10 Gallon Round Cooler Mash Tun
 

Looking for a little insight here from Brewers here that use the Gott style, 10 gallon round coolers. I personally have a 20 gallon sized Mash Tun, but I am looking for something smaller for when I want to brew a Big Beer, but only wind up with 5.50 gallons instead of my usual 12. So, here's my question. Do you ever run into an issue doing a 5.50 gallon brew where the 10 gallon cooler is to small?

No.

I use the Home Depot / Rubbermaid "Big Orange" cylindrical cooler as an MLT. Most of my mashes involve 10-14 lbs of fermentables for a standard 5 gallon batch. I just did a Founder's Breakfast Stout clone (cf. stout recipes), which involves about 21# of grist. This, using the recommended mash thickness, will max out this cooler to within about 1.5" of the top.....but no problems at all going lower. I just converted using the Bargain Fittings braid kit.

You can richen up the grain to water ratio a bit for making a big beer, too.

I didn't think of that. Good idea. :mug:

I did an imperial stout about a month ago. 6 gallon batch that left me within a 1/4" of the top of my 10 gallon cooler. Only time that has ever happened, but it worked out great.