So I’m just about ready to start brewing some all-grain batches. There is a 5-gallon Rubbermaid jug cooler at Home Depot for $20 that has been calling my name for a while. I came across a mash tun design online using this cooler and included the exact parts list from Home Depot, so I decided that it was time to make the plunge.
I put everything together tonight. I noticed that some of the parts didn’t fit as well as I expected, but eventually I was able to get everything fairly snug. I put in about 2 gallons of water and put a couple of paper towels under the spigot. A half hour later the towels were slightly damp, so I cinched everything down tighter and tried again. This time I saw the leak start almost immediately.
So I started disassembling the spigot and noticed that the O-ring was a hair smaller than the gasket opening. I’m 99% sure that this is where the leak is coming from. I took another look at the website I got the plans from. It turns out that this Home Depot Rubbermaid cooler is a newer/slightly different model! GROAN
I’m pretty sure if I used 1/2" fittings instead of 3/8", everything should be OK. Of course now I have to hope I can return everything (a couple of the fittings are scratched since I don’t have a proper pipe wrench). My easy mash tun on-the-cheap is starting to look not so easy or cheap anymore. I’m really this isn’t going to turn into one of those several week-long projects punctuated by several trips to Home Depot.
What batch size do you plan to brew?
A 5 gallon round Igloo or Rubbermaid will work as long as your batch size is under 5 gallons and/or your OG is not too high.
Grain bed compaction (and slow lautering) is an issue once your grain bed height exceeds the width.
I’ve used 10 gallon round Rubbermaid coolers–I’ve since made the switch to rectangular coolers.
I suggest you skip the “learning process” and go straight to the rectangular coolers.
I’m constrained to my kitchen stove (ceramic top, and not too powerful), so I can only realistically manage a 3.5-4 gallon pre-boil volume. I enjoy doing smaller batches since I only drink maybe 5-10 beers a week. A 5-gallon cooler is really perfect for doing 3-gallon batches. I really don’t mind dropping down to 2-gallon batches either for high-gravity brews.
Frankly, I’m not worried about lautering or even sparging at this point. I plan on doing a modified BIAB for most of my AG brews. I’m just using the cooler to maintain my mash temp, then running the full volume off into my brew kettle. I can then hang the bag a bit off the floor of the cooler to let it drain fully while I start my boil. I’m not even planning on putting the braid or a false bottom in the cooler. I’m just going to line it with a 5-gallon paint strainer bag. The only modification I’m trying to do right now is replacing the spigot with a ball valve.
This is probably my final fallback. James from Basic Brewing did something similar with his 2-gallon Igloo cooler that he uses for mini-batches. I might also just try running a brass nipple through the bunghole (heh heh - put the nipple in the bunghole) and connecting the ball valve to that.
If you mean putting a brass nipple through the mini-keg bung, the opening is pretty small. I want to say it’s a half inch, so your nipple would be getting restrictive. Certainly a 3/8 nipple will not fit, at least IMO.
A barbed fitting might work, especially since you don’t want to attach anything on the inside. I use barbed fittings for my mini-keg taps and they’re ideal for that application.
I know you’re thinking small now but you never know what the future holds. Think carefully and decide exactly what size you need…then at least double it. You can do small batches in a large tun but not the other way around.
Equipment wise, larger now saves many, many $$$$ down the road. You can up-size now for just a few percentage points but duplicating equipment later is twice as expensive.
You can hold off on your thanks and praise to The Tubercle for a few years.
I appreciate the advice Tubercle. I may well be saying “he told me so” in a couple of years, but this really will suit my purposes just fine for the forseeable future. First of all, the smaller the footprint, the easier it is to fly under my wife’s radar. Secondly, I’m a small-batch brewer at heart. Even if I gain the capacity for full 5+ gallon boils in the future, I will still probably brew small batches quite often. It seems for every beer I brew, I come up with another 2 I want to try out. I’d rather stick to small batches and brew more often.
Time is my biggest constraint when it comes to brewing, so having a small setup that lets me brew while multitasking around the house is key for me. The only reason I’m using a separate mash tun instead of straight BIAB in the boil kettle is so I don’t have to tend to the temperature during the mash. Plus, for less than a $50 investment (I’m hoping), this rig will probably pay for itself by the end of the year just in savings on DME vs grain.
Think about this: A 5 gallon mash takes the same time as a 3 gallon mash as it takes a 20 gallon mash. I generally cut the grass, clean the gutters, etc… Also, if you can aquire equipment for a 3 gallon mash for under $50, the equipment for a 5 or 10 gallon mash can be had for the same amount.
I’m not trying to pursuade you to go bigger, just making you think ;D
All good points. Of course, a 3-gallon batch takes half as long to consume, which is the biggest determinant on how often I brew.
And the difference in price between a 5-gallon cooler and a 10-gallon one is enough to pay for the grain & yeast for my first AG batch. With that logic I can easily reason to She Who Wears the Pants why I need to spend the money on this
sometimes tightening the nut down will have the opposite effect, you said it leaked more once it was tightened… so go back and loosen it up a bit and try it.
+1 on backing up the nut a little. however, I have that cooler, and this parts setup (originally in a 2-gallon MT, then moved to a 5-gallon – same outlet size) has never leaked, not once:
If 3-gallon batches suit your lifestyle, enjoy it. I want to move up to a 9-gallon Coleman Xtreme so I don’t have to sparge, but I’m in no rush. Brewing smaller batches is easier and faster all around for me – setup, mash, boil, cool, etc. I have a larger kettle and a propane burner, but it introduced overhead and complications. Brew the way you want to brew. You can always move up later–if you want to.
Thanks for the info. The garden hose O-ring and washer set may be just the missing piece I need to get this to work. The best part is - I think I already have this set lying around the house. Will have to try this out tomorrow night.
How much loss do you have with this cooler set up? In my rare spare moments, I’m converting a similar 5 gallon cooler (yes, someday I’ll go larger perhaps) and I’m not too keen on how high the valve sits on the inside. I’m thinking I may bend a piece of copper tubing to get the pick-up down to the bottom of the cooler.
Very little. I don’t know why, but I can measure the loss in driblets. Maybe it’s that the fluid is suspended in all that wet grain – it’s not sitting in the bottom, it’s in suspension. Just a guess.
