After watching the video for How To Build a Mash Tun on the AHA website, I thought wow that looks easy and I could build it myself for half the price my local homebrew supplier is selling them. So I went out and bought all the supplies. Things went well until I got to the assembly of the in-line valve. I used a food grade silicone sealant to adhere the mini keg bung into the slot where the drainage spout previously was. But on both occasions, one I placed even a small amount of pressure on the keg bung the sealant would give and the seal would break. This allowed the keg bung to just fall out of the hole. The only thing that is different from my build and the build in the video is that my cooler’s drain spout was in the back of the cooler and not off to the side. Does anyone have a suggestion as to what I may be doing wrong or how to make the seal more durable so that I can happily get this contraption pieced together without >:( losing my mind >:(? Any help is appreciated!
Maybe use something that’s more of an adhesive than a sealant.
It sounds like the hole for the drain spout in your cooler is larger than the one used in the video. The mini keg bung should fit pretty snugly on its own without the sealant.
If it is indeed too big for the mini keg bung, you could use a cooler bulkhead fitting that you could attach a ball valve to. Something like this:
I ran into that problem with my cooler. www.bargainfittings.com has bulkhead conversion kits and extra hardware to do a custom build on a cooler. Good site.
First of all,
Let me say how super cool it is that you post a question on a forum and get a response thrown in there from the president himself. I appreciate all the help guys. I think I am going to go with the more sturdy method of getting the custom fittings from bargainfittings.com. Here is the type of cooler I am using. Says its so insulated that it will hold ice for 5 days in 90 degree weather.
FWIW, I found that a bulkhead and ball valve didn’t work as well for me as the down and dirty method.
I have a Coleman somewhat similar to that one. I don’t know if it’s an extreme. It’s years old.
I have opened it days after August parties and pulled cold beers from the ice water inside. They ain’t lying.
+1, I am going on three years with my cooler with some vinyl tubing forced through the drain hole. didn’t take the cooler apart at all. I don’t even have the fancy valve like Denny has. I just stick the open end under the handle and let gravity be my valve.
(Let Gravity Be Your Valve Baby)
I used an assembly like Gary posted and it works well. After 4 years I’m starting to see a couple of drips but other than that no issues.
I tried using a cooler like you posted a picture for but couldn’t figure out a good way to make all the corners inside to be sure I wasn’t leaving a lot of wort behind.
It may work great for you. I admit I’m really paranoid, over think everything and doubt every design I’ve ever created. On the other side of that, everything I’ve ever built works. :
I’m sure it will work for you too.
Paul
** edited spelling of cooler. Yes I’m OCD and have a beer named after ODC that I cleared with a friend who has a son who is OCD just to make sure he wouldn’t be offended by a beer name that makes fun of being OCD. God, need I need a drink. Or maybe I’ve had enough. Who the H#!! knows.
i tried to modify the whole on my igloo to use a bottling spigot. i screwed up the plastic a bit and ended up having to put a big rubber gasket with a big metal washer on it. it drips about 10-15 drops over the coarse of the mash.
Funny stuff ! I put a big o-ring between the washer on the inside of the bulkhead and the cooler wall, then sealed around the washer thoroughly with the food grade sealant and it doesn’t leak a drop. I just had a wild hair when I bought a bigger Coleman Extreme to pull the spout and build up. Works great though.
I thought I was weird because that is what I was doing & hadn’t heard of anyone else doing it. It drips a little for me but not enough to worry about.
I’m not sure that the fact that I do something you do means you are not weird. I’m not saying you ARE weird, just that similarity to me does not convey a sense of normality.
I’d much rather use one of these bulkheads than any amount of adhesive or sealer.
I’ve never had even the smallest leak.
I agree with Narcout, I have the same bulkhead, mash screen and a valve on the outside, works flawlessly.
When I put a bulkhead on my cooler I found I was getting incomplete draining. The bulkhead is rigid and held the screen off the floor of the cooler. By using tubing through the cooler wall, the braid laid on the bottom of the cooler and produced a siphon, which drained the cooler more completely.
Mine sits nicely in the channel that runs down the center of the cooler. There is a small gap underneath, maybe 1/8" or less, so I guess if you wanted to you could bend the screen downward a bit or flatten it, but that just doesn’t seem pragmatic and I can’t imagine the loss is more than an oz.
Plus, it looks awesome!
+1. My screen sits right in the channel too, so we probably have the same cooler. For that cooler I think the bulkhead conversion works fantastic. With a different cooler where it didn’t drain as well, I would probably feel differently. I love it though.