Can you make mash in a cooler?
A mash tun is where a brewer steeps grain with hot water to produce a sugary liquid that will eventually become beer. But with just a few parts and tools (and no more mechanical know-how than a 6-year-old), you can easily convert a plastic beverage cooler into a mash tun for less than half that price.
What size cooler do I need for a mash tun?
A five gallon round cylindrical Gott cooler works well for 5 gallon batches; it can hold 12 pounds of grain and the water to mash it. Naturally, the 10 gallon size is good for doing 10 gallon batches. These coolers have convenient spigots which can be removed to make it easy to drain the wort.
Do you recirculate during mash out?
If you have room in your mash tun to add enough hot water to hit your mash out temperature, you should do so before recirculating. If you batch sparge, you should be performing this recirculation every time you add more hot water, as stirring will disrupt your grain bed and cause clarity or quality issues.
How does a cooler mash tun work?
The Igloo Cooler Mash Tun is in fact a combined mash and lauter tun, which means you will be both mashing your grain and lautering it in the same vessel. In simpler terms, this means you will be soaking your malted grain to convert and extract sugars, and you will also drain the liquid (wort) from the same vessel.
How does a Lauter Tun work?
Lauter Tun is a vessel for separating the wort from the solids of the mash. It normally has a slotted, perforated floor, also called a false bottom, which holds the spent milled grains, while allowing the wort to filter through the grain bed and collect in the space beneath; the wort then runs to the brew kettle.
How much grain is in a 15 gallon mash tun?
How Big Does My Mash Tun Need to Be?
| Mash Tun Size | 5 gallon (20 quart) | 15.5 gallon (62 quart) |
|---|---|---|
| Max grain capacity (assuming 1.25 qt/lb) | 12 lbs | 37.2 lbs |
| Total strike water (gallons) | 3.75 | 11.625 |
| Total combined volume (gallons) | 4.87 | 15.097 |
| Max gravity units (@ 70% efficiency) | 295 | 914.5 |
How much grain can a 10 gallon mash tun?
With a standard mash thickness of about 1.33 qt/lb, a 10 gallon mash tun maxes out around 23 pounds of grain.
Can I mash for too long?
Beer cannot be mashed for too long, but if the wort is allowed to sit in the mash for over twenty-four hours, it may begin to sour. There is no point in leaving a beer to mash for longer than 120 minutes since most of the enzyme conversion in mashing is accomplished in the first 60 minutes of mashing.
What is the purpose of a false bottom in a mash tun?
A false bottom is kind of a screen that aids in separating the sweet wort from the mash / grains. A false bottom is usually a round piece of metal with lots of little holes drilled in it.