Excellent points thank you! Perhaps I should have mentioned this before but, in a few previous brews the yeast went nuts and blew out of the airlock... first time in the closet and the wife still gives me $#!+ about it, second it was 3am and I was at work. It woke the dog who woke the baby and...
Ok... so here's the deal. I've made a couple kit brews and then quickly went to A.G. I use a rectangular igloo cooler as a mash tun (didn't use round cause I'm a rebel) I use an aluminum pot from my turkey fryer and the subsequent burner (never used for frying) and then the usual plastic pals...
I'm looking at doing something similar... the taps through the side that is... but I've heard the issue with that is possibly hitting a coolant line running through the side. Was there anything you did to avoid this?