24 litre cool box

[GrahamR]

I have a 24ltr cool box im planning to convert to a mash tun. I generally like to brew to roughly 17 ltrs and generally am able to bottle 15 ltrs of brew from this.

Would ye reckon the cool box would be big enough. It took 20 litres of water with a bit of headroom left when I checked

[LordEoin]

If it'll take 20l it will be fine for most beers (~5kg grain and 10L+ water).
You'll have problems with big beers though.
I have a 30L mashtun and it has just about enough room to mash 8kg grain

[brenmurph]

will be perfect for 5-gallon batches. There only prob with small batches of light abv beers is that there may not be a lot of grain to form a  gud filter bed for sparging ( Rinsing the grain ), but try it and practise it.

BTW heres ur hard work from saturday's hard work, ( @ everyone this is 9 gallon brew going into cask for the may17th brew weekend...all welcome) ill move it to south kildare section where u can watch progress.

So get that mashtun into action, hope the day u spent here motivated u to get really stuck in to brewing and dont be afraid to ask questions...lordeoin, myself and the other members will help u along
pics, grahamR's mashday at kildare (cask ale for may 17th cask party) just finishing primary and on target!

[GrahamR]

@ eoin - I wouldn't generally brew past 6% so I might be ok


@ she looks good bren, was thinking of going with a manifold similar to your own, could you post a pic of it by any chance

[brenmurph]

sure graham

as ye can see its a tall, narrower cool box. This was an electric cool box running on mains and 12volt. The thickly insulated walls and the deep nature makes it perfect for mashes. the top of it ( the fridge motor unit) is a self contained fridge and is the fridge unit for my fermenting chamber.  I will post a pic. As ye can see this magical little fridge unit (box and fridge 20 euros on donedeal 50 euros in aldi) has no trouble cooling the big fermenting chamber from whatever to wahtever on a hot sunny day in the brewery
The strainer is a cylinder of ss 1mm mesh that is squashed at one end that means we can fit and turn to make a perfect fit like a key. The silicone hose is to allow a good seal and stop scratching the box

[Will_D]

BTW heres ur hard work from saturday's hard work, ( @ everyone this is 9 gallon brew going into cask for the may17th brew weekend...all welcome) ill move it to south kildare section where u can watch progress.

Bren what is that on th etop of the fermeters/ Plastic bag airlock or what?

[brenmurph]

ye will, simplicity, ziplock bag which was starsaned and a blank bung sitting gently on top. Elastic band around the neck. Simple and foolproof. Dont really need the bung on top
I hate those bubble locks and never use them. We also use a holed airock and silicone tube in a bottle.