Beer Forum

Those of you who mash in a stainless kettle with no direct fire or direct heat in the mash...what are you using to insulate the kettle? Pics are always good.

I've used this as a mash tun wrap.
http://www.radiantbarrier.mcjr.net/bubb ... lation.htm
You should be able to find it at your local home improvement store.
It's pretty affordable and is good for insulating kegs as well.
Good Luck!

I use this stuff http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... Nx9EeTAeSo

It's starting to look a bit ratty but it is about 8 years old now. I put velcro on the inside to stick it to itself when it's wrapped around the tun.

captain carrot wrote:I've used this as a mash tun wrap.
http://www.radiantbarrier.mcjr.net/bubb ... lation.htm
You should be able to find it at your local home improvement store.
It's pretty affordable and is good for insulating kegs as well.
Good Luck!

+1 on the foil/bubble/foil insulation. Before I got my cooler set up I wrapped some of that stuff around a bottling bucket for my mashtun. As long as there was a lid on it, it would keep hot for an hour easy.

A guy in my club wraps a sleeping bag around his keg mash tun. But like you said, no fire or direct heat.

I don't use anything, but then again I use a HERMS system and I keep my setpoint about 5 degrees above mash temps and they hold steady. If i was going to do external insulation I'd do something like Craig's. You don't need much. Mash has a lotta thermal mass...

I use the same type of stuff as Captain Carrot, but it is called Reflectix and you can get it at HD or Lowes. Some other hardware stores have the same thing for water heaters.

I brewed this last weekend (1/6/13) and the ambiant temp was between 15 to 18F for the hole hour mash and it held my temp of 156F the hole time, not once did it even drop. I should add that I have a converted keg for a mash tun, with no heat under it durring the mash.