whats the easiest way?

Trying all grain shooting for a chocolate wheat stout 5 # barley malted, 4# wheat malted, 1# chocolate barley, hops 1 oz german magnum aa 13.5 1 oz. Fuggles, and safbrew-33, and 1# corn sugar. How should I mash and sparge using 1 three gallon cooler, 1 5 gallon pot 1 20 liter enamaled pot, I do havr other larger coolers too but only one of those had a drain plug. Also. An I thriw in brown rice to prevent stuck sparge?

I am pretty sure 10lbs of grain is not going to fit with the mash water in a 3 gallon cooler. Beersmith says even mashing at 1qt/lb is going to take a 3.28 gallon cooler. Also how big of a batch are you aiming for as you will need more than 5 gallons of capacity in your pot to account for boil off. I do 2.5 gallon batches and a 5 gallon pot is about the right size for that.

As to brown rice to prevent a stuck sparge; No, you need rice hulls (the husks from the rice grains) which create a filter to keep the smaller chunks of grain from clogging up the false bottom or braid.

Brown rice will not do that. It will also change the flavor of your recipe, hulls will not.

RitsiGators said:

I am pretty sure 10lbs of grain is not going to fit with the mash water in a 3 gallon cooler. Beersmith says even mashing at 1qt/lb is going to take a 3.28 gallon cooler. Also how big of a batch are you aiming for as you will need more than 5 gallons of capacity in your pot to account for boil off. I do 2.5 gallon batches and a 5 gallon pot is about the right size for that.

Click to expand...

I was shooting for the all grain eqivilent of a 5 gallon batch. I'll have to use the big pot then. What temps would you recommend for the mash and sparge at the boil stage I'll be fine. This is first all grain attempt. I do also have 2 6.5 gal buckets and 1 6.5 carboy and a 5 gallon approx carboy. So it sounds like it would be best to use the large cooler and pot. If the sparge gets stuck too baf I guess I could scoop and strain.

kh54s10 said:

As to brown rice to prevent a stuck sparge; No, you need rice hulls (the husks from the rice grains) which create a filter to keep the smaller chunks of grain from clogging up the false bottom or braid.

Brown rice will not do that. It will also change the flavor of your recipe, hulls will not.

Click to expand...

Good advice on the rice I was thinking hull not husk ill have to pick some of that next run. Do the husk act go airate so there are always pockets for the beer/wort/ forgot the proper term. If so are they heavier, lighter, or equal to the mast in weight?