Knuttel Makes Beer: day whatever, Knuttel makes a Mash Tun

Since it's officially been a week of fermenting my first batch(es) of beer, i pulled a sample of each to test them, see if they're ready or not for bottling (since it was from a kit and they gave me no hydrometer, I simply had to taste the beer to see if it tasted like, well, flat beer).  And it wasn't ready yet.  Will probably test it again sometime in the middle of the week.

But I also did some important fact finding and mash tun making today.

That's right, I made my own mash tun; all grain brewing is only a step away.

I used a 5 gallon water cooler.

And a piece of flexible tubing.

Then I drilled holes into the tubing, carving them afterward to make sure they were big enough and clean enough.

And inserted the tubing into the spigot on the inside of the cooler.

You see, a mash tun is supposed to extract the sugars from the grain using hot water, so basically there are two things you need -- an insulated container (in this case, a water cooler), and a filtering mechanism of some kind to separate the sugar water from the grain (in this case, the holed piece of tubing).  I made mine for around 21 bucks, looking around the internet, it's usually been done for like 25-30 bucks.  If you buy a premade one, well that will probably run you a hundred or (more likely) two.

I still have to find a way to close (at least a majority of) the hole on the other end of the tube, but I also still have to clean it, so that will happen.  Regardless, I am just that much closer to creating the vaunted "Knuttelbrau".  Besides, now I can say things like "Sparge the mash" and make total sense.

-- Knuttel