DIY Mash Tun / Lauter Tun (Under $35.00)

Being a novice homebrewer on a modest budget, I wanted to build a basic vessel for mashing grains that wouldn't require a large monetary investment. The Complete Joy of Homebrewing (Charlie Papazian) gives some good basic ideas for making mash and lauter tuns and there are plenty of online forums for DIY builds. I studied quite a few in my quest to build my own. In my secret life as a plumbing parts purveyor I have assisted many other homebrewers in their own quests to craft homemade brewing equipment and have gained some valuable insights from the process.

This is my finished Mash Tun and Lautering Filter with photos, part list, and costs in case you are interested in following my lead. It is a 5 gallon cooler conversion, so it can't be heated directly on a burner, but it will serve my purposes well. I didn't even have to remove the original spigot for this build although I plan to do so soon anyway to make it more durable and adaptable to future equipment builds. I got all the parts at the orange major home improvement chain. (edit, 5/21/12: See this update on the upgraded spigot.)

The first and most obvious part is the 5 gallon beverage cooler. Standard. Just like the one we used to fill with cheap Beer and drag to the park with a sleeve of plastic cups. Regularly $21.87 or so, I got mine on sale for $19.98. Ta-da, it's already usable as a mash tun!

The second part is getting something in there to screen out the grains so you can use it as a lauter tun. This is provided by a 30" stainless steel faucet supply line. I cut off the ends with a pair of tin snips. I also cut an additional 1 1/2" off for another purpose but the fit works out perfectly inside the cooler.

I extracted the plastic tubing from inside the stainless steel braid with a pair of needle-nose pliers. This step involved a bit of wrestling and finesse so that I didn't damage the braid in the process.

Part 2: 30" Stainless Steel Faucet Supply Line, $7.98.

I fitted the snipped ends over a 1/2 x 1/2 x 3/8 brass tee designed for use with PEX pipes. I clamped them down with all stainless steel hose clamps.

Part 3: 1/2 x 1/2 x 3/8 Brass PEX Tee, $2.61.
Parts 4, 5: (2) 5/8" Stainless Steel Hose Clamps, $0.85 ea.

The final step was to wrap the 3/8 barb with teflon tape until it fit snugly into the interior of the spigot.

Part 6: Teflon Tape, $1.05.

19.98 (5 gal. Cooler)
7.98   (30" SS Supply Line)
2.61   (1/2 x 1/2 x 3/8 brass PEX Tee)
1.70   ( 2 Hose Clamps)
1.05   (Teflon Tape)

$33.32 (Total Cost!)

The water flow test went perfectly... I filled it with water and drained it out without any problem from the stainless steel braid. Now I will have to put it to the test with a real mash. I expect it to perform well, but I won't be able to say so until my next Brew Day... hopefully within the week! I'll let you know how it went!

Next: the cheapie Wort Chiller!

Cheers!


(edit 5/21/12: I upgraded the spigot on this design. See how in this update post.)