Sun Dec 07, 2008 3:25 pm
Personally, I use both. I have a 70qt igloo that is rectangular with a PVE manifold and stainless fittings, along with two round igloos (one 10gal and one 5 gal) that I use a false bottom (plastic) and the exact same stainless fittings.
I find that for ease of use, the round coolers work well, allowing me to stir the mash without much interference from a manifold. They also tend (for me at least) to get slightly better efficiency. I once had a batch reach 88% in the 10 gal. one. Unfortunately, they are size limited and so unless you plan on running it multiple times for large batches (I advise against this for contamination issues), you are stuck doing 5-10 gallon batches of up to 1.070 or thereabouts. You could do lower gravity large batches by diluting a high gravity batch after the mash, but I advise against this also. The wort just doesn't seem quite the same (thinning of minerals and less yeast nutrients??) than if you did a full volume mash for the same beer.
The bonus of my 70qt. setup is one of batch size. While I have had good efficiency out of it, it isn't very consistent for me. I think I need to retool my mash regimen to start out at a much lower temp and do a bit of step mashing to really get all of that glorious sugar.
My suggestion, money aside, use both. You can really learn a lot about how sugars are extracted by having the option to play with both. They each will extract sugars, but how much and how consistently will be a determining factor if you want to narrow it down to one or the other.
Oh, yeah. I have only ever had one stuck mash and it was with the PVE manifold setup. Seems that with oats, you REALLY have to watch the gumminess getting stuck in the slits. Use rice hulls for sure.
"An alcoholic is someone you don't like that drinks as much as you do."
<see, it's getting better.
