Realistically, I think all that means is that the lawyers won’t let them say something is safe without exhaustive testing.
+1
I do all grain with batch sparging in stainless. When my mash temp begins to drop I turn on flame and recirculation pump. Then I batch spatge and recirculate. Think of it as vorlauf with fire
Denny’s done something like a million batches in his cooler and he’ll probably outlive us all.
+1. I don’t think it’s the cooler that made Denny the character that he is today.
Old hippies, and some new ones, are some of the best people.
^^^^^^^^
always mashed in 10gal orange Igloo cooler. never cracked, never drops more than 1F (if that) over an hour. mid to high 80’s efficiency and with copper manifold for trouble free lautering.
All grain nearly exclusively. I do an occasional extract batch if I win a kit at an event or I’m teaching someone how to brew an extract beer…
As for the coolers… Yeah mine is super warped on the inside due to the heat.
It’s funny,
I answered all grain but now I’m thinking that I’ve gotta knock out a quick brew and I don’t really have time for a full on brewday. I might just throw together a 2 gallon extract with grains batch.
My 10 gallon igloo has warped and cracked in one section. I have temporarily sealed it with food grade silicon until I can replace it.
really? that sucks. i’ve got about 60 mash cycles through mine and looks as good as new. i’ll use up to 185F sparge water.
Yeah kind of a bummer. I too go up to about 185F for sparge water. I have been waiting to find a replacement on sale or craigslist but my temporary fix seems to be fine for now.
might seem silly, but do you preheat your igloo before hitting with strike water? I always have used my hot tap water to warm up the cooler before.
I don’t. The quick temp change could definitely affect the warping it seems.
I try to leave the bagged crushed grain in the cooler overnight then get a temp reading of both before I brew so that I can hit my mash temp more accurately. I think I preheated a couple of times but it threw off my calcs. May be worth revisiting.
not sure if its the answer-just jumped out at me. with preheating, my strike water is usually about 9-10F higher than desired mash temp.
Depends if I remember or not and the time of year. I store my brewing equipment in the basement which in the winter gets down to 45F or so. I’ll usually just boil up a couple quarts of water and dump that in the mash tun. I typically go about 12-14 degrees above target mash temp on my system regardless of water Beersmith tells me. It’s a lot easier to cool off the mash than it is to raise it up, especially when all your strike water has been used. Most of the time I can get it down just by stirring.
+1
agreed. i’ll do the same thing if its anew recipe and or i need to mess around with PH and might loose heat. if its a regular brew, 9-10 F is all i need to be dead on target.