Mash tun

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mattyb85

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I'm going to be building a mash tun soon and I've seen them built from the round igloo drink dispensing type coolers and also the rectangular ones you would bring food to a cookout or the beach in.

What are the pros and cons of each and which does everyone prefer?
 
Howdy from Western Mass. I don't think from a brewing stand point there are really any differences between the two. Though the square ones seem to be cheaper, I got a good deal on a round rubbermade 10gal at Lowes last year and works great for me. I have had great efficiency with it.
 
Personally I prefer the rectangle coolers. They are cheap and easy to get in big sizes (try finding a 50 or 70 qt round one) Making a copper manifold is fairly cheap and easy. Either are fine and if you are sticking with 5G batches 10G is really all you need anyway.
 
I prefer round but then again I had to make a manifold to fit in a round cooler. I do not believe there to really be a difference other than cubes being cheaper.
 
well there are lots of differences.

first of all the round ones tend to have a smaller footprint because they are generally smaller and taller than the rectangular ones. this makes the grain bed deeper. this can have some implications for when deciding on process. IMO round cooler are better suited for fly sparging because of the amount of time your moving water is in contact with the grain as opposed to a rectangular cooler. in a rectangular cooler the grain bed is shallower and lends itself to batch sparging.

I personally think that round coolers are more aesthetically pleasing as they match the round pots in most systems and are more compact than the rectangular ones. I wouldn't say that one is better than the other by any means. think about your process and what you want in your system. then decide what sort of cooler fits in that theme.
 
I've been brewing 5gal batches but me and my other home brewing buddy are going to go all grain and also going to experiment with bigger (most likely 10gal) batches. Taking that into consideration which shape and what size should we go with?
 
if you want to go to 10 gallon batches or bigger (depending on if you want to be able to do high gravity batches) you will probably want something bigger than 10 gallons. I don't know how easy it is to find a round beverage cooler like the ones normally mentioned on here. It would lend me to say get a large rectangular cooler or to get a mash tun with a way to heat it. but thats a whole other discussion.
 
I like the 10 gallon round as I can do either 5 or 10 gallon batches and still have a reasonable depth of grains vs doing a 5 gallon batch in rectangular 60 qt cooler and not.
 
so if i want to be able to go a 10 gallon batch than a 10 gallon round cooler will be sufficient?
 
so if i want to be able to go a 10 gallon batch than a 10 gallon round cooler will be sufficient?

as long as you are not trying to get an OG around 1.080 and above. but I have the same problem with my future 5 gallon system. 5 gallon cooler for 5 gallon batches and I think if i want to do a high gravity beer I will just make a smaller batch of it.
 
PurpleJeepXJ said:
I prefer round but then again I had to make a manifold to fit in a round cooler. I do not believe there to really be a difference other than cubes being cheaper.

Do you have a pic of what you built?
 
so if i want to be able to go a 10 gallon batch than a 10 gallon round cooler will be sufficient?

If you haven't already checked out the mashtun size sticky in the Equipment section, here you go. For a 10gal cooler, you can either fit a 5gal batch up to 1.118 or a 10gal batch up to 1.06 (at 70% efficiency). I'm in the same boat you are and trying to figure out which way to go. For what its worth, the best price I've found on the 10gal Rubbermaid round ones is Home Depot ($45).
 
I'm not completely sure on that, with a grain bill of a standard IPA of OG 1.070 I need to add 5 gallons of water for the correct water:grist ratio. for a 5 gal batch. So just doubling the water would fill the cooler with no room left for grain. So with a 10 gallon round you could maybe do small beers only 10 gallons with a super thick mash and extensive sparging but this could lead to tannin extraction. If you want to do 10 gallon batches why not convert a keg to a mash tun? Or buy a 60 quart stainless stockpot (120 bucks on amazon) and put a false bottom in it. It's pretty easy to drill it and put a ball valve and a thermo in it.
 
Well when it comes to beer I don't care about ascetics, I bought a 52 qt Coleman marine cooler. It was inexpensive, around $35. (notice I said inexpensive, not cheap, when it comes to brewing equipment price is important, but not paramount) It is a good size for the 5 gallon batches I run right now. I batch spare so it holds my strike water and grain bill (typically 9-11 lbs) with plenty of room for stirring and a decent grain bed. It has plenty of room for 'big beers' and larger batches if I decide to run them.

I agonized over my mash tun(cooler) purchase for 2 or 3 weeks, I almost bought a round drink cooler, but am very happy with the purchase I made and expect to be using this tun for years to come.
 
mattyb85 said:
so if i want to be able to go a 10 gallon batch than a 10 gallon round cooler will be sufficient?

Actually, anything much over 1.060 will be pushing it, depending on whether you want to be able to mash out.
 
Hey guys. Follow up on this. I decided on the 10 gallon round cooler. Now I'm trying to figure out what type of manifold I want to build. I know a lot of people use the stainless steel hosing and I think I want something a little sturdier.

I came up with two possible designs;

Option 1: cross shaped manifold made from either copper or CPVC that would look something like this & would draw from the center pipe


image-1266445097.jpg


Option 2: spiral copper along the bottom of the cooler and draw also from the center of the cooler and would look something like this



image-728658821.jpg



The copper would definitely be easier to draw closest from the bottom of the cooler. And cover more area.

What does everyone think?
 
I just ordered a false bottom with the stand from Jaybird. Heard its a perfect fit for my Rubbermaid 10 gal. I was going to go with the braid but opted for this. I'm going to be going no-sparge though....actually I'm building a recirc for it.
 
I use a stainless steel braid, butI added a tee to the nipple and my hose runs in a circle. I batch sparge.

I've only done three batches. On the first one my efficiency was 65% due to inexperience. My last two have been 83% and 84% respectively.
 
MalFet said:
Are you fly sparging? If you are batch sparging, it doesn't really matter, to be honest.

To clarify you mean that I should have a manifold if fly sparging and if batch sparging I could have either?
 
To clarify you mean that I should have a manifold if fly sparging and if batch sparging I could have either?

When fly sparging, it is important to drain from the grain bed evenly. When batch sparging, you just need to get the liquid out. If you are batch sparging, your manifold shape doesn't really matter much.
 
Thanks. Ill prolly do the manifold since it will work with either. That way I can try out both methods to see which I prefer/get better results with.
 
Thanks. Ill prolly do the manifold since it will work with either. That way I can try out both methods to see which I prefer/get better results with.

Also check out the no sparge method. My best beers are no sparge.

http://***********/stories/techniques/article/indices/9-all-grain-brewing/1407-skip-the-sparge
 
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