I have a three tier setup with all sankes as my vessels. I built it trying to save some money but have run into a few problems. I built it out a few years back and since then didn’t brew a lot. I did not use it a lot due to a lot of clutter in the garage and not wanting to drag it out. Recently I put up a shed to alleviate the clutter, and have ramped up my brewing. I am just now getting to dial in this set up.
As I said all three vessels are converted sankes. It’s done great with the weather above 65 degrees. Last Sunday we had cooler weather and lots of wind. It was also one of the smallest grain bills I’ve done lately. I missed mash temp by 20 degrees and ended up having to direct fire the mash with stirring to raise to 150 or so. I hope to avoid this in the future. I know that a lot of it was the small grainbill. Though I’m capable of doing 10gallon batches Ive been doing 5s as I don’t need 10 gallons of every thing I make.
I’ve also had gravities about 10 to 20 points higher than estimated. I know thats due to increased boil off rates. The mash tun has a false bottom and is wrapped in about an 1 1/4" think blanket of reflectix. That treated me well on my previous system. I also use a lid to to help hold on to temp.
Just wondering what other out door brewers do to account for temp and humidity changes? I know that some loss is due to the size of the mash tun and temp absorption. I’m also considering building a wooden base for the mash tun to set on to be a better insulator than the empty space below it.