I preheated the tun for a few minutes with about 3 gallons of water while my strike water reached full temp, or 163 degrees. My impressions during the first brew outing were great, although I did overshoot my volume and temp being it was my first time around and I haven’t gotten familiar with what to expect. The sparge arm offered much better distribution of water over the grain bed then my floating ball Blichmann auto-sparge does. Although if you’re careful this is very similar to an igloo, but I always seemed to slosh a bit of wort and grain out since the igloo lids don’t have a water tight seal.Ħ. Obviously the heat retention abilities are important, but this also came in handy since during my first mash, my grain bill maxed out the vessel, and while carrying it I didn’t spill a drop. The silicone seal around the lid is great, basically the same air-tight seal the Chronical fermenter uses, and the weight of the lid seals the tun nicely. Last thing you ever want is a handle breaking loose on a roughly 80+ pound full vessel of hot liquid.ĥ. This came in handy because I did need to lift if when it was full during my brew day. The handles are riveted and spot welded, so they feel way more stout compared to the Gen 1 Blichmann handles, plus they are silicone coated. In my tests, the digital thermometer was right on point with my thermapen after 20-30 seconds of settling.Ĥ. analog thermometer provided slightly higher temp resolution. My Blichman had to be hogged down by wrenches and removed the same way. The thermowell comes with a nice sized o-ring, and can hold water with just being hand tightened, which is huge plus for tool-less removal. This design is far superior, and also beats the hell out of trying to disconnect a hose and remove a domed false bottom from an igloo. I’m one of those people that can stand to leave water to air-dry or small grain particles behind after brewing so I disassemble the dip tube and sight glass on my Blichmann mash tun after every brew day to clean them, it’s a huge PITA. The included false bottom can be removed without removing a dip tube or the thermowell. The slight conical bottom and integrated center drain point instead of a dip tube to stave off dead space my Blichmann typically holds onto about a half-gallon of wort from every brew.Ģ. Here are a few I noticed right off the bat:ġ. Furthermore, there are small inherent built-in design features and benefits that in my opinion put my Blichmann mash tun and prior igloos to shame. ![]() Everything was packed tightly, and nothing was damaged, my initial impression of this product was that it looked amazing and that there isn’t really anything else out there like it for the price.Īfter examining it closer you can tell that it’s very high quality construction super clean welds throughout and zero rough polishing/finishing spots. After receiving the tun, I unboxed it and began putting everything together. On paper the SS Brewtech Infussion had some pretty key features that would either take a good amount of modification or just couldn’t be achieved with an igloo cooler basically a built in thermometer/thermowell, false bottom, ball valve, and all stainless hardware/vessel.Īfter the positive experience I had with my 14 gallon Chronical, I had confidence that the SS Brewtech product would be quality especially given the step-up in price from a highly modified igloo. Furthermore, my expectations have become pretty high after using the BrewEasy system, it’s produced some of the best beer I’ve ever made and I highly recommend it as a turnkey hybrid alternative. After brewing all-grain with igloo coolers the first few years of my homebrew “career”, I wanted a step-up from those but with the same easy-to-use concept at heart.īasically my requirements were a versatile vessel that I can integrate in with some of my existing equipment configurations without completely having to rework my setup. I decided to get my hands on a 10 gallon SS Brewtech Infussion Mash Tun to start doing some 5 Gallon Batches that my 10 gallon Blichmann BrewEasy system simply can’t handle because of the placement of the electric element.
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