Mini Tun

Well I am sure this has been done, but here I go. So I got a 3 gallon Rubbermaid cooler for my 1-2 gallon batch’s. I am just not the best DIY sometimes, anyone have any ideas for a valve setup with this. Don’t wanna spend $30 on a valve and bulkhead set up

Are you opposed to using it as a BIAB vessel? That is what I did with my two gallon cooler. I also did not want to spend $30 to shove a ball valve on a $15 cooler.

Do you stand there holding the button during sparge? Thumbs of steel!

There is a video on this page that shows how to do it for less, scroll down to the mash tun build video.
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/videos/all-grain-brewing-video-series/

You can either no-sparge and use your full volume of water; or you just pull the bag, dump the wort in your kettle, then return the bag and sparge. Or you can jam some tubing through the spigot, depending on the size of he spigot opening.

I just jammed the tubing through the spigot on my big cooler. If I had a small one with a spigot I’d do the same thing. but when I do small batches I use one of those little igloo lunch buddies or whatever they are called. the ones construction workers use to carry an enormous lunch. no spigot so I just do what erock suggests and pull the bag, empty the work, replace the bag and sparge.

I have also done mini mashes in a pot, and you can preheat the oven and put the pot in there to hold temperature.

this works as well.

You can do it for about 3 bucks.  See www.dennybrew.com

My biggest reason for the cooler is temp control, I don’t know about you guys but I had a hard time with temps on the stove last weekend. They we jumping around alot

coolers are great for that. but Jeff’s suggestion of a preheated oven can help a lot too. If your oven can go that low.

+1.  I remember after starting AG I thought about using the oven I had at the time.  Except at its coolest it wouldn’t go cooler than ~ 200F.  A little over mash temp.

For sure. I’ve had a few ovens since then that go (accurately) lower than that. It was around the time I went with my first round Igloo and started fly sparging, which eventually led to batch sparging. I have no doubt there’d be little, probably no temp rise with that oven method.

EDIT  -  I misunderstood preheating the oven to mean leaving the heat on at a constant temp, not shutting off, Jeff.  My bad.

Yes get it to the lowest Temp, 160 to 170 F in some ovens. Turn it off, put the pot in, no worries.

Caught one hell of a cold right after posting this. My oven only gets down to 170. Won’t a oven set at 170 raise a 150 degree mash? It must only raise the temp slightly over an hour?

Preheat to 170F. Turn it off before you start the mash, it takes some time to mix and adjust the temp if you are a little off. It takes some time to measure and adjust pH if you are one of those pH guys like me. Then when you are done, put it in the oven, which will be less than 170F. You could have an oven thermometer in there to tell you when the temp is 150F or a 150F +.

Plus, the air in the oven isn’t going to do much versus the thermal mass of your entire mash. Just think of it as being super-effective insulation.

This is glorious. Can’t wait to try this weekend

+1