Custom Mash Tun

New start for our Ice Hawk (Mash Tun). Set up a vendor account and I do apologize to the hombrewtalk community. I should have set that up right away. OK LETS BREW!

Any votes on the name for the Ice Hawk? Mashinator? To Cliche? lol

I'm posting another picture. Its from last weeks brew session. Shows the Mashinator in use.

http://gallery.me.com/irpimages#100404

Mash Hawk is kind of cool too. I do have a couple more questions for you. How would one go about buying this? Are you going to set up a web store, or is it more through emails or private messages? Is paypal good for payment? And what are the prices going to be for tun, lid, and wheels? I'm not in a huge hurry for the answers, I just thought you might want to consider these things now that you are an hbt vendor.

Finally, I would suggest against using propane in your basement if that's where that last picture was taken. Burning propane produces carbon monoxide which could become deadly if you aren't blowing it out somehow.

Good idea on all the options. I'll get one set up tomorrow for pictures and people can sure decide on how they would want it.

Thanks for the concern - its actually a really nice shed out in the country. A good friend is letting me brew there over the winter. Windows are just outside of the picture. People on the brewboards rock! Very passionate and always willing to help. Its the way the world is meant to be.

PS - I like the Mash Hawk! Thats #1 so far.

Some temp specs on the Mash Hawk:

Melt point: ~125.6 degC (~258 degF)
Vicat Softening point: 114 degC (~237 degF)

So you could boil in one of these guys with a "Water Heater Element"?

Awesome. I think this would make a great HLT and possibly a great eBK. Any idea what the price is going to be?

Although the specs say it can handle the temps of boiling, I'll go on record and say that I would not recommend or try. I'd like to do some testing on that part of it. I'd hate to have it get real soft and degrade the structural integrity at any point and BAM lose such precious liquid gold.

The base price for the Mash Hawk is $49 plus shipping. Pretty darn good pricing.

I think the trick with using it as a BK is to find out exactly what the plastic is and then whether or not it would leech anything bad at the higher temps. Food grade ratings should be temp-range specific.

I think these are awesome. I know I have talked to other people how it would be great if Rubbermaid made a 15Gallon round cooler, this is even better.

Now, question is, what's the best way to set it up? I'd use a false bottom, make it 19 1/4" and put some support legs around the inside and outside ring to raise it about 1/4" off the outer rim, so I can drain the whole grainbed. If my math is right, it would make the max depth of the grainbed, from the FB to the rim, 14 1/4", so it would be about 18 gallons. Is that correct? Been a long time since high school.

Now, would really be interested if these can be set up for all electric. With their height, you could have 3 of these + wheels sitting on the floor without having to build a stand, just need a way to attach a control box on the outside. And that would completely screw up my build plans.

Did 2 batches of brew on Saturday with the Mash Hawk. I used a digital temp gauge to track temp loss (or should I say lack of temp loss ). I set it up with a false bottom for the first time and loved it. Usually used a bazooka screen.

First Mash: Started at 158 and was at 157 after one hour.
Second Mash: Started at 154 and stayed at 154 for full hour.

Was extremely happy. The new picts are in the picture folder. I'm going to try really hard to get a dedicated site up for everyone. I also took some vids of us in action. I'll maybe get em posted on my youtube. I'll let everyone know.

New images

http://gallery.me.com/irpimages#100419

Is it just me or is the drain REALLY high?

If ya peak at the images ya can see the drain is right at the bottom of the core. We use the whole body as a base for strength.

Bobby_M said:

I think the trick with using it as a BK is to find out exactly what the plastic is and then whether or not it would leech anything bad at the higher temps. Food grade ratings should be temp-range specific.

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+1

shipping to 22801?

I'll get a shippin quote in the AM. I'm guessing it'll be around 18-20.

Hey Everyone! I'm gonna go on record again saying I would not recommend this as a BK. BUT, we do have someone who is going to test some things out for us and maybe I'll be surprised! We will keep everyone posted and up to date on the BK thing.

I have personally used it for my mash tun for about 30-40 12 gallon boils and recommend it 100%. I'm hoping to have all the info on a site within a week or two but can take orders anytime!

