I'm ready to venture into all grain brewing but I need some advice. Before I go buying equipment I would like to know which is better for a mash tun a kettle or cooler. I plan on building a tower to brew on once I get the equipment.
kettle vs cooler
- Thread starter rfree82
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Better is very likely a matter of preference.
I generally use a 10 gallon cooler, heat strike water up on the stove or turkey fryer burner, and mix with grains in the cooler. If I've calculated the temp of the grains, the cooler, and the water properly, it should get very close to the mash time I want after a minute of settling in. And that's about it for adjustments. Sure I can throw some ice cubes in there to cool it if it's a bit too high, but it's a royal PITA to heat it up.
If I used a kettle, I could turn the heat on and fairly easily heat the mash while stirring. The downside, is that a kettle is generally not well insulated, so it can lose heat faster than a cooler. On the other hand, lots of guys insulate their mash tun kettles and don't find it drifts too badly over the length of the rest. Plus, if it does go outside the mash temp you want, you can always heat it back up while stirring.
Cooler is pretty cheap to buy. A kettle is usually a bit more $$ to start with, plus the cost of insulation. YMMV.
I generally use a 10 gallon cooler, heat strike water up on the stove or turkey fryer burner, and mix with grains in the cooler. If I've calculated the temp of the grains, the cooler, and the water properly, it should get very close to the mash time I want after a minute of settling in. And that's about it for adjustments. Sure I can throw some ice cubes in there to cool it if it's a bit too high, but it's a royal PITA to heat it up.
If I used a kettle, I could turn the heat on and fairly easily heat the mash while stirring. The downside, is that a kettle is generally not well insulated, so it can lose heat faster than a cooler. On the other hand, lots of guys insulate their mash tun kettles and don't find it drifts too badly over the length of the rest. Plus, if it does go outside the mash temp you want, you can always heat it back up while stirring.
Cooler is pretty cheap to buy. A kettle is usually a bit more $$ to start with, plus the cost of insulation. YMMV.
The only advantage to a kettle would be in the direct heat scenario. This would only be of interest for temp adjustments or doing step mashes. Aside from that functional consideration I suppose having a matching HLT, MLT and Boil Kettle is more aesthetically pleasing if that's important to you.
For me at this stage of my brewing a cooler works great and is very cost effective too!
For me at this stage of my brewing a cooler works great and is very cost effective too!
Just my slightly biased opinion, but rather than buying 3 vessels and moving water with gravity, perhaps use one large kettle and remove the grain vertically with a BIAB bag and a ratchet pulley and your done.
As said above, cooler or kettle pluses minuses either way...
madscientist451
Well-Known Member
I started with BIAB in a kettle with direct heat and switched to a cooler after a few batches, I use a BIAB bag in the cooler instead of a false bottom screen. You can wrap up a kettle with blankets to provide insulation, but I found pulling the hot bag of grains out to be messy and generally a hassle, it just didn't work for me. So I prefer a round cooler with a bag for mashing. No stuck mashes, just lift the bag a little if it stops draining. Getting the spent grain out is quick and easy as well. Step mashes are easy, just use a step mash calculator and add boiling water to bring the mash temperature up. But I agree everyone has their own preference and maybe a kettle will work better for you.
If I didn't have a ratchet pulley hanging above my pot, there's no way I'd stick with BIAB in the kettle. I think that's the honest difference between people who love it and hate it.
I think for your tower it really comes down to if you plan to direct fire your tun or not. If you're not, then I'd say go with the cooler, as it's insulated and will hold temps better. If you are, well, then you need to use a kettle because you can't fire a cooler. If you're direct firing the tun you probably won't much care whether it's insulated or not.
While we're talking preferences, I dont like the idea of a large volume of hot water being so high in the air that I need a tower for it. Not to mention that gets less practical as your batch size increases.
I do 10G-15G batches and the only thing elevated is my cooler mash tun. It sits a little above waist height on a board that's on top of two saw horses. My HLT and boil kettle sit on burners on the floor. I use a Chugger pump to move water from the HLT into the mash tun and I gravity drain from MLT into the kettle. Simple! I know several folks say they think a pump is unwanted complexity but that's their preference. In my setup, my pump is an MVP!
