Making a Mash Tun Using More Beer's Stainless Weldless Cooler Kit and an Igloo Cooler - $131.66

This Igloo 10 Gallon Beverage Cooler is a Top Find.  At it's current price of $47.86 Shipped, it's a great deal.  I have this exact cooler and paid quite a bit more for mine.

I have long recommended this cooler along with More Beer's Weldless Cooler Kit - WL151.  That's an all stainless cooler conversion kit.  I've made that recommendation confident that this kit would fit an Igloo cooler, in spite of the fact that More Beer explicitly says it's for use in a Rubbermaid cooler.  I've finally gotten the chance to try this conversion kit myself in my Igloo 10 gallon cooler and I can tell you conclusively... it works!

Just pop out the stock spigot, or in my case a sad looking brass ball valve, and pop this thing in.  It looks and functions great.

 Close up on the Weldless Kit

As you can see from the photo below this has two stainless washers, a silicone oring and another stainless washer.  I put the first two washers on the outside of the cooler and the silicone oring and final washer on the inside of the cooler.  I tightened this all by hand to get a water tight seal.

Close up on the installed ball valve

Now we have an installed ball valve.  Next we need some sort of a false bottom.  I went with More Beer's 12" Domed False Bottom.

12" false bottom

 Close up.  Stamped 304 Stainless!

 Just add a small piece of 3/8" ID high temperature tubing to connect the
ball valve bulkhead to the false bottom.

As you can tell in this picture, the 12" false bottom fills nearly the entire cooler.  The barb on the cooler kit side (the left side) needs to be out to fit the false bottom it.  I like that, everything fits nicely and this pretty much guarantees that the false bottom is going to stay in position.  Having said that More Beer's pre-built 10 gallon mash tun, comes with a 9" false bottom.  You could certainly go that direction with this build if you'd like.

I'm happy with the quality of these components and how well everything works when it's all put together.  Having all stainless will also be a great upgrade.

If you're going to put together a mash tun like this, you'll need...

Amazon:
Igloo 10 Gallon Seat Top Beverage dispenser with spigot and Cup Dispenser - $47.86 Shipped

More Beer:
Weldless Cooler Kit (Stainless) WL151 - $37.95

Stainless Steel False Bottom (12" Diameter) AG405 - $38.95

or

Stainless Steel False Bottom (9" Diameter) AG403 - $32.95

Stainless - 1/2" mpt x 3/8" Barb H616 - $4.95

Threads onto the inside of the stainless cooler kit.

Tubing - Silicone (3/8" ID) - By the Foot H983 - $1.95

You need just a few inches of this to connect the two barbs together + whatever length you want for draining your mash tun.

If you go with the 12" false bottom, your More Beer order will total $83.80 Shipped.  Your Amazon order will total $47.86 Shipped.  That's a total of $131.66.

If you go with the 9" false bottom, your More Beer order will total $76.80 Shipped.  Your Amazon order will total $47.86 Shipped.  That's a total of $124.66.

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