Homemade Mashtun

[floydmeddler]

Hi all,

My mate is currently planning on making his own brewery on the cheap. He has one of these (5gallon)

http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/content/eb ... 2555_l.jpg

Surely these are way too small for a 40 pint brew mash tun?

Cheers

[floydmeddler]

If he fly sparged or did around 3 batch sparges I suppose!

[wetdog]

5kg of grain fills a 2 gallon bucket so as the fermenter is 5 gallon that leaves plenty of space for water so if it were properly insulated then should be fine

[vacant]

My mate is currently planning on making his own brewery on the cheap. He has one of these (5gallon)

http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/content/eb ... 2555_l.jpg

Surely these are way too small for a 40 pint brew mash tun?

Hey, that's my 40-pint brew mash tun!

Batch sparging is a bit tight on the first rinse (say 4.7Kg grain, 12litres mash, + 9.5 litres first sparge (expecting around 15.5 litres, then another 15.5 on the second rinse) but I could just add a drain first before a couple of rinses if I ever wanted a bigger brew length or stronger brew.

Fly sparging is obviously OK.

I just cut up a single sleeping mat and duck-taped the bits round for insulation. Holds the heat well.

With just a single tesco 2.2KW element in my H&G boiler I lose around 6 litres in a 90 minute boil and drain the boiler well, losing around 2 litres to hops/trub. So 23 + 6 + 2 = 31 litres = 2 x 15.5 batch sparging.

[floydmeddler]

Cheers for that Vacant. So, a single sleeping mat you say? How much does it loose over the 90 mins?

Thanks

[vacant]

So, a single sleeping mat you say? How much does it loose over the 90 mins?

0 to 2C depending on the time of year and how much wind blows through the car port. Don't scare yourself testing with just hot water as that loses heat much quicker than a mash which can't convect.

[floydmeddler]

Cheers. Made that mistake before with my £50 Igloo cooler! Jeeze, kicking myself now for spending that money. Would have been more satisfying to make it for £10. AAAAAAAAAArgh!

[OldSpeckledBadger]

The Young's FVs will hold a good 30L.

[TheMumbler]

I have 21l of wort in the FV from batch sparging using one of those made (not very well apparantly ) along these lines.
http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/equipment.htm
mine didn't lose any heat over the 90 mins with a couple of layers of camping mat (got for free) and a sleeping bag over the top for good measure. I think it lost 3 degrees when I tested it without the sleeping bag and just water in it.

I picked up a couple of FVs like that from wilkos for £2.50 a pop because they were missing the lids...bought lids for 1.50 each

[Middo]

Hey, that's my 40-pint brew mash tun!

What do you use to prevent the grain bag from clogging up the tap? I made a similar contraption by drilling hundreds of 2mm holes in the bottom of another bucket and placing it inside the one with the tap. I've only used it as a lauter tun so far but will be insulating it and using it as a mash tun for my next brew. The only thing is the space between the bottom of the buckets - there's about 5L deadspace there that won't be in contact with the grain so I'm a bit worried about efficiency. I get around 75-80% efficiency by mashing in my 15L stockpot and then pouring it into the lauter tun and fly sparging, so I'm wondering if it's worth changing. If it ain't broke....

[grmills]

What do you use to prevent the grain bag from clogging up the tap? I made a similar contraption by drilling hundreds of 2mm holes in the bottom of another bucket and placing it inside the one with the tap. I've only used it as a lauter tun so far but will be insulating it and using it as a mash tun for my next brew. The only thing is the space between the bottom of the buckets - there's about 5L deadspace there that won't be in contact with the grain so I'm a bit worried about efficiency. I get around 75-80% efficiency by mashing in my 15L stockpot and then pouring it into the lauter tun and fly sparging, so I'm wondering if it's worth changing. If it ain't broke....

I used a double bucket mash-tun (+ fly sparge) without problem for years, although never bothering calculating efficiency it seemed to hit recipe targets more-or-less (not too precise with volumes then ). The first runnings from the MLT were just as dark as the main part of the initial run so suspect that convection and/or gravity produces adequate mixing within the tun as I never stirred after the grain was properly mixed in.

If you've already made the kit it would be interesting to give it a try and measure the effect on efficiency, I don't think it will be disastrously different.

[vacant]

What do you use to prevent the grain bag from clogging up the tap? I made a similar contraption by drilling hundreds of 2mm holes in the bottom of another bucket and placing it inside the one with the tap.

My current (fourth) mash tun set up is simply an acryllic cake container lid (almost perfect fit to the FV base), drilled with holes. The FV is placed on two blocks allowing me to have the drain tap in the base of the FV. There simply is no dead space. I use "Waddington & Duval" water butt taps and just cut the thread down a bit and ground so it doesn't touch the plate. The W&D tap on my boiler has done 12 90 minute boils.

That evolved from my third mash tun setup: a copy of DaaB's False Bottom Mash Tun. Though rather than buy all the brass gubbins, I basically stuck the plastic hose through a hole in the plate and wedged something in the end to prevent it slipping out.

I use the two above for fly and batch sparging.

My second setup is a couple of pieces of stainless steel braid stripped from "flexible tap connectors" joined together and attached by a few cm of hose to the FV tap. I use that for batch sparging - I can't see how the fine mesh would ever allow a stuck sparge.

My first setup is a Brew in a Bag, mashing grain in 35 litres in a huge piece of net curtain in the boiler as part of a no-sparge method.

[CJBrew]

I used a bucket-in-bucket affair for a long time with two 5-gallon buckets, fly sparged, efficiencies often in the 80's.

It will work fine, but he might find with large grain bills it means a slightly thicker mash than might be optimal. However, I've generally managed up to 1080 or so although that does mean a nearly brimming mash/lauter tun.

With the bucket-in-bucket I found a tendency when it was very full for the outer bucket to overflow out of the gap between buckets, making a mess. That's why I've now plumbed some slotted copper into a manifold in the outer bucket

An old duvet over the top should keep heat in OK, but obviously insulation is a good idea.

[Middo]

I used a bucket-in-bucket affair for a long time with two 5-gallon buckets, fly sparged, efficiencies often in the 80's.

How did you calculate the required amount of mash liquor? I assume you'd have to add water until it reaches the base of the inner bucket, then add a measured amount as normal? So for a standard(ish) mash of 4kg grist in 10L water, you'd have to add a total of around 15L water - 10L for the mash liquor & 5L for the deadspace between buckets?

[CJBrew]

I used a bucket-in-bucket affair for a long time with two 5-gallon buckets, fly sparged, efficiencies often in the 80's.

How did you calculate the required amount of mash liquor? I assume you'd have to add water until it reaches the base of the inner bucket, then add a measured amount as normal? So for a standard(ish) mash of 4kg grist in 10L water, you'd have to add a total of around 15L water - 10L for the mash liquor & 5L for the deadspace between buckets?

Well, maybe I should have said -- most of the time I have actually mashed in a separate container and baled it into the double-bucket lauter tun.

But I have done some mashes in the double-bucket. I cut some of the plastic flanges on the buckets down which reduced the deadspace to a litre or so.

But I think you're right, you need to take that into consideration. I don't think the relatively large deadspace is ideal. On the occasions when I mashed in the double bucket I had to add a couple of extra litres of boiling water to achieve the correct temperatures.