Vat - Amish 13 US Gallon, Rectangular

[Jaspar]

I just got a stainless steel Amish canner that holds 13 gallons of liquid, and i plan on using it to make 10 gallons of into 10lbs of Cheddar.
  My plan is to sit this into a cooler as a double boiler,adding warm water as needed, this should make for easy temperature adjustments. Has anyone tried this, if so any tips would be helpful.

[sstrantz]

Where did you get it?  Do you have any photos you can post?

[sstrantz]

Whoops - forgot to ask - what is it made from?

[Jaspar]

Got it from a local Amish run country style store.
You can order them from Lehmans.com for a bit more than I paid for this one. Its made of stainless steel holds just under 13 gallons,20.5 inches wide, 13  high, and 12 deep.
Here's a picture. The cooler is a bit large, but it will have to do for now.

[sstrantz]

I realy like that.  What are of the country are you in?  I'm from Northern Indiana in an Amish area and it's likely I can find one of these local too.

[Jaspar]

Central Ohio,USA
Paid 129.00 I had to take the one on the shelf tho. Had none in the box

[Jaspar]

10 gallons, first try with this setup, wish me luck

[mikeradio]

I wonder if you could use a couple bucket heaters to heat the water in the cooler.

Here is an example of a bucket heater

http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=2E87C5D7-7B6A-11D5-A192-00B0D0204AE5&item=11395&ccd=INT001&utm_source=NextTag%20Feed&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=11395

You can even control the bucket heaters with a PID and have it all cotrolled

[sstrantz]

Mike - Have you used one of those heaters before (for cheesemaking, I mean?)

[mikeradio]

I did play with one in a sink of water and used it to heat a pot of water, it did work well.  I was able to heat the water in the sink to 100 then unplug the heater, I did not have to play around with adding hot and cold water to maintain the sink temp.  Then I swithed to the turkey roaster which works way better.

Mike

[Jaspar]

Here are the curds draining, and in presses after "cheddering"

[smilingcalico]

An idea for the extra space in the cooler is to put bricks in. You'll use less water to fill it, and maybe the bricks will hold heat to help maintain temp!

[felipearamburu]

the bricks will only hold heat if you heat tem up before puting the hot water in, otherwise it will just make it harder to know how to add the water at the right temp

[Jaspar]

Two pots on the stove one for cool water coming from cooler, one with heated water to go into cooler.Just turn heat off one and on on the other.
 This way the I reduced the amount of water being used.
At first I thought the cooler was overkill (size), now I'm thinking it was a help holding the temp steady. Thermal mass and all that.
                                                 Jaspar

[MrsKK]

I'll have to think about getting one of those - it would fit nicely in the utility sink.  Thanks for sharing the info and the pics!