My Cheap Homebrew Mash Tun

I built this mash tun after reading about Denny Conn's mash tun at http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/. I wanted to build something similarly cheap and simple, but wanted to utilize a spigot that could be secured with a nut.

I've only used it once so far and got approximately 72% efficiency. Not extremely efficient, but it was relatively cheap and compatible with the countertop brewing space in my condo. I utilized a 5 gallon Igloo cooler that I already had around the house, a piece of teflon tape of which I already had a roll, a 6 in. piece of 3/8 in. outer diameter copper tubing that I bought from the hardware store for $2 (they would only sell me a foot), the stainless steel braid from a toilet hose that cost around $7 from the hardware store, and a water dispense faucet that I got off Amazon for about $10.

After removing the braid from the toilet hose, I twisted and crimped one end shut with some pliers. The other end I pushed through the copper tube and folded back over the copper tube, securing it to the tube with the teflon tape. The frayed end of the hose is prickly and easily stabs fingers.

The taped end of the copper tube fits nicely into the back side of the faucet and fits just

right so that grain bits don't make it out of the spigot. I think that I may have been able to use aslightly larger piece of tubing into the faucet, but was nervous that a larger size wouldn't work with the thickness of the stainless steel braid folded over the end of the tube. The picture to the left shows the faucet assembled in the cooler and the copper tube assembly inserted.

I was concerned about the grain bed pinching the stainless steel braid closed and pushing against the end of the copper tubing, possibly reducing the flow of wort out of the mash tun. So I placed a stainless steel vegetable steamer that I already had on top of everything (see the picture below.) I'm sure some grain made its way below the steamer, but the wort flowed smoothly and I didn't have any problems draining the mash tun.

One brew in, this cheap and simple design has been great for my 3.5 gallon condo brew system. I'll eventually put this mash tun to the test