I've heard of both for very similar uses. What is the difference between a mash tun and a lauter tun? Or more generally, what is the difference between a mash and a lauter?
I found this wiki article on lautering, which implies after the mash, there is a rinse and sparge of the mash, but wouldn't that be taken care of in the mash tun, with a false bottom and vorlouf, with no need for an extra lautering container?
Specifically, mashing is the process of extracting soluble materials from the grains with water and enzymatically converting them into a form the yeast can use, while lautering refers to the separation of the liquid and solid portions of the finished mash. So mashing is an enzymatic/chemical process, and lautering is basically physical.
In big operations, a dedicated mash tun is essentially a second kettle designed to handle the thick mash. The lauter tun would be close to what we tend to use as a mash/lauter tun: insulated but not heated, with a false bottom for separation, and some kind of sparging aparatus.
The good thing is that, if you're doing full all-grain batches, you should already have a kettle large enough to act as a mash tun if you want to do temperature-step mashes. Then you can just dump it in the mash/lauter tun for separation.
They could be the same container, it seems that most people do it that way.
If you mashed in one container, and then transferred to another to separate the grains & wort, then you would have a mash tun and a lauter tun. I've used a small 2 vessel pro system set up this way, where the mash was done in the boil kettle and then pumped over to the lauter to separate. Not really the fastest or cleanest method, IMHO.
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