Hey its a need to know on temp.

[agezzi]

First I gotta say this forum is a great thing....OK..anyway I need to figure out what I can pick up at the local Lowes, or Home depot to help insulate my 44qt cooler mlt, as well with my 40qt bk. Does anyone out there have a idea on what would work to keep my mlt at temp during 60min mash. Then with my bk I use a heatstick, but it still takes for ever. Is there anything out there that wont catch fire. That will help hold in that heat. thanks to anyone willing to help I'm still some what a virgin.
cheers...agezzi

 

[pompeiisneaks]

Hey, the whole idea about using a cooler is that you don't need to heat it during mash, set it at a point, 156, say, and leave it, the mash won't lose more than a few degrees during the hr. If you mash in and you're low, then that means your strike water was too low temp... some people put in hot water ahead of time to warm up the MLT. As for the HLT, that also, should be warmed on a kettle, then put in, and then just kept warmer if needed by the heatstick... normally. If you want to go for a method of keeping temps exact, then you need to look into one of the DIY systems like I use, I use a HERMS Hex coil w/ pump from MLT through HLT, temps maintained by an automated system called brewtroller www.brewtroller.com There are others that use RIMS, or BRUTUS.... All work, but take a significant amount more time/money/work to get them up and running. (but boy is it fun

 

[Chuck_Swillery]

I agree... preheating helps a bunch - at least in my case. I use two 5 gallon round coolers.

One of the options for round coolers is picking up a water heater "blanket". Basically a foil covered insulating sleeve that covers the outside of the water heater. Easy enough to adapt to round coolers... you could probably make it work on square with a little planning... A link to an example follows:

Water Heater blanket

Your cooler should do a decent job without help. However, the first time I brewed AG it was COLD (I want to say it was 19 degrees when I started in my unheated garage... don't remember exactly) and I ended up wrapping my cooler in a hunting coat. It was loosing temp faster that I wanted...

 

[Jewrican]

on my last brew day i decided to add the water to the mashtun hotter than i needed my strike to be. I calculated how hot the water needed to be when i added my grains ahead of time and I then added my grains to it once it reached that temp. worked well for me.

 

[agezzi]

thanks for the info

 

[rico567]

There are lots of ways to achieve a stable mash temperature.....but my philosophy is strictly K.I.S.S., so I go with preheat.
First thing, I heat 3 gal. of water on the stove to 170F.

Next, I pour it into my MLT (a Home Depot / Rubbermaid 10 gal. "Big Orange" cooler), and let it sit for at least an hour. (This is very early, and usually I make my daily trip into town while this is going on). The cooler will usually be @ 154F after preheating.

I then preheat my 5 gal. strike water. The temperature depends on the amount of grist I'm mashing. Last time it was 15 lbs, and I heated the strike water to 162F. I poured out the preheat water, put in the braid, dumped in the grist, and poured the strike water on top. After about two minutes of steady mixing with a paddle, I hit my mash temp (152F) right on the money.

This is the way I like it to go. It did take me a while to realize that the simple and easy way to do this was to just figure out the numbers for MY system, and not try to use brewing software or any of that jazz.

I cover the MLT with a furniture pad while mashing. I also was having a temperature loss of a few degrees at the beginning, then realized that the cooler lid, unlike the body, was not insulated. So I drilled a couple of holes and shot the lid full of that "Great Stuff" brand spray foam insulation. Worked like a charm.

 

[agezzi]

thanks i thought about the spray foam,cause as well my lid is not insulated. with that said to the store I go.