Mash and Lauter - Combined or Seperate?

So, I have seen the converted coolers for Mash and Lauter tuns. I have even seen a few that are dual purpose (designed to do both at once). What is the general consensus here?

Fermentation Trap has a Mash Tun that they sell for 100. Then they have an all grain kit with includes a mash tun and a lauter tun for 195. Why do I feel like I am getting ripped off?

 

On the homebrew scale, there is not much of a reason to have a separate mash and lautering vessel.

The coolers are converted for mashing and lautering. Do you have links to the products you are looking at? I am not familiar with them.

 

What size mashtun are you looking for? You can easily buy a premade 10 gallon cooler mash/lauter tun for $120 plus shipping. MidwestSupplies sells one i know for sure. Probably a lot of other sites do too.

 

Or make your own... $40-50 for a 10 gal round cooler or cheaper for a rectangular, $20 for hardware, and a homemade copper manifold or buy a false bottom.

I can't think of a reason to have a separate mash and lauter tun, in fact it makes it much easier to do both in one vessel - no transfer of grain. Any links to the ones you're looking at would help though - maybe there's a benefit?

 

I found the website to the $195 kit that you're talking about I think: http://www.fermentationtrap.com/5612.html

That's a 5 gallon Mash/Lauter Tun (MLT) and a Hot Liquor Tank (HLT), not an Mash Tun and a Lauter Tun. I might be wrong but is that the kit you're talking about? You don't NEED a HLT, but it makes life easier.

I'm new to AG, and have both an HLT and a MLT, and find them both to be very useful for fly sparging. My HLT isn't fancy - it's just an old rectangular cooler that I put a ball valve on (about $15-20 for parts) for gravity-feed fly sparging. Check out the wiki http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Converting_a_cooler_to_a_mash_tun on how to put a ball valve on a cooler and then (for the MLT) add a manifold or false bottom. If you're batch sparging you probably don't even need a ball valve on the HLT.

At those prices for a 5 gal cooler setup I'd seriously think about making your own.

 

I'd recommend using a single vessel for mash tun and lauter tun. I've tried both ways... you lose a lot of heat transfering your grain to a lauter tun, and then there's extra equipment to clean, not to mention the added time of the transfer. I'm currently using 5 gallon round cooler with SS braid... I'd make a manifold from CVPC if I had to do it again.

Single vessel makes a brew day much smoother.

 

In your link one is the Mash/Lauter Tun (MLT) and one is the Hot Liquor Tank (HLT). The MLT holds the grains and water. You lauter (get first runnings) then sparge with hot water stored in the HLT.

That's a normal setup, but IMHO it is a bit pricey.