A tun toss up?
So I want to do it...am doing it. I will get a mash tun, next batch will be AG. Researching the best budget solution seems to be an Ice Cube. Now, 48q or 60q. From what I have found, 48 is sort of the standard size for a mash, however is dangerously close to the rim making a big beer. 30# grains + water fits in a 60 just fine, but is probably too big for a small beer. Are these the facts? After I get the skills, I intend to do big beers and parti-gyle brewing also. I guess I want the ease and versatility out of one piece of equipment. Need some sage advice I guess. "Go bigger than you ever think you will need" I saw on here once...truth?
In a simple answer, YES! you might as well go big, you can allways batch smaller (to an extent), in a bigger container, but you can't batch bigger in a smaller one.
I guess the question I should have asked...How small can I go in a 60qt Ice Cube w/o too much negative effect on the mash?
There really is no negative affect on the mash with a smaller batch. What you will have to determine is the calculated loss due to thermal mass of the tun and the empty space of air that you are not using. A full tun will hold the temp longest, a nearly empty tun will lose heat the fastest.
With that being said though, an Ice cube is very efficient and if properly primed and preheated, shouldn't drop more than a couple degrees in an hour mash even if half full.
Example desired mash temp=152, you strike 30#grain at 167, allowing for 15 deg loss.
If you have 15# grain, you may want to strike at 169, allow for 15 deg of loss and another 2-3 deg of loss during the mash so the majority of the rest stays 154-150.
Other people also use large styrofoam pieces to put on top of the mash to void the deadspace of air to keep more consistancy.
My suggestion is to go larger because a couple degrees and some experience will cover any dillemmas with a small batch, but if you do not have the room for a big mash there is nothing you can do about it.
This will now open the opportunity for you to brew larger batches and really big beers. The ability to really start experimenting.
Firewater, I am headed in this same direction. Ten gallon round rubbermaid drink coolers are harder to come by than the Ice Cubes are in my area. So I think I will stick with the Ice Cubes and build the manifold out of copper to fit one.
Trust me, go big. I have a 50qt cube and I have done small beer batches just fine. I do a 1038OG Ordinary Bitter and it works out just fine.
Right on, thanks for the tips again...
I guess the real question is whether you are planning to batch sparge or fly sparge? If I understand everything I am reading correctly it is better to batch sparge if you have rectangular coolers ..?
I have found varying info on sparging, sounds like another one of those 'whatever you feel like doing' sort of things. I've seen literature on sparging and efficiencies with tun shape, agreeing with you, but then I've found websites with things like this. http://www.homebrew.com/articles/article09130301.shtml It looks like a cheap and easy enough setup that I think I will try a few batches with each method and see what happens. Fly sparging seems to need another cooler or something with a spigot and a valve, so I guess more equipment to buy, althogh the HLT geometry I don't think matters so you can use the cooler you take with you places normally. I guess I will try them both and see what gets me higher efficiencies...
Bull wrote:
I guess the real question is whether you are planning to batch sparge or fly sparge? If I understand everything I am reading correctly it is better to batch sparge if you have rectangular coolers ..?
Batch sparging is pretty much uneffected by tun design or shape.