Using a Cool box as a water jacket

[brewzone]

I've been thinking about using some kind of water jacket for mashing for
a while now.

Trying My hand at Herms etc already and wanted to try something
differant while I put those projects on hold for a little while.

This could be made for a fairly small amount of money and would only
require a thermometer to check the temperature of the mash and the HLT
that the heat exchange coil sits in.

The pump wouldn't have to be the most expensive or powerful.

Control over the HLT temperature is not as crucial as the mash would
react slower to the differance in the water jacket than the wort in the
tubing of a rims/herms.

What dya think guys?

/BZ

[brewzone]

Should get a good seal on the mash outlet using a 15mm tank connector by placing a second rubber seal off another 15mm tank connector in the space between the inner and outer skin and applying some bathroom caulk to the thread or even ptfe paste.

[nobby]

Why go to the expense of a cool box. Most have insulation between the walls. You could just use 2 storage boxes, one inside the other. Just stand the inner box on something until you get the required thickness of water jacked.

You could go mad and use 3 and have one gap full of unsulation.

[brewzone]

The price of cooler box's at places like Lidl makes hunting round for the right storage box's pointless.

There is insulation in them but they do lose heat over time.

I plan to remove the insulation and there seems to be sufficient space between the two skins to get a reasonable flow of water.

I tested My coolbox today and it loses 6 degrees C over 90 mins.

Tried adding extra insulation using corrugated carboard off a roll I bought for packaging but this did not help at all.

It should be possible to replace the 6 degrees lost over 90 mins with the flow of hot water.

Maybe even ramping the temp up a degree or two as well.

It's a project I'm eager to try out over the next few weeks.

The 50L Nordic thermo box I've got loses 1 degree C over 60 minutes with 42L at 65 degrees C of plain water.

Wonder what that will be with 16Kg of grain in a 42L mash at 2L per Kg?


/BZ

[Aleman]

When I first got my 10Gallon plastic boiler I was over the moon that I could implement Dave lines Floating Mash tun idea (Suspend a 5 Gallon FV containing the mash in the 10G boiler and use the elements to prevent any heat loss) . . . It was appalling, much worse than using a cool box on its own . . And with my 10G boiler I had a much bigger 'heat sink' than you are proposing.

I'd like to see it work though . . . I just think a true HERMS/RIMS approach will be easier to implement and more stable once done.

[brewzone]

Thanks Guys duly noted.

My missus might not be happy that I've drilled three holes and
connected it up to something just short of a mini central heating system.

She'd planned to go on a picnic sometime soon

She says She'll call in the green van when I do a Fred Dibnah and start
debating whether to sink a 30 ft shaft in the backyard for storing My Beers.

[Aleman]

She says She'll call in the green van when I do a Fred Dibnah and start debating whether to sink a 30 ft shaft in the backyard for storing My Beers.

I was walking at Ribblehead yesterday ("Helen, its my turn to fly James now"), and while wandering along looking at the limestone outcroppings and all the limestone pavement thinking "I could build a really nice storage cave with this lot if I lived here" . . . . . . My Name is Aleman and I have a problem!

[brewzone]

I reckon that if any of the Guys here ever won the lotto big style, They
may not announce that they'd won but we'd get to hear about it when it
became headline news about the mobile brewery on a plane train boat
penthouse suite et al....