Is 5 gal cooler large enough?

[brianhay]

Sorry for the noob question!! I've brewed only one extract batch so far, but I want to jump right into all grain brewing. Anyway...is a 5 gallon round cooler(mash/lauter tun) big enough for 5 gallon batches, or should I really be getting a 10 gallon round cooler? I don't really see me making bigger batches than that and I don't want to bother wasting the extra money if I don't have to. Thanks

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

Sorry for the noob question!! I've brewed only one extract batch so far, but I want to jump right into all grain brewing. Anyway...is a 5 gallon round cooler(mash/lauter tun) big enough for 5 gallon batches, or should I really be getting a 10 gallon round cooler? I don't really see me making bigger batches than that and I don't want to bother wasting the extra money if I don't have to. Thanks

For an all grain batch of moderate strength, say 1.050, you will need space for the grain and 4-5 gallons of water. I would buy a 10 gallon cooler. Then you can make a bigger variety of beers. My two cents.

[Nate Diggler]

Yeah, go bigger from the get go... otherwise you'll be maxed out from the beginning.

I went with a 70qt rectangular cooler for 5, 10, or 15 gallon batches (even 20 or more for smaller beers).

[brianhay]

Ok...would you recommend goind with a round cooler like I was initially going with... or should I be looking for a rectangular one?

[Nate Diggler]

Up to you... as long as it's at least 10G I'd say.

I think round are more expensive, but you can use actual purpose fabricated false bottoms... I had to make mine with water supply line steel braid and some plumbing parts, but it was easy... I can put almost 40 lbs of grain in that sucker.

Ok...would you recommend goind with a round cooler like I was initially going with... or should I be looking for a rectangular one?

[Grist Licker]

Round or rectangular coolers will both work well but they do have subtle differences. A round cooler fitted with a false bottom is better suited to fly sparging because the shape creates an even flow through the grain bed that uniformily rinses the mash. The downside is that many false bottom configurations allow the false bottom to lift off the bottom of the vessel and allow grain to enter underneath. I have a round cooler with false bottom and I have to be careful raking the mash because of this.

A rectangular cooler with a manifold will have less efficient flow through the grainbed due to the right angles of the cooler and because a manifold has less holes per square inch for passing wort. If you are a batch sparger, this does not matter since you will add more liquor, stir, and recirculate. Also, grain cannot bypass the manifold setup like it can bypass a lifting false bottom so that is a major advantage.

I have the round cooler with the false bottom setup, but I have decided I like to batch sparge. If I figured all this stuff out before I bought my stuff, I would have gone rectangular cooler and manifold. It's cheaper, and cleaning my false bottom setup is a pain in the ass.

Fuck, sorry for being so long winded. I just don't want to leave anything out!

[BigNastyBrew]

+1 and I'll beat the dead horse.

I started with a 5 gallon round cooler and brewed a couple 1.060 beers in it at a 1.3 water/grist ratio. Worked fine.

However, those 1.060 beers did max out the volume and I have acquired a 7 gallon cooler from a friend (same diameter as 10 gallon but shorter). This works great but I can already see the need for 10 gallon cooler.