HomebrewJeff

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If you have a Walmart near you, you should be able to get that same cooler. I bought one a few years back, and it was like 14 bux, with a drain. I'm not sure what you mean a real "heavy" beer, but I suspect it won't take long before you decide you need a bigger cooler (10-12 gallon) if you start doing all grain.

ewbish

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Actually, that's what I ended up getting for my new MLT. I had a rectangle 48qt with a pvc manifold that finally disintegrated from the heat. I was never real happy with that, as when I did light beers, the grain bed was way to thin, and with the smaller grain bills.....it didn't hold the heat in as well, but it worked well for anything with say 12 lbs on up. I chewed and chewed on what to replace it with for my next one.......waivering on what to get. I wanted to do fairly big 5 gallon batch beers, but also did not want to have to thin a grain bed for light lagers, a concern with the 10 gal igloo. The 5 gal was unacceptable to me, because of the roughly 13 lb grain max capacity (really, anything over 11 lbs gets to be a PITA in it mess wise IMHO), as the majority of my brews are between 8 and 15 lbs. So, I split the difference......got the 7 gallon rubbermaid and bazooka screen w/ the kewler kitz conversion. IMHO, the 7 gallon is spot on perfect for virtually all of my brewing, from my light euro style pils, to big bochs and stouts. When I do really big beers.....I've got a cheapo rectangular cooler, it takes 5 minutes to pull the kewler kitz/bazooka off the 7 gallon cooler and throw it on the big cooler.

I figure a comfortable grain load is roughly 2.5 lbs per gallon of capacity (shape and design dependent), so I think I can squeeze 17.5 + lbs out of it, but anything over 16, I'd probably just use the bigger cheapo cooler.

ApolloSpeed

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wtf? Why is PVC disintegrating? It should be pretty strong stuff!!

Is that why lot of you are using Copper?

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ewbish

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Nah, the PVC was fine......the cooler itself disentegrated. It was old when I converted it.....and the heat overtime has caused it to warp and britilize the plastic. I never used boiling water in it, it's just an age and overuse thing. I still have the manifold and wouldn't hesitate to use it again. If fact, now that I think about it......I'll probably just put it in my el cheapo rectangular for big beers instead of swapping out the bazooka.