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Hi All,

Who here uses a picnic cooler as a mash/lauter tun? What do you have for wort separation?

I use a 70 Coleman extreme with a bazooka screen. Used to used a SS supply hose braid but I kept tearing it up with my spoon.

How do find it? What's your efficiency?

I used to use an igloo cube with an SS slotted manifold. Much happier with the sabco false bottom for the keg mlt.

amartin wrote:How do find it? What's your efficiency?

Between 78 and 82% depending on the beer. For bigger beers (over 1.070) it's closer to 70%.

I use a 48qt cooler with a SS hose braid. Efficiencies about the same - 73% to 83% depending on mash temp/mash length/grain bill. I dip below 70% for big beers.

48qt rectangular, using my BiAB bag ( voile material) as the separator. use a 75% efficiency in beersmith and I hit my numbers all pretty well, so I guess that'd be my efficiency for a typical 1.050-1.060 beer.

I have a noob question regarding picnic coolers being used as mash tuns, I have read that you should pre-heat the cooler with near boiling water to help maintain the mash temp throughout the process. I also read that it doesn't matter as long as the mash water is at the correct inital temperature. This seems like an extra step that will take up more time, so my questions to the experienced home brewers are:

1) Is pre-heating the cooler mash tun standard practice and if so, how long do you pre-heat with near boiling water (15 mins perhaps)?

2) How critical is the exact mash temp to the efficiency, can this be a few degrees high (or low) to start the mash?

Sorry for the novice questions.

- chicanuck

chicanuck wrote:I have a noob question regarding picnic coolers being used as mash tuns, I have read that you should pre-heat the cooler with near boiling water to help maintain the mash temp throughout the process. I also read that it doesn't matter as long as the mash water is at the correct inital temperature. This seems like an extra step that will take up more time, so my questions to the experienced home brewers are:

- chicanuck

when i did mash in a cooler i would typically heat up the strike water a few degrees more and then transfer to the mash tun.

there are a buncha variables involved. for example, your cooler, your environmental conditions (winter/summer), size of the cooler, etc.

after a few brew u can usually find out the delta required to get the exact strike temp u need.

chicanuck wrote:I have a noob question regarding picnic coolers being used as mash tuns, I have read that you should pre-heat the cooler with near boiling water to help maintain the mash temp throughout the process. I also read that it doesn't matter as long as the mash water is at the correct inital temperature. This seems like an extra step that will take up more time, so my questions to the experienced home brewers are:

1) Is pre-heating the cooler mash tun standard practice and if so, how long do you pre-heat with near boiling water (15 mins perhaps)?

2) How critical is the exact mash temp to the efficiency, can this be a few degrees high (or low) to start the mash?

Sorry for the novice questions.

- chicanuck

I've always overheated my strike water and put it in the tun for a minute or two to get the tun heated. Then I stir the water until it drops to the temperature I want, and then I add my grain.

chicanuck wrote:I have a noob question regarding picnic coolers being used as mash tuns, I have read that you should pre-heat the cooler with near boiling water to help maintain the mash temp throughout the process. I also read that it doesn't matter as long as the mash water is at the correct inital temperature. This seems like an extra step that will take up more time, so my questions to the experienced home brewers are:

1) Is pre-heating the cooler mash tun standard practice and if so, how long do you pre-heat with near boiling water (15 mins perhaps)?

2) How critical is the exact mash temp to the efficiency, can this be a few degrees high (or low) to start the mash?

Sorry for the novice questions.

- chicanuck

Novice questions are the whole idea. I'm still a novice lol.

What you want to do is get the mash temperature where you want it immediately. That's the #1 objective.

I have exactly the same set up as Jeffsmith and get the same efficiency (ca. 80%). I often heat the cooler up first, but just turn the shower to high and spray it down and inside and then close it to let it sit for awhile. That seems to work fine. When brewing a small beer, I have a sheet of stryofoam that I place right on top of the mash bed to minimize head space (while the head space is the same, I guess, but the grain is not in direct contact with it). These seems to keep temp. within a degree or two for the whole of the mash (and since most conversion takes place early, means pretty close to right on target). I have sometimes had trouble calculating strike water, and think that I may steal the suggestion here about adding hot and then adding the grain too it. Alternatively, what I currently do is have a smaller pot of boiling water that I can add if nec. to knock it up if I have undershot my strike.

Jason

Another noob query about coolers...where is the best place to measure the temp?
I just mashed in, and after preheat/doughin/stirring, finally got it down to where I wanted it(148).
Seemed to be holding, but after stirring at 45min(90 min mash), got a temp of 150! The 148 was about middle of the grain bed, and 150 was after stirring, so no bed yet.
I know its not much, but it will affect both body & OG, so want to get the next one right.

I try to measure in the centre, after stirring well.

jason.loxton wrote:...I often heat the cooler up first, but just turn the shower to high and spray it down and inside and then close it to let it sit for awhile...

Jason

Hmm, brewing in the shower, I like it!
I already drink in the shower (Power Shower anyone?), now I can make it there first!

chalmers wrote:

jason.loxton wrote:...I often heat the cooler up first, but just turn the shower to high and spray it down and inside and then close it to let it sit for awhile...

Jason

Hmm, brewing in the shower, I like it!
I already drink in the shower (Power Shower anyone?), now I can make it there first!

I usually keep kegs in the upstairs shower, since nobody uses it...

I wash things in the tub. big and waterproof

chalmers wrote: Hmm, brewing in the shower, I like it!
I already drink in the shower (Power Shower anyone?),!

Aaarrrggghhhh my eyes, my eyes... can't get the burning image out of my head.

All the same, I think all this worrying about a few degrees of mash temperature is nonsense. Sure I try to reach a certain
mash temperature, but I don't check my mash until 60 minutes are up. You'll never get the same reading around the
tun anyway, so why worry about it. As long as the average temp is about what you want, I feel you are good to go.

No, I wasnt worried about the 2 degrees, just tryin to get a better handle on things. Its in the carboy, but my efficiency was waay down. Lots to learn.. and lovin it.

Tony L wrote:

chalmers wrote: Hmm, brewing in the shower, I like it!
I already drink in the shower (Power Shower anyone?),!

Aaarrrggghhhh my eyes, my eyes... ca't get the burning image out of my head.

All the same, I think all this worrying about a few degrees of mash temperature is nonsense. Sure I try to reach a certain
mash temperature, but I don't check my mash until 60 minutes are up. You'll never get the same reading around the
tun anyway, so why worry about it. As long as the average temp is about what you want, I feel you are good to go.

Nobody wants to imagine Chalmers in the shower...

I'm no expert, but afaict you don't want to start too hot - you can end up with mostly unfermentables - but if you start a little low, you can get the temperature up.

derek wrote: I'm no expert, but afaict you don't want to start too hot - you can end up with mostly unfermentables - but if you start a little low, you can get the temperature up.

Exactly, but a couple of degrees here or there won't matter so much. Too hot ( > 154f ) is another story.

Efficiency is more about the crush that mashing temps. providing the pH is OK.