How many coolers are needed for all grain?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

trainfever

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2007
Messages
212
Reaction score
0
Location
Philly
I eventually would like to go all grain but not ready yet. I am confused though because all of the set ups I have seen, they all had two coolers converted into mash and lauter tuns. Now I just watched Yuris videos and he only has one cooler. I dont understand what the two coolers are for. So how many are needed? What is the second cooler for? I have a ten gallon Igloo cooler but have been waiting to pick up a second one.
 
Depends on the setup. I use only one cooler and two pots. I bring my water up to strike temp in one pot, use the cooler as an MLT, and then drain the cooler into pot #3 for boil.
 
You don't need ANY coolers for all grain. You can mash in any vessel but to answer your question, when you see two cooler, one is used as a mash/lauter tun and the other is a HLT (hot liquor tank). This second cooler is only needed if you FLY sparge because you need to keep your hot water up to temp for a good 50-60 minutes.

You can get away with one pot and one cooler though. Read my all grain primer.
 
Depends on the setup. I use only one cooler and two pots. I bring my water up to strike temp in one pot, use the cooler as an MLT, and then drain the cooler into pot #3 for boil.

What is the difference in set ups? Where does your third pot come in at? You stated that you only use one cooler and two pots?

I started with extract kits on the stove with a 12 qt pot. I then bought a 28 qt. turkey fryer with one burner. I had the 10 gal cooler just sitting in my garage. How much more equipment would I need to go all grain? I know I have to convert the cooler some how but not sure if I need another cooler.
 
Thats what I do as well. 2 pots, 1 cooler.

Edit: Heat mashing water to temp, throw it in the cooler, add grain. In second pot, heat sparge water. Drain cooler into 1st pot and begin heating to boil. Add sparge water from second pot to cooler, drain into 1st pot. Thats how I all grain.

I also highly recommend the stainless steel braid route for converting your cooler. Its the only method I've used but I can crush my grain to practically flour and never have an issue with a stuck sparge.
 
I am switching to 2 coolers 1 Keg.
1 Cooler with a Heating Element for HLT
1 Cooloer with SS Braid and Ball Valve for MLT
1 Keg for Boil

Basically you can have any equipment you want to allow you to heat water, then hold grain at a consistent temp, then boil the wort. Those are teh 3 basic steps of AG brewing.
I would read alot more on here before buying equipment. You may think one way looks awesome, but then realize it's really not for you.
I always thought the 3 keg single tiers looked like the Bees Knees, but Not after doing a couple AG batches I know what I would prefer. And it's definitely not 3 heated kegs (100% personal preference). Lots of the elitists on here use that method.
 
I get away with one cooler and one pot. You just have to keep things moving along but no problems so far. pretty simple. My runnings go into a brew bucket while my sparge water is still on the burner. As I said a little more moving around but simple enough.
 
I always thought the 3 keg single tiers looked like the Bees Knees, but Not after doing a couple AG batches I know what I would prefer. And it's definitely not 3 heated kegs (100% personal preference). Lots of the elitists on here use that method.

Um, isn't that a little derogatory? I don't know of anyone using tripple burner systems that claim it's the best system across the board.
 
You can get by with one pot and a cooler, if you (a) batch sparge, and (b) don't mind shuffling sparge water and wort from cooler to kettle in a five gallon bucket or two.
 
Here's how I do it, I'm a batch sparger:

ob3.jpg


I heat the sparge water in the 5 gallon, while collecting runnings in the 10 gallon boil pot.

The 10 gallon rubbermaid has a bullet screen - functions as a Mash Lauter Tun.
 
Um, isn't that a little derogatory? I don't know of anyone using tripple burner systems that claim it's the best system across the board.

I'm a total elitist and I don't use that system!

I never said people using these systems thought they were special. I was saying that it's not the system I prefer but seems to be the setup of choice for some of the more "known" brewers on this site. Like you Bobby_M. Didn't mean anything negative or that the people using these were special, or not special. Just showing that just because I don't prefer it, it definitely has it's credibility. That's all.:tank:
 
I get away with one cooler and one pot. You just have to keep things moving along but no problems so far. pretty simple. My runnings go into a brew bucket while my sparge water is still on the burner. As I said a little more moving around but simple enough.

Though I guess technically you get away with 1 cooler 1 pot 1 bucket.

I user 1 50qt cooler, 1 60qt pot, and 1 16qt (i think) pot. I heat strike water and sparge water in the small pot and drain the mash into the big pot to boil.

It could be done with three coolers if you put an electric element in one of them for the boil, right? So the answer is it takes as many coolers as you want to use.
 
You don't need ANY coolers for all grain.

