Mash Tuns

[Jon Goswick]

OK folks. The wife said BUILD IT! So far my HLT is a keggle, and I have a 20 gallon Kegco boil kettle. I'm looking to get a 130 quart Igloo cooler for a mash tun. Going to put a coil in the cooler and circulate hot water out of the HLT through it to maintain temp(using a controller to run the pump). Thoughts on this design?

 

[Jon Goswick]

120 quart Igloo, apologies.

 

[OpenSights]

Both my 50qt and 5 gallon igloo coolers stay with 1-2 degrees of mash temperature with the lids on of course.

I’d put a bazooka and ball valve on it and brew a test batch first.

Edit: maybe not a bazooka, maybe make something out of PVC or copper. I don’t know if they make a bazooka that long...

 

[eric19312]

Any reason you aren't going traditional HERMS? Put the coil in your HLT and pump the wort through the coil. Or go with RIMS on the MLT? Unless the wort is circulating I don't think you are going to be able to control temps very well. I can picture big temperature differences in the mash depending on how far you are from that coil.

I started all grain with a kettle and a cooler, then added an HLT. Like @OpenSights said with cooler mashing there was really no need to add heat. With a blanket I could hold temps close enough to strike, and with either boiling water infusions on smaller beers or decocotions on beers that were maxing out my volume I could do step mashing when desired. Then I built a brew stand and now my cooler was a little too close to my BK burner and warped. Upgraded again to a 15 gal kettle with FB mash tun and have been quite happy ever since. I recirc continuously in my mash tun and control a burner under the tun as needed.

Or you could sell that keggle, skip the cooler go BIAB with that 20 gallon kettle.

 

[OpenSights]

Now you actually got me thinking... I’m thinking of buying one that’s roughly that size from a friend for when I do larger than 10 gallon batches of big beers. I was thinking of turning my current tuns back to just coolers, but with the extra headspace, if you will, would provide room for more heat loss.

Guess I’ll have to be stuck with three tuns...

 

[Jon Goswick]

I think I can maintain my temps better this way. Only reason. I'm asking for ideas, help, opinions. If my HLT maintains strike temp plus some, why not circulate this way? There are downsides(as with everything). I think direct radiated heat will be better. Scorching can still occur if an SSR sticks shut, but I've oversized my SSR's radically(each 4.5K element has its own 50A SSR covered by a 32A breaker). I'll have to circulate wort through the cooler AND strike out of the HLT. BUT if my end yield is better/more consistent why not try it?

 

[OpenSights]

Then I built a brew stand and now my cooler was a little too close to my BK burner and warped.

Thanks! I’m planning on building a stand this summer and didn’t consider this! I’ll be sure to include some sort of heat shield. You probably just saved my tuns!

 

[eric19312]

I think I can maintain my temps better this way. Only reason. I'm asking for ideas, help, opinions. If my HLT maintains strike temp plus some, why not circulate this way? There are downsides(as with everything). I think direct radiated heat will be better. Scorching can still occur if an SSR sticks shut, but I've oversized my SSR's radically(each 4.5K element has its own 50A SSR covered by a 32A breaker). I'll have to circulate wort through the cooler AND strike out of the HLT. BUT if my end yield is better/more consistent why not try it?

Not sure I follow your question but if you are going to circulate the wort in the mash tun you should be fine.

 

[OpenSights]

@eric19312

Ok, yeah, take mash water / almost wort and circulate it through a chiller coil placed in the HLT? When done rinse the chiller, or in this case heater coil well with water to get as much wort out. It’s pre boil, so any ickies between batches will be killed and the outside of the the now chiller/ heater will be half sanitized before end of boil.

I guess that would keep an exact mash/sparge temp as long as you keep the HLT at perfect mash temperature. I use gas and with my burners it would probably take half hour to get to hold steady especially if I over shoot temp by accident.

I know temps are very important in all aspects of brewing, personally, with my system and it’s state of building, after a brew stand my next project is fermentation temperature control.

I’m vary happy the performance of my tuns, so I think once I get the big one for 20-25 gallon batches I’m going to be done with the tun aspect of my system.

 

[coolitfast]

Please take a look at our new universal false bottom/hop and trub stop. It may be what your looking for, was designed for coolers but works just as well in round stainless kettles and tuns.
www.exchilerator.com/shop/false-bottoms

 

[mongoose33]

I'm a little confused; why, if you're recirculating, is a cooler the first choice? If you wrap it with a sleeping bag or blanket, it'll hold temps within a degree or two.

I have a stainless kettle (two in fact) as my mash tun, and a RIMS controlling mash temp. I wanted to be able to dial in a specific temp, as well as do step mashes, which it allows me to do.

If you're going to go to the trouble of any sort of recirculation (and I think recirculating hot water to the inside of a mash tun is a kind of rube-goldbergish approach to this), then why not just go to a kettle with a HERMS or RIMS?

I'm not making this about HERMS or RIMS--rather, if you're going to do this, do it right, and get what you want, not the system that is cheapest and kludged-together.

My 2 cents, YMMV, void in states where it's void, and FDIC-insured.

 

[kh54s10]

I'm not sure I really follow what is intended. Are you putting copper coil in the mash tun and running heated water through that to maintain the mash temperature? If so that wouldn't be very efficient without stirring the mash. The heat will transfer to the mash that is in direct contact with the copper tubing. The grain that is far away from the tubing could be quite a bit cooler.

Think of cooling with an immersion cooler. The wort cools near the coil, but not much else unless you stir the wort.