New Mash Tun?

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GodsOwnDrunk

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I ma returning to this hobby after 13 years. My old mash tun was a 10 gallon Gott cooler. As the tun itself is over 20 years, I need to upgrade as I noticed the walls have started to buckle. I am looking fo rrecomendations from those who are current with their homebrewing endeavers. Qustion: What are the advantages of the round vs the square coolers? What bout stainless steel with a false bottom?

All responses appreciated.
 
Stainless is best. Many are available now days.. IMO one with false bottom and TC ports is the way to go. Mine is also vacuum insulated double walls. That allows it to hold temperature well. I like having 3 ports, one for draining, one for thermometer and one up high for sparging and recirculation. Keep reading post here in equipment, you'll find many comments and reviews.
 
I have an "Infussion" tun that I really like. Stainless in & out, insulated in between, and the exit port is on the very bottom so you get 100% of the wort out of it. Expensive but really nice. I'm actually planning to sell it but I doubt you'd want to pay shipping. So I'm actually just saying - it's pretty darned nice.

However - I'd consider an electric all-in-one type thing. Anvil Foundry 10.5 for example. You get a heater built into it, and can really hold a mash temp. Not mandatory at all but pretty nice. Add a pump on the side for recirculation. Has a built in timer so if you load it the night before with water, you get to have it at temp when you're ready to start your brew day.

I used my Infussion w/ a timer, temp controller, and submersible heater so it was actually similar. A consideration as well.

Slightly off topic there but - related. Hope it helped.
 
I have an "Infussion" tun that I really like. Stainless in & out, insulated in between, and the exit port is on the very bottom so you get 100% of the wort out of it. Expensive but really nice. I'm actually planning to sell it but I doubt you'd want to pay shipping. So I'm actually just saying - it's pretty darned nice.

However - I'd consider an electric all-in-one type thing. Anvil Foundry 10.5 for example. You get a heater built into it, and can really hold a mash temp. Not mandatory at all but pretty nice. Add a pump on the side for recirculation. Has a built in timer so if you load it the night before with water, you get to have it at temp when you're ready to start your brew day.

I used my Infussion w/ a timer, temp controller, and submersible heater so it was actually similar. A consideration as well.

Slightly off topic there but - related. Hope it helped.
Thanks...that was secondary question. Should I go all electric or not?
 
What's your budget? I like my square Coleman cooler because it has more surface area and is not as deep so I can get the probe deep enough and get a good mash temp reading.

With parts bulkhead, bazooka, 48qt cooler, costs around ~$60. Mind you this is for a batch sparge setup with a 1 gallon unrecoverable dead space.

If you have cash (want) to burn stainless is the way to go though in my opinion. I probably won't ever upgrade to it though because I want to keep it cheap.

All in one electric could be interesting though because that could actually save you money down the road.
 
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What's your budget? I like my square Coleman cooler because it has more surface area and is not as deep so I can get the probe deep enough and get a good mash temp reading.

With parts bulkhead, bazooka, 48qt cooler, costs around ~$60. Mind you this is for a batch sparge setup with a 1 gallon unrecoverable dead space.

If you have cash (want) to burn stainless is the way to go though in my opinion. I probably won't ever upgrade to it though because I want to keep it cheap.

All in one electric could be interesting though because that could actually save you money down the road.
I am looking to keep it between $100-$150. Mind you I am also looking to invest in a pump to save my aging muscles from lifting gallons of sparge water and wort.
 
You definitely need to invest in pumpS. I have a RipTide for moving wort and a Pumpzilla for water. The RipTide is more powerful and is easily disassembled for cleaning. I occasionally pump StarSan thru the pumpzilla, that's all it needs since it's only used to pump water thru my WC and temp control coil in the conical. Pumps make brew days easier and less physical.
 
I am looking to keep it between $100-$150. Mind you I am also looking to invest in a pump to save my aging muscles from lifting gallons of sparge water and wort.

I don't blame you pumps can do wonders for your muscles.

Right now I do most of the heavy lifting myself and use gravity where I can. I've also been thinking about grabbing a pump to make it a bit easier.
 
