Mini Mash Tun Build

My son, who got me into brewing, has limited space and time and likes to do smaller batches. He really likes the simplicity that my 5 gallon Home Depot water cooler mash tun provides so I decided to build him a smaller version to meet his needs.

I started with a 2 gallon Igloo cooler shown here.



Here are all the parts I used for the build.







This is the only part that came from my own store of 'Stuff'. It's the drain plug from one of those really big coolers from Costco. I was originally going to squeeze in the correct sized copper tube like you see in other builds but I found these other commonly found Home Depot parts that fit it perfectly.



Here is how the parts will be arranged after they are assembled.



The first thing was to remove the original thumb valve.



And replace it with the drain from a much larger Igloo Ice Chest.



Then came the hose barb.



Continued in next post

 

I then rolled a stainless steel wire around a small diameter rod and stretched it out to lenghth. This would support the inside of the SS braid.





I judged the length of the coiled SS wire so that it would be forced into the ends of the plastic tee.



I deleted the SS Hose clamps shown in the earlier pics in favor of small zip ties.


The tee is then pushed into the drain plug. It fits very snug.




Here is a look at the inside after it's all finished.

 

Very cool! How much grain can this hold?

 

I haven't built one like this but from my 5 & 10 gallon tuns I's say 4-5lbs of grain. enough for a small batch or a partial with extract added to boil.

Nice build Jaz!

 

It's meant for one gallon batches and should be ok up to about 4-1/2 lbs of grain maybe a little more with absorbtion.