Starting out: Pots for mash and sparge?

[JensenDK]

Hi

I suppose this is my first post here, so greetings from Denmark! :


I am, along with a friend of mine, planning to start brewing at my place.

We took a one day course in all-grain brewing, so (hopefully) we now have an idea of the basics, and are ready for our first brew.
(Actually 2nd. as we have 20L dubbel and 20L brown ale sitting from the course.)

Right now we are missing a mash tun that can take at least 40L mash.

We have been looking at these options:

70 L Stainless Steel Thermos Pot. They can be purchased for about GBP 100, including shipping, directly from Germany.

There is a 50 L version, but it does not come with a tap.

What are peoples experiences with this pot and how would you go about turning it to a mash tun?

In particular:

Did you buy a false bottom (where?) or did you make it yourself and if so, how?
What are you using for chiller - link?
Did you change the tap to a ball valve type or is the fitted tap good enough for the job?
Any other thoughts or advice?


We are also looking for something to heat up sparge water, and found we this 27L electrical and insolated pot.

Is this enough for batch sparging if we are doing 40L mash?
I know it depends on the recipe, but is there a rule-of-thumb?


Any other ideas to help a pair for aspiring home brewers, avoid the worst pitfalls, would be much appreciated. :-D


Cheers!

Mark

 

[ManseMasher]

By 40l mash, do you mean you wish to end up with 40l of wort after mashing/sparging, or that you wish to mash with 40l of liqour? If it is the latter that is quite some grain bill! If you let us know how much you want to end up with in your fv that might give a better idea of sizes required.

I use a converted coolbox for my mashtun - no false bottom but a home made copper manifold. Chiller wise a conterflow chiller (again home made) but immersion chillers are easier to use, though perhaps take longer to chill.

I have a ball valve tap on my mashtun, but as it was a conversion it didn't have a tap in the first place?

 

[JensenDK]

Yes, the end result should be 40L of wort. It gets a bit confusing with all those new terms. :wha:

We are planning to use a stainless steel submersion chiller like this one with gardena fittings at both ends.
I hear the copper versions corrode (toxic?) due to the wort being slightly acidic and the plate chillers are supposed to take long to clean.

As for the 70L thermos pots, I see a lot of conversion bits at angelhomebrew.co.uk and other places, but I have no clear idea of what we need in order to turn it into a proper mash tun.
I'm curious as to what other people have done with these?

 

[ManseMasher]

Copper is very common for wort chillers, and cheaper than stainless. The 70 litre pot looks good! To use it as a mashtun you will need something that keeps the grain out. If you have a look for 'bazooka screens' this will give you the idea.

 

[568ml]

Davs, welcome to the forum fellow Dane, now settled in the UK :)

Sorry can't help, I only brew kits, but others here will for sure.

Hygge