like this, but once inside the cooler, hook it to a 3 way SS valve that will have one side connect to the hose for recirculating and the other side hooked to my custom sparge arms.

 

[oldstyle69]

i went thru the lid of my cooler. put in a quick disconnect attached to a sparge arm....works great.

 

[NorthMoonBrewing]

And obviously the SS threaded piece going through the cooler will need to be longer than the piece in this setup.

 

[Upthewazzu]

dude, charge your phone.

 

[NorthMoonBrewing]

Do you have a photo you could post? Didn't think about that.

i went thru the lid of my cooler. put in a quick disconnect attached to a sparge arm....works great.

 

[NorthMoonBrewing]

dude, charge your phone.

I know, I'm supposed to be working, but instead I'm running my battery down dreaming of future toys

 

[day_trippr]

I came across this image sequence when looking at the Blichmann autosparge and it seems legit.

Basically, pilot hole all the way through, hole saw through JUST THE OUTER SHELL, clean out the foam exposing the liner, then a step bit to widen the pilot hole to 13/16"d so the threaded shank can pass through.

O-ring goes on the inside, washer and nut on the outside, et voila!

Cheers!

[edit] Mounting an entire 3-way valve with stuff hanging off it on the inside of the cooler is going to stress the heck out of the liner.
I would mount a standard valve on the outside and a male camlock on the inside, then make up your recirc hose and your sparge arm with female camlocks.
That would shorten the moment arm and cut the weight by a lot, without losing functionality.
Bonus: it'll be hella easier to stir your dough-in without the attachments in the way...

 

[NorthMoonBrewing]

I came across this image sequence when looking at the Blichmann autosparge and it seems legit.

Basically, pilot hole all the way through, hole saw through JUST THE OUTER SHELL, clean out the foam exposing the liner, then a step bit to widen the pilot hole to 13/16"d so the threaded shank can pass through.

O-ring goes on the inside, washer and nut on the outside, et voila!

Cheers!

[edit] Mounting an entire 3-way valve with stuff hanging off it on the inside of the cooler is going to stress the heck out of the liner.
I would mount a standard valve on the outside and a male camlock on the inside, then make up your recirc hose and your sparge arm with female camlocks.
That would shorten the moment arm and cut the weight by a lot, without losing functionality.
Bonus: it'll be hella easier to stir your dough-in without the attachments in the way...

Oh wait, so are you saying, create a connection that I can pop on and off for the sparge arms and the recirc hose, so I use the hose, disconnect, and then connect the sparge arm? That could be the most brilliant idea. That could save me a lot of time too.

 

[day_trippr]

Exactly thus.

The liner on these coolers is quite thin, and hanging the mass you described with the overall length that would result would truly test the durability of the liner. Plus it would so occlude access to the actual tun volume that I think you'd regret it being "permanent" every time you clanged your mash paddle on it

Post pics if you put this together!

Cheers!

 

[jrcrilly]

If you recirculate you are going to have heat loss from the tubing and pump so you will want to be heating the recirc wort one way or another to maintain temperature. Once you are doing that there is no reason to keep the lid on the cooler during the mash. When I used a cooler MT in my first HERMS rig I mounted a sparge arm above the cooler. I left the lid off and recirculated through the sparge arm. Then at sparge time I sparged through the sparge arm. No need to weaken or stress the cooler itself by maikng extra holes.

Of course, at that point there was no need for the MT to be a cooler but that was what I had been using so it was in place. The next version of my rig replaced the cooler with a kettle. On that one, I did add an input port with autosparge - but the kettle wall was strong enough to support it.

 

[sillbeer]

A lot of 10 gallon batches will max out the Rubbermaid coolers. If you only do 5 gallons then I think it may be fine but I would still worry about the thin inside layer eventually failing.

 

[oldstyle69]

do you have a photo you could post? Didn't think about that.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1477860329.329536.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1477860344.303821.jpg

 

[oldstyle69]

do you have a photo you could post? Didn't think about that.

View attachment 375434
View attachment 375435

 

[oldstyle69]

do you have a photo you could post? Didn't think about that.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1477860415.045238.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1477860428.510353.jpg

 

[NorthMoonBrewing]

View attachment 375434View attachment 375435

That looks good. What's that black stuff called? Haven't been able to find it. Does that leak air or anything when not connected to the hose?

 

[day_trippr]

It's called "loc line"

https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/mashrecirculation.htm

Cheers!

 

[NorthMoonBrewing]

Cool, Ill have to look into that.

 

[oldstyle69]

its nice to see that my phone posted several times.