OK. I'll go ahead and order two. My zip code is 80525 and I can paypal you the total with shipping anytime you are ready.

Did my pm go through? Was just wondering if ya wanted or needed any of the options? Lid or base w/wheels? THANKS Do ya happen to have any commercial address's to ship to? I've found out its sometimes 20 bucks cheaper to ship to commercial rather than residential.

Is the bottom hollow or is it filled with foam?

The core is shorter than the whole unit. The whole core is completely insulated.

I did get your pm. It looked to me like the lid wasn't a fit piece. Is that correct? I'd like to get a lid, but only if it is roughly the same size and shape as the opening. Otherwise, I think I can use the lid from my BK for now. I don't have a commercial address to ship to. Unfortunately, the place I work has banned personal shipping.

yeah, its just a sheet of high density that covers it up completely. My guess is ya could find it at homedepot or mendards for cheaper (shhhhhhh - i didn't say that).

Ya can E-mail me your address and we'll get the shipping quoted and shipped out right away! [email protected] or here.

lata

We need a web site!

I know I KNOW! lol. My job is keepn me to busy to do my job. UG

irpinc said:

I know I KNOW! lol. My job is keepn me to busy to do my job. UG

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Can you buy these finished and ready to brew? Prices, we need prices!

I should have some package prices tomorrow AM for a complete n ready to rock unit. Both the bazooka and false bottom option.

Will the false bottom be 19 1/4" or 14"?

I actually use a 9". here's how I set mine up.

http://gallery.me.com/irpimages#100419/DSCN0561&bgcolor=black

Any thoughts on how these would work as fermenters?

uwjester said:

Any thoughts on how these would work as fermenters?

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Did you ever get yours?

Funny you should ask. I have another one of our merchandisers that's called a Merch III that has some drill holes and funny lookin tubes comin out of it from last summer. LOL

I just never felt comfortable enough with plastic to seal correctly for fermenting. I'm kinda weird that way, but I'd hate to lose even 5 gallons of my precious liquid heaven. Anyone game to give it a try?

Maybe I'll get that thing out of my carriage house and take another beagle.

And wildwest, its very hard to concentrate on anything with your icon...

irpinc said:

And wildwest, its very hard to concentrate on anything with your icon...

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I guess, i've been trying to buy one of your mash tuns for the past 3 day's with no luck.

I agree with WildWest. I think to be a vendor, you need to have an available product with pricing

wildwest - I've sent ya some PMs. We are getn everything ready for your order. We just haven't charged for it yet. I was going to wait til we ship. I'll get it ready for ya this AM.

We are in the process of setting up a site for everything. We went from researching the idea to everyone wanting one a little faster than expected. lol

wildwest450 said:

Did you ever get yours?

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I ordered it late last week. I'm hoping it gets here in the next couple days.

IrregularPulse said:

I agree with WildWest. I think to be a vendor, you need to have an available product with pricing

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I feel the need to defend irpinc here. He started a thread to ask about using these as mash tuns. Less than 20 posts in, forum members were playing the vendor card. irpinc was quick to respond and immediately set up a vendor account. Here we are barely more than a week later and people are upset that he isn't acting like a vendor.

From my point of view, irpinc was asking if anyone wanted one of these at the cost he gets them from his company. He was suggesting use based on his own experience with the tun, not from a company spokesman standpoint. It looks like irc (the company not the board member) generally deals with larger companies with their products and aren't necessarily set up do business with individual consumers. I suspect that irpinc (the board member) is working hard to get the indivual order system set up, but it takes time.

Personally, I emailed irpinc and paypal'd the money to order two of these. I could have waited until everything was set up, but I decided that it would help him sell the idea to his company if there was a shown interest and commitment.

There are a lot of vendors on this site that didn't have whizzy front ends to start. Kegs, hops, false bottoms, just to suggest a few. Maybe we could give this guy a chance to get set up too.

If I misinterpreted the tone of the earlier posts, then I apologize. There are probably many ways to read them, and I could have read them more confrontationally than they were intended.