Continue reading]]> Just went to Steinbarts looking for just a bucket I can drill holes in to make a lauder tun.  This type of lauder tun is what Papazian recommends in “The Complete Joy of Home Brewing” (he calls it the zap-a-pap lauder tun.)  All it basically is is a bucket with a thousand holes drilled in the bottom, set inside another bucket with a spigot to drain the liquid.  So, I was going to spend $13 on a bucket to make my own, as I already have a bottling bucket to use as the bottom half of this style of lauder tun.

Well, I get to Steinbarts and what’ya know- they have the exact same system I was planning on making on sale for $20.  A bottling bucket, with another bucket that sets inside it, holes already drilled, no plastic shavings, all ready to go.  It is used, but heck, it’s cheap.  Now, I was planning on getting another bucket or carboy as well to be able to ferment more beers, or to do a secondary fermentation without hassle.  With this setup, I would be able to have my lauder tun setup as well as having another fermentation vessel.  For only $20.

Now, of course I purchased it (my wife will no doubt be mad at me for doing so.)  But, I couldn’t pass that up.  And better than having this, the gentleman who built this thing and was selling it was working at Steinbarts when I picked it up.  Michel Brown is his name, and he also handed me an article he wrote on building a mash tun and lauder tun system for really inexpensive using a picnic cooler.  He also told me about the multiple ways to use his lauder tun.

He said you can mash in it doing either a single stage mash or a two stage mash, and talked me through the process of doing that.  He also talked my ear off about mashing and temperature and other things that I probably will forget, but it was extremely educational.

So, thanks Michel Brown, for the lauder tun, the information, and for making F. H. Steinbarts a cool store to visit.