12 Gallon Mash/Lauter Tun - Northern Brewer

I received a Koa Coconut Porter All-Grain kit for Christmas. I have never done an all-grain before, my previous attempts had a pre-made wort. Of course, I didn't have all the equipment for this endeavor so I had to purchase a larger pot, a burner, and the 12-gallon mash tun.
Carefully trying to follow the instructions that came with the kit, along with watching a few YouTube videos, I set forth to make my brew. I added the 170° water into the mash tun. The temperature dropped dramatically. The instructions advised to add more 170° water to bring the temp up, but it required several gallons to reach the minimum temperature. Now I have a thin brew. The ambient air temperature was 64°.
My takeaway is to pre-heat the tun before adding the actual water to make the wort. I will try heating the water to the requisite 170°, put it in the tun to pre-heat it, pour it back into the pot, then bring it back to 170° and then add it back to the tun. I am also thinking of making a U-shaped copper pipe that has pre-heated water running through it to help bring the temperature back up without having to add water to the mix.
Oscar Reihsmann
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I have been brewing with two Gott coolers that I purchased from Northern Brewer 22 years ago. In that time I have brewed 263 beers on that system. Over the years the system began to leak. I finally broke down and purchased a new mash tun from Northern Brewer. I have yet to brew with the new system but it looks like it will work just fine. There were no delivery issues, Northern Brew covered the shipping cost and after a few trial and error efforts I got every thing assembled and it does not leak. I would suggest the NB make a You Tube video on the assembly

Needed a bigger mash tun for a larger grain bill recipe. Worked out well, quantity materials. Will hold up for years.

Overall, works as expected and is pretty durable; I don't make huge beers, but there is ample room to do so if that's your thing. The only regret I have is getting the thermometer add-on—it is not very accurate (consistently about 10 degrees off from my digital thermometer) and gets in the way on the inside (I use a BIAB bag for mashing to make clean-up easier).

My new mash tun is wonderful, plenty of room to mash big beers. Great job, as usual.