Finally finished my Igloo Cube 48 quart mash tun

Thanks to all the guides and pointers in this forum and elsewhere, I've finally finished my mash tun. I now have the capability to fly sparge, but my last batch sparge was at 80% efficiency, so it may be a while before I actually use it to fly sparge.

The most difficult part was adding the upper valve, because I am cheap and wanted to reuse a bulkhead I had instead of buying a longer one for the cooler...

I originally had a braid, but decided to build the manifold so I could also try fly sparging. The manifold also increased my efficiency, so evidently there was something wrong with the way I had the braid set up.

Also, it's not apparent in the photos, but the top is filled with spray insulation. It's really heavy and keeps heat very well.

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Looks great! How much did you spend? And where did you find that flex hose?

civilbrando said:

Looks great! How much did you spend? And where did you find that flex hose?

Click to expand...

Thanks! Some of the parts were leftovers, but I'll price it like it was bought new...

Parts list:
Loc-Line is $10 from amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006R9OFGS/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
2 Bayou Classic ball valves: $30 x 2 (I actually only bought one.)
2 Camlock Type F (from bargainfittings): $4 x 2
1 5' 1/2" CPVC section: $4
4 1/2" CPVC elbows: $.21 x 4
1 1/2" CPVC street 45: $.39
7 1/2" CPVC tee: $.75 x 7
1 1/2" CPVC adapter: $1.19
Stainless 1/2" elbow: $4
a bit of silicone tubing (not 6", but sold by the foot): $2.50
1 can "Great Stuf" spray insulation: $5
2 little plastic caps to cover holes made for spray insulation: $2

The cooler was an old one I had... I probably paid $20 when I bought it. I also had the stainless elbow, one of the valves, the CPVC section and the CPVC adapter, so that saved me a bit up front.

So, if I had to buy everything it would be around $125. The great thing is you can piece it out, so if you don't need the top port (only for batch sparging and you would have to pick up the HLT to dump; I did that for a while), you can save $50. And you could save another $4 or so if you used a barb instead of camlocks. And even more if you went with a brass valve/nipple (which was my initial configuration.)

It was definitely an interesting and fun build. If you come across one of these older 48 quart Igloo cubes this is pretty easy to do and has so far made a great mash tun. I would recommend getting a cooler bulkhead for the top port so that would eliminate some of the careful drilling/carving I had to do to get mine to work.

Nice setup. I may have to steal your Loc-line idea. Why can't you just use a rubber tube instead of the Loc line? Also, how does all the CPVC connect to each other? Glue or just snap together? Thx.

I spent quite a bit of time thinking about thinking about what I would need to add to fly sparge. I considered going through the lid with something, but I couldn't really come up with a way to adjust the height of an arm correctly with the lid open, so I decided to go through the side. Then I read a lot of posts where people thought they lost temperature through a spray arm. Their solution was to have something put the water directly in the layer of water on the grain bed. In those posts, the solution was to use Loc-Line. It seemed perfect for my tun, too. It can be adjusted according to the depth of the grain bed, unlike a fixed cpvc line. Silicone tubing will float in the sparge water, which could be fine, but I like having the input line stay where I put it.

The cpvc/tubing in the manifold is dry fit so I can easily take it apart to clean and sanitize.

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Thanks for the parts list! I'm about to start converting a Coleman I got on sale.

Nice! Let us know how it goes!

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Pictures of the lid... The two little white caps cover the holes I drilled when I filled the lid with spray insulation. I had two pieces of foam which I use in the depressions.