TheRedDarren
Landlord.
- Joined
- May 14, 2015
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I thought I'd write this up in case it's of any use to anyone.
What with mash temperatures being so vital to the balance of the final beer, I was trying to improve my mash tun's thermal efficiency.
It regularly drops 2/4 degrees over the course of a 90 minute mash which often means the final temperature is around the 62/65 mark.
In practice this means the wort is very fermantable and can have a higher abv and less body than planned.
Following the advice from many on here with a similar mash tun, I have made a triple pronged attack on heat loss!
Firstly, I filled the lid with perlite, there is a lot of heat loss through the cup holders as the lid is just filled with air. It took a wee while using a jug and funnel to get it in via the small bung on the underside but I got it pretty full.
Then I filled the external cavities with expanding foam and left it to cure before trimming it to size.
After trimming I used foil tape to cover the gaps.
Then it's just a case of wrapping the whole thing in insulation. I used three layers on all sides, all stuck down with the foil tape.
I tested the thermal efficiency before and after. Unfortunely the improvement is very minimal, but it is a small improvement.
The test was with just hot water, so hopefully a real mash will see another small improvement!
Temperatures and times before:
Start - hot water from the tap - 56.9*
30 mins later - 56.0*
An hour later - 55.4*
Temperatures and time after:
Start - hot water from the tap - 56.8*
30 mins later - 56.2*
An hour later - 55.6*
Total costs; ���ã8.99 for the perlite, ���ã9.99 & ���ã4.99 for the bubble wrap and tape and ���ã3.50 for the expanding foam.
Obviously I was hoping for a bigger improvement overall but a small gain is better than none!
I shall update further after a brew day.
What with mash temperatures being so vital to the balance of the final beer, I was trying to improve my mash tun's thermal efficiency.
It regularly drops 2/4 degrees over the course of a 90 minute mash which often means the final temperature is around the 62/65 mark.
In practice this means the wort is very fermantable and can have a higher abv and less body than planned.
Following the advice from many on here with a similar mash tun, I have made a triple pronged attack on heat loss!
Firstly, I filled the lid with perlite, there is a lot of heat loss through the cup holders as the lid is just filled with air. It took a wee while using a jug and funnel to get it in via the small bung on the underside but I got it pretty full.
Then I filled the external cavities with expanding foam and left it to cure before trimming it to size.
After trimming I used foil tape to cover the gaps.
Then it's just a case of wrapping the whole thing in insulation. I used three layers on all sides, all stuck down with the foil tape.
I tested the thermal efficiency before and after. Unfortunely the improvement is very minimal, but it is a small improvement.
The test was with just hot water, so hopefully a real mash will see another small improvement!
Temperatures and times before:
Start - hot water from the tap - 56.9*
30 mins later - 56.0*
An hour later - 55.4*
Temperatures and time after:
Start - hot water from the tap - 56.8*
30 mins later - 56.2*
An hour later - 55.6*
Total costs; ���ã8.99 for the perlite, ���ã9.99 & ���ã4.99 for the bubble wrap and tape and ���ã3.50 for the expanding foam.
Obviously I was hoping for a bigger improvement overall but a small gain is better than none!
I shall update further after a brew day.
![BREWING THERMOMETER STICKERS ACCURATELY MONITOR FERMENTING BEER & WINE LIQUID TEMPERATURES 5PCS HOME BREW SPIRITS WINE LCD ADHESIVE [US]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/311DDjo2X3L._SL500_.jpg)
