Mash tun necessity

[Bate man]

Good afternoon,

I am fairly new to grain brewing, as such I am currently using my "Ritchies" boiler as both a boiler and mash tun. i.e. heating my mash to 66 degrees etc and keeping it fairly constant in the boiler for the specified amount of time.

Is there any problems with this? If so what are they?

Or should I invest in making my own mash tun?

Thanks for your time

 

[orange]

Hello. I'm a novice too. How are you managing to sparge with that set up? :

 

[Mark1964]

we had the same set up at first. The ritchies mashing/boiler will not maintain a constant 66 degrees as the stat is behind a plate on the outside of the bucket. You will need to invest in making a proper mash tun. We made a mash tun from a 25 litre fv, wrapped in insulation and bubble wrap. So when we mashed the grains the fv was on a chair and we used the boiler to heat the sparge water then had a silicone pipe to rinse the grains into another fv when finished we tipped the wort into the boiler again to boil :thumb:

 

[fisherman]

I should buy a coolbox, a coleman or igloo the american box's are much better insulated. On the irish brewers website it shows you how to make a manifold for a mashbox where you syphon the wort out so no tap fitting or drilling. This is the method I use , No hole no leak I have never had a tap that did not leak at some time.
Best of luck :drink: