converting kettle into mash tun and brew pot.

[hopsy]

im kind of new to brewing, only done 3 batches but already want to somewhat upgrade my equipment. i have a 5 gallon brewpot and ive been doing partial mashes. my last batch required about 5 lbs of grain which was kind of a pain to sparge and all that without a mash tun. i dont really want to buy anymore stuff if i dont have to so i was thinking about trying to put a false bottom and a spigot on my brew kettle, or maybe something ive heard of called an easy masher which i think is essentially the same thing except a tube of screen is connected to the spigot instead of a false bottom. i also want to incorporate a thermometer somehow. im thinking the easiest way would be to drill a small hole in my kettle lid so i can monitor mashing temps and also see where its at when im cooling the wort, instead of sticking a hopefully well sanitized thermometer into my wort. my theory is that i can mash in there, keeping track of the temp, using heat when i want to adjust the temperature for step infusions and what not, then lauter and sparge right through there into my primary bucket, dump the grains out and then boil. then the false bottom will come in handy again when transferring the wort to the primary because it will filter out hops and trub (is it called trub at this point?). so i dont know if ill be able to create a seal on a SS kettle using hardware, or if there is anything else im not thinking of. any wisdom would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Bobby_M]

The easiest way is to build a mashtun out of a cooler. It will hold heat so you don't have to baby sit the mash temp and you won't risk scorching.

 

[hopsy]

thanks for the response. im trying to not add any new equipment since my space is limited. i feel like i should be able to do what i want with what i have. my new idea is to put a false bottom in my primary, which is a 6 or 7 gallon plastic bucket with a spigot. the only consideration is how much it will hold temp, im assuming it will lose temp a lot faster than a cooler but i dont think it will be that bad if i put a lid on it, based on my experience with partial mashing in a stainless kettle, which lost very little heat. my only concern is the high temp water in the bucket leaching out plastic tastes/odors, although i doubt my primary is made of a lower grade plastic than a cooler. ill try it and let everyone know how it goes!

 

[hopsy]

so, its been a minute since the last post. ive been mashing in my brewpot then transferring into my primary bucket in which i built a false bottom out of a fine screen splatter guard thing and the frame from a big colander. if i had a camera id post pics. long story short, its been working extremely well. i can mash in and hold temps or do direct fire step infusions if i want in my brew pot, then transfer to my lauter tun, which is my primary, and fly sparge while lautering. so far ive been getting efficiencies from 85% to 91%. so, long story short its been working out great! the only downside is sometimes i would like to pitch my wort onto the bed of yeast in my primary which i cannot do, so ive been dumping the yeast into a second sanitized vessel, then pitching that into the wort after boiling and cooling. maybe ill try bottling and brewing on the same day and pitch onto the yeast in my secondary carboy. supposedly this is better anyways because there is less trub and hop debris in the secondary.

 

[Brandonovich]

How do you transfer to the lauter tun from your mash tun?

 

[wilserbrewer]

I believe your easiiest and cheapest alternative would be to by a large grain bag and use that to mash in your 5 gal kettle.

 

[hopsy]

How do you transfer to the lauter tun from your mash tun?

i just scoop it into the bucket with a pot. pretty simple and a lot more simple than using a large grain bag.