Latuer Tun Round vs rectangular cooler. Is one better than the othe?

I'm looking at making a Latuer Tun using a cooler. I'm having a little trouble finding the right type of cooler(24 qt rectangular) Do the 24 qt water cooler work OK for a 5 gallon batch?

I don't think the shape makes that much difference, but I'm sure people here will tell you go ahead and get a bigger one. The difference in cost is minimal, and you'll be glad you did the first time you want to brew a big beer or step up to a 10 gallon batch.

The first one I made was with a 5 gallon cooler and it works pretty will up to about 12-13#s of grain, I seem to get better efficiency than most people report.

I have a 48QT rectangular that works extremely well (I get ~90% efficiency). I would definitely go larger now rather than later (and you WILL want to go larger later).

I really don't think it matters, but if you really need a tiebreaker, the round shape has less surface area per volume, which theoretically would be better for holding temp.

I have rectangular 50qt with the valve at the center of the long side. Usually you see the valve on the end but not this one for some reason. The braid inside looks a little awkward like it doesn't know which side to rest on (hah). I've thought about making it all fancy with a tee so it has an arm going each direction, but I haven't had any sparge issues yet. First AG got 77% and second got 68%. Hit all temps dead on, so I write up the fluctuation in efficiency to the crush (I don't crush my own yet).

+1 to go big now, I plan to do 10 gallon batches someday but if you had asked me 2 months ago, I hadn't even thought about it yet.

Hey, what kind of set up inside of your coolers do you use? I've seen copper and plastic tubing being used. I saw one photo that only used a single line with holes in it.

I use standard 5/16" tubing from the LHBS with notches cut out of it inside of a braided stainless line. Put a female threaded hose barb in the end and a male plug screwed into that. Lemme dig for a link.

This with the fix that gets rid of the hose clamps.

Thanks for the info

Here's a good read for you in case you haven't read it:
http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixD.html

The only thing I can add is that, if you plan to fly-sparge, a round mash tun with a false bottom will get the most sugars out of the grains.

Hey Bradsul (or anyone else for that matter),
How do you sparge a higher gravity beer with a 48qt mash tun. I just did a wit in a 48 qt mash tun and did 2 very full sparges (2 gallons each). I could possibly fit another quart in each but it would be close.

Looking at your recipes you do beers above 1.060. Do you do three batch sparges? or do you get enough efficiency out of 2 sparges of about 2 gallons each?

When I'm batch sparging I'll do 2 roughly equal sparges. I get high 80's efficiency that way. When I fly sparge (which is my norm in the summer) I get 90-91% efficiency with the same setup.

I actually rarely do beers above 1.045 since I make session beers, I use more grain because I make 25L batches compared to the US norm of about 19L.

Although I got crappy efficiency my first try, I use a 10 gallon round cooler with a stainless false bottom setup. I would recommend this same setup if you ever plan on doing fly sparging. I plan to eventually do fly sparging, so that's why I chose this. If you are just going to batch sparge, it really doesn't matter if it is rectangular or round.