The Chinese RM-15(append whatever letters) pump, which is sold somewhere as 'pumpzilla' but can be found cheaper on ebay in some places, is perfect for the average 5-gallon finished batches and perfect for recirculating your wort in the mash tun wheter it's a cooler or one of those nice expensive SS ones...definitely a good investment and a herms or rims is also a good investment, BUT if you can, and are comfortable with doing gravity feed, put you're money toward the best MT that'll serve in the long term but allow for later upgrades like heated recirculating and pumping. Just my opinion, but I'm going a different way around myself at the mo.. I got a great deal on a used 10-gallon cooler with a decent false bottom and have since bought the parts for a RIMS setup and just have to build my controller. You can approach it from any direction, but think about where you want be next year.
 
What's your budget? I like my square Coleman cooler because it has more surface area and is not as deep so I can get the probe deep enough and get a good mash temp reading.

With parts bulkhead, bazooka, 48qt cooler, costs around ~$60. Mind you this is for a batch sparge setup with a 1 gallon unrecoverable dead space.

If you have cash (want) to burn stainless is the way to go though in my opinion. I probably won't ever upgrade to it though because I want to keep it cheap.

All in one electric could be interesting though because that could actually save you money down the road.
Will the square 48 qt Coleman or Gott cooler hold enough grain for a 10 gallon batch. Larger batches are the next area I woudl liek ot explore
 
For my 5 gallon batches, a 10 gallon cooler works well almost all the time, but if I do an Imperial stout I am really pushing it and prefer to use my 14 gallon. I'd suspect with 10 gallon batches you'd want to be in the neighborhood of double that. (20 gallon cooler and higher to be equivalent). 48 qt being 12 gallon sounds like a winner for 5 gallon batches but too small for 10 gallons.

That said I do batch sparge. Basically drain, close the valve and refill, let it sit, then drain again. If you want to fly sparge, or no-sparge, you might reconsider.
 
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For the price of the 10 gallon Gott/HD/Rubbermaid drink cooler, if you don't brew all that much(less than once a month), can't beat it. If you feel the need to burn some cash, get something shiny. I am in the 10 gallon drink cooler group, works fine for me and still lets me do things outside of homebrew. You can do 10 gallon batches of session strength brews with your standard drink cooler, anything bigger, you'll need something bigger.
 
Will the square 48 qt Coleman or Gott cooler hold enough grain for a 10 gallon batch. Larger batches are the next area I woudl liek ot explore
Personally if I were going to move to ten gallon batches I would get a bigger cooler as mentioned above somewhere in the 80 qt range. Mind you I am talking about batch sparging.

With that said just did an (5 gal) IPA with a 1.090 gravity and had enough room in my 48 qt cooler to mash.

Edit: Here's a picture of mine.

PXL_20220418_000045688.jpg
PXL_20220602_222009219.jpg
 
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I made my MLT. It's an old Home Depot (Rubbermaid) 10 gallon cooler that I shoe-horned a Bayou Classic kettle in it for the "liner". The false bottom was from Adventures in Homebrewing. Suits my needs for 90% of my brewing. The cooler, kettle, and false bottom setup was probably around $200 when said and done. Not the cheapest option, but better in price compared to the models from SS Brewtech and Chapman's Thermobarrel.

New Mash Tun 01.jpg


New Mash Tun 02.jpg
 
I made my MLT. It's an old Home Depot (Rubbermaid) 10 gallon cooler that I shoe-horned a Bayou Classic kettle in it for the "liner". The false bottom was from Adventures in Homebrewing. Suits my needs for 90% of my brewing. The cooler, kettle, and false bottom setup was probably around $200 when said and done. Not the cheapest option, but better in price compared to the models from SS Brewtech and Chapman's Thermobarrel.

Very nice, well done!
 
I ma returning to this hobby after 13 years. My old mash tun was a 10 gallon Gott cooler. As the tun itself is over 20 years, I need to upgrade as I noticed the walls have started to buckle. I am looking fo rrecomendations from those who are current with their homebrewing endeavers. Qustion: What are the advantages of the round vs the square coolers? What bout stainless steel with a false bottom?

All responses appreciated.
I'd recommend pausing for a bit to consider how far brewing equipment has come in 13 years. Take a look at the Anvil Foundry system for example (the 10.5 version if you're making 5 gallon batches).
 
All in one electric, many options. I use a 10g ss pot with false bottom &herms. you need heat to reg mash temp. Chapman is a ss insulated tun. There might be others but there’s a few options
 
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