So, a cooler as a mash tun does offer a lot of bang for the buck. In fact, I may even be building a 120QT version soon for some of the big beers I make from time to time. The only thing giving me pause is the notion of direct fire capability which I honestly have yet to need. If I get serious about that sort of thing, I may just go all out with HERMS or the like.
Until then, my cooler MLT is doing a fine job for a lot less cash!
I do 10G-15G batches and the only thing elevated is my cooler mash tun. It sits a little above waist height on a board that's on top of two saw horses. My HLT and boil kettle sit on burners on the floor. I use a Chugger pump to move water from the HLT into the mash tun and I gravity drain from MLT into the kettle. Simple! I know several folks say they think a pump is unwanted complexity but that's their preference. In my setup, my pump is an MVP!
So, a cooler as a mash tun does offer a lot of bang for the buck. In fact, I may even be building a 120QT version soon for some of the big beers I make from time to time. The only thing giving me pause is the notion of direct fire capability which I honestly have yet to need. If I get serious about that sort of thing, I may just go all out with HERMS or the like.
Until then, my cooler MLT is doing a fine job for a lot less cash!
Well if we're going to have the tower vs. no tower discussion here too, I would definitely +1 for no tower! I switched from a 3-tier system to a single-tier with a pump system, and I can't tell you how much more enjoyable it has made my brew days. There's not much worse than trying to lift 8-10 gallons of really hot water over your head. A close second would be taking that mash tun with 12-20 lbs of grain which has now been soaked, so it's even heavier, down from the stand.
A tower seemed like a good idea at the time when I built it, but after a couple of times using it I quickly figured it out it was not idea, for me anyways.
A tower seemed like a good idea at the time when I built it, but after a couple of times using it I quickly figured it out it was not idea, for me anyways.
brewfarmDan
Well-Known Member
I use a 70 quart Extreme cooler with tubing and gravity to get water 10 degrees above strike temp from kettle to the cooler. After the cooler is closed for about 20 minutes the cooler is preheated and the water is at strike temp. Stir in the grains and forget it for an hour. The only lifting is 2 or 3 gallon pots to get the runnings back up to the kettle. Gravity and hose from the kettle to fermenter and fermenter to kegs. If I ever change it would be the BIAB with hoist.
brick_haus
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I have and use both. Cant tell the difference in the beer. I Use the 10g cooler for 5 gallon test batches only. For 10-15g batches i use the 20g MT with a HERMS.
I built a simple 3 tier stand a while back, it wasn't long before I hacked off the high tier and went 2 tier. Raising water up only to have it flow down via gravity is labor intensive, much easier and faster to move sparge water with a one gallon plastic pitcher and have everything at waist level.
Just my experience and opinion.
Firewalker11
Brewer
After a year, I am leaving BIAB and using a rectangular cooler for the mash tun. I went to a friends to brew a batch side by side, same grain bill, same water, heating kettle, same volume, same everything BUT I did BIAB and he used the cooler and batch sparged.
I ended up with 1.070 OG and he ended up with 1.077! I was floored with the results and will repeat the brew this week to verify the findings but I am pretty sure I will get the same efficiency.
Also, I ended up with the SAME amount of cleaning he had, you see, you have to put that bag of grain into something. Then there is the bag itself, gotta clean that too.
Rock on my bruthas and sistahs!
I ended up with 1.070 OG and he ended up with 1.077! I was floored with the results and will repeat the brew this week to verify the findings but I am pretty sure I will get the same efficiency.
Also, I ended up with the SAME amount of cleaning he had, you see, you have to put that bag of grain into something. Then there is the bag itself, gotta clean that too.
Rock on my bruthas and sistahs!
DurtyChemist
Well-Known Member
I use a cooler. It's much less expensive and if I wanted to do step matches there is plenty of software available that can tell me how much boiling water to add to increase the temp. The cooler and software are much cheaper than a fancy pot.
I have been using a cooler with a false bottoms for over twenty years, I'm at the point when I want to upgrade my system and I think I will still use a cooler. Controlling can be a PITA sometimes but once you get the hang of it you can get really nice results. A cooler is also an inexpensive way to get into all gran, a cooler and a manifold made of CVPC can be made for well under 100. Iv'e never used a bag but it also seems to be an inexpensive way to go.
