Northern Brewer All Grain Cooler System

All Grain Cooler

Long time 1-gallon batch brewer, both grain and extract. Picked this up to expand to 5-gallon batches. Certainly does the job. Retains heat (or cold) well. Switching between pick up tube and false bottom is easy. Threaded spigot valves allows for barb, quick-connect, or any 1/2 inch thread fitting you want. I understand comments saying to go for a kettle system; raising temp for mash-out cannot be done directly, and there are several changes of water from kettle to cooler tanks in my brew day. It works and I like it, but I understand the concerns.

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Only used it once. Blichmann autosparge doesn't fit. If you are going to sell the Blichmann autosparge, send it with a shorter 4" arm and have the tun pre-drilled and fitted with a grommet below the top so the mash can be sparged with the lid on. Finally, reinforce the area around the spigot you provide. I made a 3/4" thick wood plaque with a 7/8" hole just to stiffen the area. By itself, the area around the spigot hole is too weak and moves back and forth when adjusting the handle on the spigot. I just don't trust its longevity if the plastic of the tun keeps flexing back and forth at the spigot location.

All Grain Coolers

This was a great purchase and arrived exactly when I needed it. There are two sizes and the smaller one nests easily in the large cooler. The valves and temp gauges were high quality and were easy to install without additional material. The coolers maintained temp very well and cleaned up easily. Overall - a great purchase.