Well, I was so proud of my new 10-gallon mash tun when I finished it up in May. Then, I was so disappointed when it got destroyed while making my first Russian Imperial Stout. Now, I think I have my problem solved.
I decided to go back to my big collection of brass and stainless valves, fittings, washers and whatnot to see whether I could cobble something together after all. I also went online and got a big ribbon of thin heat-resistant neoprene, which is water-impermeable and compresses to form a tight seal when squeezed.
So, there is a 5/8" OD pipe nipple that connects the inside and outside of the tun. This is run through the O-ring which came with the cooler, but that is not enough to actually prevent water getting through (because of some overzealous dremeling on my part). I cut small holes in the center of some 1.5" squares of the neoprene and stretched a few over the interior end of the pipe nipple, put a few washers up against them, attached my hose barb to the end of the nipple and then tightened the hell out of the whole assembly.
To test it, I filled the tun up with water and just let it sit there dripping into a measuring cup. After almost 6 hours, it had lost about 1/4 cup of liquid. 2 ounces in six hours is an acceptable loss rate for me, and the new assembly is much more robust than the old plastic-valve-and-stopper bit. Perhaps my next batch will be something big so I can use the new tun -- an imperial IPA maybe? That would also let me re-use the yeast from batch #26.
You know what? That's it! I will harvest the yeast from Nugget IPA (1332 - Northwest Ale) and then make a real Northwest Imperial IPA with a similar hopping schedule to #19 (though probably with added dry hopping).
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