Mash Tun Size

[Johnnyboy]

Hi,

Hopefully one of the more experienced can answer this? I am lucky enough to have a 50 and 80 liter thermopot in my possession for future converting, and ordered a false bottom for the smaller one to convert to a mash tun but have been sent a larger one which fits the 80. What I want to know is if I kept the false bottom would I be able to mash my normal 23 litres without major heat loss in the 80? and then have the potential for mashing larger volumes in the future?

Or would it just lose too much heat when mashing small volumes?

Regards,
John

[Dave S]

Hi,

Hopefully one of the more experienced can answer this? I am lucky enough to have a 50 and 80 liter thermopot in my possession for future converting, and ordered a false bottom for the smaller one to convert to a mash tun but have been sent a larger one which fits the 80. What I want to know is if I kept the false bottom would I be able to mash my normal 23 litres without major heat loss in the 80? and then have the potential for mashing larger volumes in the future?

Or would it just lose too much heat when mashing small volumes?

Regards,
John

I've heard of people covering the grain bed with a sheet of tin foil to overcome this problem. In any event I'd try to go for the biggest MT you can manage in the interests of upgradability.

[Mr. Dripping]

I've a 50 litre thermopot and it keeps the temperature very well.
My grain bill is usually 8-9kg for 40 litres.
If I were doing half that batch size, I would probably cut a piece of Kingspan to size to sit on top of the mash.

I also have a thermopot boiler and use and false bottom as a hop screen. You can overlay and secure 40T mesh to this to enable you to use pellet hops
ATB

[alix101]

I have an 80l it only loses about a degree over an hour ...I always pre heat it but it does big and small batches alike.
If it's really cold I might throw a blanket over but this applies when I used a cool box.

[Johnnyboy]

Nice one that was what I was wanting to hear. I think i'll make some kingspan discs to take up the gap when mashing small volumes.

Cheers,
John.