Inner lid for a batch sparge mashtun

I was wondering if anyones thought of or tried to make an insulated inner lid for for a batch-sparge mash-cooler. i,ve been thinking of doing one with styrofoam maybe. Thoughts?..Tank :cheers:

If your cooler is very big with a lot of air space it may help with heat loss. Is that your concern?

Not realy sure yet… got the cooler from a freind that was moving and was selling some of his brew gear…This will be my first all-grain batch and I like Thinking ahead at times…Tank :cheers:

I place a piece of aluminum foil on top of the mash. It works great at stopping heat loss.

Paul

If the cooler lid is not already, drill a hole in it and get a can of the expandable foam and spray into it to increase the insulating ability of the tun. With that said the temperature loss over the course of a mash in a cooler will be negligible anyway unless you are one to open and close, stirring and sampling, frequently.

It’s unnecessary. I lose maybe 1-2F over the course of a 60-90 min. mash.

You have to resist the urge to open it constantly and test temperature and sample it so often.

Try brewing once and opening it every 15 minutes to test the temperature. Then, on your next brew, get it to the right temp and just leave it alone for the hour. I bet you’ll see you lose more heat testing it every 15 minutes than if you just leave it alone.

[quote=“Templar”]You have to resist the urge to open it constantly and test temperature and sample it so often.

Try brewing once and opening it every 15 minutes to test the temperature. Then, on your next brew, get it to the right temp and just leave it alone for the hour. I bet you’ll see you lose more heat testing it every 15 minutes than if you just leave it alone.[/quote]

I use a submersible wire probe for my thermocouple thermometer. I can close the lid of the cooler and still have the wire inside the cooler submerged in the mash. So I can take temp readings all day long without opening the cooler.

http://www.thermoworks.com/products/probe/tc_wire.html

Scroll down till you see the Model: 113-372. The probe itself is $29 (need a thermometer to go with it) so its pricey but I love that I don’t ever have to open my mashtun to check the temp.

I have a 72 quart cooler so its about half headspace and I never lose more than 2 degrees in the middle of winter. The key is to get your strike water about 10-12 degrees hotter than your mashtemp, add it to the cooler and close the lid for about 5 minutes to allow the temp to normalize and then add your grain.