You can even mash right in your kettle -- search "brew in a bag".

I used 1 pot, 1 cooler, 1 bucket until I got a second pot. Two-cooler setups, as I understand, are more for fly sparging. I don't have the patience to fly sparge....:p
 
Sorry, apparently just a different interpretation of the word elitist. IMHO it carries negative baggage. Carry on...

I've mashed in my kettle before and dumped it into a stainer over a bucket for lautering. Then heat sparge water in the kettle, dump the grain back in, stir and redump into the strainer. It's a little more work than the brew in a bag though.

In any case, one cooler, one pot and a bucket is a completely functional setup and everyone already has a bucket. While two pots/burners is ideal, I wouldn't hold up going AG because you can't afford it.
 
You don't need ANY coolers for all grain. You can mash in any vessel but to answer your question, when you see two cooler, one is used as a mash/lauter tun and the other is a HLT (hot liquor tank). This second cooler is only needed if you FLY sparge because you need to keep your hot water up to temp for a good 50-60 minutes.

You can get away with one pot and one cooler though. Read my all grain primer.
+1 to that.

I have one pot, and one cooler. I actually have 2 pots, but I only use one.
 
What is the difference in set ups? Where does your third pot come in at? You stated that you only use one cooler and two pots?

I started with extract kits on the stove with a 12 qt pot. I then bought a 28 qt. turkey fryer with one burner. I had the 10 gal cooler just sitting in my garage. How much more equipment would I need to go all grain? I know I have to convert the cooler some how but not sure if I need another cooler.

!!!Warning!!! I am not an expert

+1 for one cooler, two pots.

I have batch sparged my 1st AG

As far as going AG with a 12qt/3G pot and 28qt/7G fryer. Before Saturday (my first AG) I had the same 28 or 30qt turkey fryer that I planned on using for my strike/sparge and boiler. I soon realized "where am I going to put the wort that comes out of the mash/tun while I heat more water for the next sparge", then I thought "how am I going to boil 7.5 gallons of wort in a 7.5gallon pot"? The end result was I went out and bought another pot (52 qts too).

Anyways, you can get a way with your setup with lower gravity brews that would leave you with less that 6 gallons of wort to boil. Personally I don't want to get close to the top when boiling especially boiling where the rivets for the handles are, maybe I am paranoid, but I don't trust the construction of my pot to boil for 90 minutes over those rivets and last a long time.

I think your 3 gallon pot would be good for sparge water. So yes, I think your current set can work if you batch sparge and boil less than 6 gallons of wort.
 
I am gathering my AG equipment. I am gonna be using a cooler and two pots. 70qt coleman xtreme with SS braid (tim the toolman taylor grunt).
 
My approach is pretty minimalistic- 10 gallon MLT (round Igloo cooler), 10 gallon brew kettle and 5 gallon kettle as my HLT. Simple gravity-fed design from the MLT to the kettle, lift and dump for the HLT.
 
I got a 15 gallon aluminum pot that I only use for an HLT, drilled a spigot in it (bi-metal hole saw). I converted a 70 quart extreme cooler with copper manifold per J. Palmer's book. Then converted a 15.5 gallon keg into a brew pot with a home made jig and a grinder with a metal cutting wheel. The overall cost was low, making it all myself - priceless.
 
So if I have 1 cooler, 1 burner and 2 pots, I can heat 5 gallons of water in pot A, then pour this water into the cooler and steep my grains(this is mashing?). Then while everything is steeping, I heat another 5 gallons of water in pot A. Then aftre the grains are finished steeping, I drain the liquid from my cooler into pot B. Then pour the second bath of water from pot A over the grains slowly(this is splarging?) I then drain this liquid into pot B for my total volume of wort? So am I close to being correct or way off?

I know there is more involved as far as details. Everything above including water volumes are rough estimates, assuming there would be water loss due to evaporation and soaked up by spent grains.
 
Not to be nit picky here, but doesn't draining into the brew kettle and heating water at the same time mean 2 pots??
 
I've got 2 10 gallon coolers, 1 22 qt pot(mash/sparge heating) and 1 40qt (boiling)pot.
 
You don't need ANY coolers for all grain. You can mash in any vessel but to answer your question, when you see two cooler, one is used as a mash/lauter tun and the other is a HLT (hot liquor tank). This second cooler is only needed if you FLY sparge because you need to keep your hot water up to temp for a good 50-60 minutes.

You can get away with one pot and one cooler though. Read my all grain primer.

+1 for Bobby_M's all-grain primer.

I used a two addition sparge like he recommended, and other than it being really labor intensive, it worked well!
 
Back
Top