skeeordye11

Recipes 

Ok, so I can get my hands on either (maybe even both?) a 10 gallon beverage cooler or a 48 quart chest cooler. I am planning on one day going AG, but for the moment do not have the setup for that. What I am wondering is, are these coolers too big to be converted into a mash-tun for 4-5lbs of grain as in a PM recipe? Can I get a proper grain bed and such with such a small amount of grain? TIA for the help. Cheers!

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Crescent Moon Brewing

abracadabra

Recipes 

I'd think either one would be OK.

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Do what you like!
Brew what you like!

malkore

Recipes 

That 48 quart probably is gonna be too thin a grain bed with a partial mash...your grainbed won't filter well. that's my thoughts at least.

I'd go with the 10gallon round cooler.

I assume you just can't handle a 7 gallon boil right now? You can PM as much as you can manage to boil. I did a big PM using two smaller stock pots, so I only had to add 1 gallon of top off water.
Its not the best setup, but it worked well for me until I could drop the cash for AG.

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Malkore
Primary: English Mild
On tap: Pale Ale, Lancelot's Wheat, English Brown Ale, Steam Beer, HoovNuts IPA
Bottled: MOAM, Braggot, Raspberry Melomel, Merlot, Apfelwein, Pyment, Sweet mead, Cabernet
Gal in 2009: 27, Gal in 2010: 34, Gal in 2011: 13, Gal in 2012: 10