My $50, 10 gallon mash tun

Midwest Supplies, and other online vendors sell cooler conversion kits, as well as pre-built mash tuns.  I wanted to build one myself after reading dennybrew's instructions it seemed easy enough.  I was able to build a 10 gallon (actually 12 gallon) rectangular mash tun for about $75 with his advice.  I might have been able to spend a bit less if I bought everything at the hardware store, but BrewHardware is such a nice convenient place to find everything this was a no-brainer.  Also, Bobby M from BrewHardware is a nice guy, was really helpful and quick to respond to my questions.

I intend to use this for batch sparging as described on dennybrew - this wouldn't work well for fly sparging and is a very low-end no frills setup.  It should work out just fine, however.  In the end, as long as I wind up with good beer - who cares!

Supplies

• Rectangular cooler ($22.97 @ Lowes)
• Variable length bulkhead ($12 @ BrewHardware)
• Mash Screen ($15 @ BrewHardware)
• 2-piece ball valve ($13 @ BrewHardware)
• 1/2" NPT hose barb ($4.69 @ BrewHardware)
• Teflon tape (used to seal the connections with NPT)

Total: $52.66

Left: Bulkhead, Center: Ball Valve, Right: Hose barb, Bottom: Mash Screen

The Build

The build is simple.  Drill a hole for the bulkhead, attach the mash screen on one side, attach the ball valve and hose barb on the other.  Per Bobby's instructions on BrewHardware:

Drill a clean 13/16" or 7/8" diameter hole in your pot taking care to avoid any wall contours that may prevent the silicone gasket from sitting flat on the inside wall of the vessel

I drilled a 1/8" pilot hole and pushed through with a 13/16" spade bit - its just plastic and insulation so went straight through.  After the hole is drilled everything is pretty straightforward:

The red washer goes on the inside, flush against the flat wall of the cooler.  Wrap teflon tape a couple times around the protruding thread on the outside, then screw on the ball valve, teflon tape on the hose barb, and screw that into the ball valve.

Sharpie to mark the spot to drill, 1/8" pilot bit, 13/16" spade bit, my drill, and a flathead screwdriver that was used to tighten the mash screen

That's all there is to it!

So many new toys!

I have the fortunate situation of having some extra money in the coming month, so I've gone on a bit of a homebrew supply shopping spree for the last week or so.  I'm pretty sure I am going to drive my neighbors nuts with all the deliveries that are coming to my house (which I won't be home to sign for).

From Midwest Supplies I ordered:

• 6 gallon Better Bottle w/Stopper and a 3-piece airlock
• A Better Bottle handle
• A carboy handle
• 2L flask (for starters)
• Cream Stout extract kit (2nd batch!)

From Amazon, I ordered an immersion chiller, Bayou Classic SP10 propane burner, and a a Cool Brewing cooler.

A note about this Cool Brewing cooler... I am excited about it.  It's just a big bag made of insulated cooler material, the same like you would see at the supermarket.


Cool Brewing Cooler,
image from Amazon.com

 It's big enough to hold a large carboy, with enough headspace for a blowoff tube or airlock.  By all accounts on HBT, this thing should be able to hold temperatures anywhere from 10-15 (up to 20) degrees cooler than ambient temperatures with a couple of 2L bottles of ice.

After my terribly failed build of my own fermentation chiller I was considering just using a swamp cooler.  This product should allow me to do the same thing, without water, and the same amount of maintenance (having to swap out ice bottles).

I would not recommend purchasing this product directly from the manufacturer's website. The site looks nice and they have an SSL, but again, no attestation of PCI compliance or any other reason for me to believe they are keeping my credit card information secure.  Luckilly, however, these guys are also selling through Amazon, who I trust.

The last thing I ordered is a stir plate from some dude named Dan.  I'm hoping this new equipment will give me better control over my brew - we'll see how everything turns out.