cooler vs. pot

[pixelhussar]

Hi,

Unfortunately beverage coolers are terribly expensive here (3x the US price). I can buy a huge stainless steel pots or 3 second hand 13 gallons keg for this price. Now I do the mashing in a 4.5 gallon stainless steel pot on the stove and lauter in a fermentation vessel with false bottom.

I only would like to know what do I loose when I work this way? Does it worth to invest into a cooler? I usually have 2-3 rests.

The pot seems to keep heat pretty well while mashing. I have to turn the stove on only once for 2 mins. Lautering is more problematic, but try to keep the mash above 60C (140F).

Thanks.

 

[MalFet]

I mash in a pot and love it. I've got a rims tube, and without something like that it can take a bit of discipline to keep the temperatures steady. But, the ability to do direct fire steps is great. By the time you start lautering, keeping temperatures at a precise level isn't actually all that important. What you're doing now sounds fine!

 

[solbes]

I do BIAB in a 7.5 gallon pot. If I am only doing a Sacc rest, I wrap the kettle 3x with Reflectix insulation material. In the winter when my garage is 5-15F, I lose 3-4 degrees F with a 5 gallon mashed for 60 min. In the summer when my garage is 80-90, I lose 1-1.5 F with the same mash. Got the idea from someone here. Might be a lot cheaper than a cooler, or even free if you have some laying around.

Sometimes if I'm doing a protein rest I will direct fire from the propane burner (have a frier basket to keep the bag off the bottom). Obviously the Reflectix must be removed first before applying heat.

 

[diS]

That was my problem too, I had 7 gal (28 L) cooler and did 5 gal batches in enamel pot... meanwhile I got 50L kegs that screamed to use them and double my batches.
I tried to buy bigger cooler, but here in Croatia they are used mostly for big fishing, so the cost was unreal (~250$).
I decided to go with HERMS to maintain mash temperature. It was decent investment but I am really satisfied with it.
Other than HERMS/RIMS you can use burner to keep mash temperatures and easily do step mashes. Only reason why I abandoned that idea is that it is tough to get gas valves that can be controlled by PID here, so going electric was reasonable choice for me.

Anyhow, I"m sure you wont loose anything if you go with larger SS pot, just be cautious to keep right temperatures at mash.

 

[starsailor]

Hi,

Unfortunately beverage coolers are terribly expensive here (3x the US price). I can buy a huge stainless steel pots or 3 second hand 13 gallons keg for this price. Now I do the mashing in a 4.5 gallon stainless steel pot on the stove and lauter in a fermentation vessel with false bottom.

I only would like to know what do I loose when I work this way? Does it worth to invest into a cooler? I usually have 2-3 rests.

The pot seems to keep heat pretty well while mashing. I have to turn the stove on only once for 2 mins. Lautering is more problematic, but try to keep the mash above 60C (140F).

Thanks.

It sounds like you have the problem to have!

I'd go with the stainless pots or kegs given a reasonable price similarity. Here one pot and/or (legal) keg is at least 3x-10x the price of a cooler. So, a lot of us compromise and go with a cooler. That's why you see so many posts about how to make a cooler MLT work. However, there is a lot of info on how to make pot and kegs into a HLT, MLT, or BK too.

Given your prices over there, go stainless for everything. It will be better and cheaper for you, so you win! Especially if you're accustomed to doing 2-3 rests for each mash having a stainless MLT that you can apply direct heat to will make it easier to get going and give you a lot more options on what kind of system to build it out into in the long run. A little insulation on the MLT is the only real down side and that's really easily overcome with a little more heat because you're step mashing already anyway. If that's a problem any of a number of MLT wrap around insulation techniques you can see in other posts will make a pot or keg perform the same as a cooler.

Here's what I 'd do if I were you; a pot or keg HLT with a ball valve drain and maybe a sightglass; a pot or keg MLT with a ball valve drain and either a braid, manifold, or false bottom to lauter with a thruwall thermometer if you want to get fancy; and lastly a stainless pot or keg BK with a ball valve drain and either a braid or manifold to separate the hops and trub from the wort. Buy the parts put it together yourself and save even some more.

Good luck building an awesome system.

 

[pixelhussar]

Thanks for all your answer!

As starsailor wrote, I didn't really understand why everyone else go with cooler, just because I didn't see the context. In long term I was planning to build my system of kegs. More or less the same what starsailor encuraged me to build.

diS, it was great to see, how you've built your system.