trubador

Recipes 

I am asking for a cooler from Santa Claus this holiday season. I plan on batch sparging b/c it seems easiest and simplest.

It will be of the 10 gallon variety in case I do some larger grain bills; although I suspect for 90% of my beers, a 5-gallon cooler would be fine.

Probably will use the stainless braid for a manifold, although copper or the c-pvc i have seen talked about on this forum intrigue me a bit.

So,

Which is best? Rectangular or Round cooler? Also, is any brand cooler OK to use? Are some brands better than others, specifically regarding the removal and replacement of the drain valve?

Brew-boy

Recipes 

I bought the square one. It's the Blue Igloo ice cube seems alot of people are using that one now. I am pretty sure it's a 50 quart. I am just getting started with all grain. I have made a cpvc manifold for it which was pretty easy to do.

__________________
Next:American Brown Ale.
Primary:
On Tap: Dusseldorf Alt, Cream Ale, Belgian Pale Ale.
Aging: Imperial Oatmeal Stout on Vanilla beans.

I rather owe you a dollar than cheat you out of it.."Dad"

http://lapeerareabrewers.com/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LapeerAreaBrewers/

Evan!

Recipes 

What purpose does a manifold serve? I've never done a full mash, just partials, but I'm going to try out an allgrain batch after the new year.

__________________
MOSS HOLLOW BREWING CO.
Aristocratic Ales, Lascivious Lagers

.planned:
•Scottish 80/- •Sweet Stout •Roggenbier
.primary | bright:
98: Moss Hollow Soured '09 72: Oude Kriek 99: B-Weisse 102: Brett'd BDSA 104: Feat of Strength Helles Bock 105: Merkin Brown
.on tap | kegged:
XX: Moss Hollow Springs Sparkling Water 95: Gott Mit Uns German Pils 91b: Brown Willie's Oaked Abbey Ale 103: Merkin Stout
98: Yorkshire Special 100: Maple Porter 89: Cidre Saison 101: Steffiweizen '09 (#3)

Blender

Recipes 

If you are going to batch sparge I would opt for a rectangular cooler. The stainless braid works just fine with mine.

__________________
Gary

debtman7

Recipes 

I'm planning on a rectangular, because I have one

knewshound

Recipes 

I went with a 70 qt rectangular so I can do 50 lb grain bills.

A 40 qt restricted me to 35 lb max and that was the absolute max that could be done.

If you are planning on moving up to 10 gallon batches, you might want to invest in the larger mash tun now rather than having to step up later on.

Just my 2 cents.

Cheers,

knewshound

__________________
In Wine there is Wisdom.

In Beer there is Strength.

In Water there is Bacteria.

The knewshounds Blog

Homebrewing 1A

Homebrewing 101

Bernie Brewer

Recipes 

For batch sparging a square cooler is just fine. I have a round one, mostly because that way I have an option to sparge either way. A round cooler is much more expensive though, unless you find a bargain. I agree with knewshound- bigger is better.

__________________
I like to squeeze the nickle until the buffalo craps-mt rob

"Why don't we get drunk and screw?" Jimmy Buffett

brewmister

Recipes 

The manifold serves the same purpose as a false bottom. It allows you to collect the wort without collecting grains/husks/etc.....

dantodd

Recipes 

OK, so why does everyone talk about round being better for fly sparging? Also, I've heard that tall grain beds with less surface area are preferable to shallow, wide grain beds. Why is this?

Thanks guys. Learning a lot.

ajf

Recipes 

With batch sparging, you add the sparge water, stir it up, wait a bit for the sugars to be dissolved, recirculate a bit until you have clear runnings, and then drain into the kettle.
With fly sparging, you want to add water very gently over the entire surface of the grain bed, and let it percolate gently through the grain bed into the kettle. There is no stirring, and it takes considerably longer.

A rotating spare arm is great for gently adding water to the top of the grain bed, but dispenses water in a circular pattern, so a round cooler is better if you use a rotating sparge arm. Also, a deep grain bed allows the water to remain in contact with the grain for longer, and allows more sugars to be dissolved.

With batch sparging, the shape of the tun and the depth of the grain bed don't make much difference.

-a.