Want To Venture Out!!

Buying, building and using brewing equipment and apparatus. Product reviews and questions.

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Friar-Tuck
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Location: Springfield, MA

Want To Venture Out!!

Post by Friar-Tuck »

I have brewed several extract brews, and would like to start venturing into all grain. My question is, what site should i be looking to for info on: getting and/or making all grain equipment? I apologize in advance, if this topic has been threaded before.
Bob57702
Pale Ale
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Re: Want to venture out

Post by Bob57702 »

Check out howtobrew.com. It should give you some direction.

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slothrob
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Post by slothrob »

This is great info for builing a cheap and easy tun that is used by a lot of all-grain homebrewers.
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billvelek
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Mine is even simpler than that

Post by billvelek »

I didn't use a bung, but instead just kept the original drain and snap on cap; when I'm not using the cooler as a mashtun, I can use it as an ice chest. I also don't use any hose clamps or a valve. I just feed the plastic tube in through the drain, push it inside about a half inch or so of the ss mesh which is coiled in the cooler, and then use about 4" of teflon pipe tape (normally used to seal pipe treads) wrapped around the drain and hose, topped off with a small piece of duct tape. Hardly as much as a single drip mash after mash. In place of the valve, I just raise the end of the hose and clamp it under the ice chest handle using the pressure of the handle to hold the end of the hose well above the liquid level. When I first built this I couldn't find the hose clamps, and since it worked just fine without them I never bothered (I am careful when stirring the mash near the drain when the hose joins the mesh); also, I'm pretty sure it makes cleanup easier without the clamp. I take it all out to my compost pile, yank the hose out, dump the tun, and careful pull my ss mesh out of the spent grain. By the way, I suggest that you remove the hinges from the ice chest lid. It should still seal tight without them, and it makes it easier to use, dump, and clean. The only downside to my simpler configuration is that I need to reassemble and tape it each use, but that takes maybe a whole minute and the cost of the tape is insignificant.

Cheers.

Bill Velek
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slothrob
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Post by slothrob »

My original setup was like Bill's, except that I unscrewed the drain and used a bung.
I fed the plastic hose htrough the bunghole, clamped a SS screen from a toilet line onto the hose, and stuck the bung on the inside of the cooler. This worked great and never fell out. Though I did knock the SS screen of the plastic hose once when I stirred too vigorously.

I've since "upgraded" by adding a cheap nylon valve to the line, outside of the cooler, to control the flow. Recently, I got about 4" on 3/8" copper line to pass through the bung and attaced the SS screen to that and pushed the plastic line onto the outside. This last update allowed me to drain a little more wort by bending the copper tube a bit so it goes to the very botttom of the cooler, leaving less than a pint behind.

The screen, as well as the entire set-up, is nearly rock-solid, so I never have too worry about how enthusiastically I stir.
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