My Mash-Lauter Tun

[MizooBrew]

Hey there everyone. I've been gone for a while, just wanted to check in a show you my lovely new (and my first ever) mash-lauter tun! Just got this put together yesterday, and have yet to brew with it.

It is a 10 gallon Rubbermaid drink cooler fitted with a ball valve and bazooka screeen for lautering (see my gallery for a view of the screen and the ball valve). So excited to get some AG brews underway (first up, a Northern English Brown Ale). I have thus far been doing my AG mashing in a brewpot on an electric range, but have had some difficultly keeping my mash temps stable. So I broke down and went down to Home Depot, bought myself the cooler, and took it into my local brewshop and got all the components I needed. Threw it together, tested for leaks, and viola! My wonderful new MLT.

One question: How should I go about preheating this before adding my water at mashing temp and then my grains? I have read that some people simply add a cup or two of boiling water to the MLT a few minutes before adding the water (at temp) and the grain in order to insure that no heat is lost heating the cooler. Is this the best way to do it, or would something else be better?

Glad to be back everyone

 

[awarner322]

I am no pro but I do this with roughly 75-80% efficency:

If my strike temp is supposed to be say....171 degrees (just making numbers up)...I will heat my water up to like 176-180 and pour it in the tun and then let it absorb some of that heat then I will strike when the temp comes down to what I want obviously...also I have found the sloooooower i extract...the better I do...I usually extract over about 1.5 hours if i have nothing better to do...might be overkill? But works!

goodluck!

 

[day_trippr]

I follow the same procedure as awarner322. Beersmith is helpful towards figuring out a good strike water temperature, taking both the MLT type and grain mass/temperature into account.

I doubt that a cup or two of heated water will have much of a beneficial effect wrt preheating the MLT - that might heat up the floor, but will do zip for the MLT walls. Thus once you put your strike water in, if you don't compensate for the heat loss to bringing the MLT temp up, the strike temp may be 5°F or more too low...

Cheers!

 

[goosegrease]

Mizoo,
What size nipple did you use? If it was 1/2" did it slide in without drilling?
Thanks,
Jim
Sorry, just realized I am guilty of a hijack

 

[Aschecte]

These are great ideas I literally just realized I've been wasting time pre heating then dumping the pre heat water than refilling with strike water. Next single temp mash I do I'm going to measure out my mash in and heat up to like 190 and let it cool to strike temp. Brilliant.

 

[day_trippr]

These are great ideas I literally just realized I've been wasting time pre heating then dumping the pre heat water than refilling with strike water. Next single temp mash I do I'm going to measure out my mash in and heat up to like 190 and let it cool to strike temp. Brilliant.

You might find that plan to be a classic case of "too much of a good thing". You want to preheat the tun but not cause it to deform or crack, and 190°F is probably higher than needed to heat up the tun and then hit a reasonable mash temp, especially if your grain is sitting at room temperature or higher. If you know your strike water temperature, try adding 5 or 6 degrees to it for the preheat phase...

Cheers!

 

[awarner322]

Mizoo,
What size nipple did you use? If it was 1/2" did it slide in without drilling?
Thanks,
Jim
Sorry, just realized I am guilty of a hijack

I made the same exact mash tun....and was able to do it with no drilling...whole process was very simple...I followed a thread on here actually that talked you through it with a full product list including model numbers for fittings and all

 

[MizooBrew]

Mizoo,
What size nipple did you use? If it was 1/2" did it slide in without drilling?
Thanks,
Jim
Sorry, just realized I am guilty of a hijack

goosegrease, sorry but I can't be too much help to you. Should have taken this thing apart so you could see all the parts. I'm not exactly sure of the dimensions of most of the parts, although I didn't have to drill anything. Fairly certain it was a 1/2" like you said.

Mostly just posted this to brag, not so much as a tutorial. :rockin: If there is any real interest I could take it apart and show the individual components, but it wasn't as cheap to make as FlyGuy's 10 gallon: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/