What's max grain grist for my 10 gal igloo cooler??

[Brewjavz]

I wanna make a high gravity beer but I don't wanna max out my 10 gal cooler, if I go 1:1 ratio... How many pounds of grains will max my setup??? 20? 25? I know dumb question but i don't wanna run into some troubles I've never had before....

[codewritinfool]

http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

See "can I mash it?"

[mobrewer]

Keep some light DME on hand to boost the gravity if you can't mash enough.

[Brewjavz]

http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

See "can I mash it?"

Thanks code!!

[brewinhard]

I have "forced" around 22-23# of grain into my 10 g round gott cooler. It was not a pretty sight and my efficiency dropped dramatically. As stated above, having 2-3# of light DME can help keep your gravity up where you want it to be in these situations. Another tip to avoid a stuck sparge with this much grain - when opening your valve to start reciruclating (vorlauff), do it very slowly so as not to quickly compact the grain bed which leads to a brutal stuck sparge in this scenario.

Ask me how I know....

[Bugeater]

This would be a good time to think about switching to batch sparging in a large rectangular cooler. You will get a shallower grain bed, minimizing the chances of a stuck sparge by reducing the weight of the grain pressing down on the bottom of the grain bed. These types of coolers are often quite a bit cheaper than the round coolers.

You can also split your grain bill and do two separate mashes and combine the wort for the boil. This is done in many smaller commercial breweries. This way you can get a thinner mash and increase your efficiency without overloading your mash tun.

[Brewjavz]

Thank you so much guys, I'll be trying this soon (maybe not the rectangular cooler since I just bought the round coolers not that long ago) but I have 3# of dme.