Cooler Mash Tun

[markd87]

Long story short I am moving to all grain and was trying to put together an extravagant electric HERMS setup, but I grew inpatient and decided to get a cooler mash tun going for now and will look to do the electric setup in the future once I have more experience. The cooler I chose is a 70 quart cooler. The dimensions are 2ft. wide by 10 inches deep and 1ft. tall. I read Palmer's book and like the idea of using a steel braided hot water hose, but I have also read that a false bottom is much more effective. I am just looking to get thoughts of members with experience with both methods. Also, would there be it be useful to make a false bottom for this cooler and have a hose sit below for clarity? Any and all information would be more than appreciated because I have done a lot of reading on all grain brewing, but I have zero experience with the process so it's really hard to understand every aspect well without the practical experience.

Thanks,

Mark.

 

[Malticulous]

False bottoms work best in round coolers. I've not seen a rectangle one. I use a tube with holes drilled in the bottom--more like a hose braid. It runs clear after about 1 quart. My false bottom in my old MLT takes about a gallon to run clear.

For fly sparging the false bottom is better. For batch sparging it dosen't matter at all one way or the other. All that is important is minimal dead space.

 

[theonetrueruss]

Build a copper manifold for the cooler. It is pretty easy and not expensive... and will work well for both fly and batch sparging.

 

[iaefebs]

The cooler I chose is a 70 quart cooler. The dimensions are 2ft. wide by 10 inches deep and 1ft. tall.

Thanks,

Mark.

I used the SS braid made for a water heater.

P.S.
I believe that with those dimensions it would make it a 50qt cooler.