Chapman ThermoBarrel Insulated Stainless Mash Tun | Product Review

[system]

@brulosopher

For ~3 gal batches? I’ll make the suggestion.

A 5-gallon tun is large enough to make five-gallon batches using traditional continuous sparging. I can prepare 5.5 gallons of wort with a gravity up to 1.070 using a five-gallon mash tun.  However, seven to seven and a half gallons is the sweet spot for five-gallon batches, especially if the height to diameter ratio remains the same as a 5-gallon beverage cooler.  I started out using 10-gallon beverage coolers for 5 to 6 gallon batches, but there is too much dead space in a 10-gallon cooler.  I eventually moved to using 7-gallon beverage coolers before downsizing to 5-gallon beverage coolers.  A ten gallon beverage cooler will handle up to 25lbs of grain with a hot liquor to grist ratio of 1.25:1.  I use between 9 and 11 pounds of grain when shooting for 5.75 gallons of wort at the end of boil.  That grist range yields 5.75 gallons with an O.G. between 1.048 and 1.060.  The extra slop in a 10-gallon cooler may be beneficial to those who perform multiple-infusion lautering (a.k.a. batch sparging), but it is has no upside when using traditional sparging.

[brulosopher]

@brulosopher

For ~3 gal batches? I’ll make the suggestion.

A 5-gallon tun is large enough to make five-gallon batches using traditional continuous sparging. I can prepare 5.5 gallons of wort with a gravity up to 1.070 using a five-gallon mash tun.  However, seven to seven and a half gallons is the sweet spot for five-gallon batches, especially if the height to diameter ratio remains the same as a 5-gallon beverage cooler.  I started out using 10-gallon beverage coolers for 5 to 6 gallon batches, but there is too much dead space in a 10-gallon cooler.  I eventually moved to using 7-gallon beverage coolers before downsizing to 5-gallon beverage coolers.  A ten gallon beverage cooler will handle up to 25lbs of grain with a hot liquor to grist ratio of 1.25:1.  I use between 9 and 11 pounds of grain when shooting for 5.75 gallons of wort at the end of boil.  That grist range yields 5.75 gallons with an O.G. between 1.048 and 1.060.  The extra slop in a 10-gallon cooler may be beneficial to those who perform multiple-infusion lautering (a.k.a. batch sparging), but it is has no upside when using traditional sparging.

That makes sense. I use my 70 qt coolers for 5 gal batches and always do no sparge, I take a 2-3% eff hit, which I couldn’t care less about. Also makes pH adjustment less of an issue, ime.

[denny]

@brulosopher

@denny

@brulosopher

It’s another arguably luxury option, not a solution. Not everything has to solve a problem

But…but…but…that’s not PRAGMATIC! 

But… but… but… PicoBrew Zymatic is?

Of course not, it’s a $2000 badass luxury item, one I’ve little personal interest in because I drink too much and enjoy brewing, but I love that it exists! I love that people can make beer using such cool technology. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest, same way I couldn’t care less if someone uses a $15 tamale pot or a $500 Blichmann. To each their own.

You know I agree with you more than I don’t

Touche, buddy!

[narcout]

If I was going to buy one of these, I think I’d get the SS Brew Tech version.

http://www.ssbrewtech.com/collections/mash-tuns/products/infussion-mash-tun

[system]

@brulosopher

That makes sense. I use my 70 qt coolers for 5 gal batches and always do no sparge, I take a 2-3% eff hit, which I couldn’t care less about. Also makes pH adjustment less of an issue, ime.

At this point, sticking with continuous sparging is not about increased extraction rate.  It is about a process that has been honed over many batches of beer that just happens to yield a high extraction rate.  While I could switch to using a different process, not much would be gained time-wise by doing so.  I would also have to go through a period of re-calibration in order to establish a new set of baseline extraction rates.  My standard end of boil batch size today is around 3.66 gallons.  Running off 4.25 to 4.5 gallons of wort takes about twenty minutes, including the re-circulation step.  It takes me longer than twenty minutes to clean my kettle and stainless steel hop filter.

[toby]

@yso191

However, I’m the same way with coffee.  At home I only drink it out of white mugs.  Colored mugs change the taste.  I will endure coffee in most any cup when away from home…but the worst is cobalt blue.  All I can think of is Vicks VapoRub.

Maybe you have synesthesia in addition to OCD?

[yso191]

@toby

@yso191

However, I’m the same way with coffee.  At home I only drink it out of white mugs.  Colored mugs change the taste.  I will endure coffee in most any cup when away from home…but the worst is cobalt blue.  All I can think of is Vicks VapoRub.

Maybe you have synesthesia in addition to OCD?

I don’t think it is as strong as an official diagnosis :-).  Its more like an association that I think about.  Regardless, I prefer stainless.